Thousands mourn at Auschwitz
Peres says he wishes Iranian leader Ahmadinejad would visit death camp; young Jews, Poles, and Holocaust survivors take part in annual March of Living in Poland; Minister Hirschson: We will never be able to fully grasp Shoah's scope
Shimon Peres, who led the March of the Living, spoke at the event and said he wishes Iranian President Ahmadinejad, who has denied the Holocaust, would arrive at the death camp to see the hair and glasses left behind by victims and ask the same question: "Why, why did it happen?"
Peres added world leaders, just as was the case in the 1930s, are hesitant and looking for excuses.
"We don't have this privilege, we must defend ourselves, and we can do it," Peres said, adding that the world must understand there are mad forces that must be identified and stopped on time.
Speaking at the event, Minister Avraham Hirschson said he believes the world would never be able to understand the scope of the Holocaust. Instead of focus on the incomprehensible numbers of those murder, the minister asked those in attendance to close their eyes and think of one Jewish child murdered.
"This is, dear friends, the tragedy we will never be able to forget," he said, and called on both Jews and non-Jews to learn the lessons of the Holocaust.
Hirschson also spoke about the fact that in a few years there will be no more survivors left and stressed the need to make sure the Holocaust is never forgotten, expressing his fears about a future battle between the history of Holocaust victims and the history put forward by Holocaust deniers.
"From here, Auschwitz-Birkenau, we are saying in a loud and clear voice: Never again, never again," he concluded.
Led by former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, some 8,000 people took part in the annual March of the Living between Auschwitz and its twin camp Birkenau, some three kilometers (two miles) away.
"As long as I am alive, I will come here each year. It is my duty," Said Stefan Buchler, 74, an Auschwitz survivor who now lives in Israel.
'A warning to everyone'
Some 1.5 million people, or about one in four Jews who died in the Holocaust, were killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz and Birkenau, the biggest death camp complex, set up by Germans in occupied Poland.
Marchers begun their trek under Auschwitz's notorious gate with the inscription "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work sets you free).
"I am shocked. This should be a warning for everyone to reject intolerance, which can very easily lead to fascism," Said Marion Pitzer, a teenager from Israel.
This year's march, under the banner "Never again", Comes just a month before German-born Pope Benedict visits Auschwitz as part of his first visit to Poland as Pontiff.
Benedict, who as a child in Nazi Germany was forced to join the Hitler Youth paramilitary organisation, has pledged to continue work towards Catholic-Jewish reconciliation.
"Here under these walls my family was murdered," said Krzysztof Kisielewski, a Pole whose father and aunt were killed in Auschwitz. "When I think that the German Pope will pray here in a few weeks, I believe that history has turned full circle."
