'A march of pride'
Sharon, Livnat and thousands of youths participate in 18th 'March of the Living' in Poland
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stood at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp Thursday and told thousands of Jewish youth from around the world to let their tears flow when they remember the atrocities of the Holocaust.
"It's possible that some of you will cry, don't stop the tears. Let them flow. Remember the pain and anger that created them," he said. "Take the pain and anger and tell your friends, neighbors and strangers. You were fortunate enough to have been born into a reality in which there is a Jewish state."
During a ceremony marking the 18th "March of the living" and 60 years since the camp's liberation, Sharon emphasized the presence of IDF troops, some of whom are the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors.
"Holocaust survivors are once again standing on this damned ground and once again they are surrounded by uniformed soldiers. However, this time, there are no S.S. officers thirsty
for murder, but rather soldiers from the army of a free and sovereign Israel," he said.
"I arrived here from Jerusalem, Israel's capital - the only place in the world where Jews have the right and power to protect themselves by their own forces."
Turning to the youths who had gathered at the ceremony following the traditional 10 kilometer (about 6 miles) march from Auschwitz to Birkenau, Sharon urged them to allow their tears to flow.
'Jewish history only bruised'
Author and Nobel Prize laureate Eli Wiezel, an Auschwitz survivor, also attended the ceremony.
"At this place, history was faced with a merciless
embodiment the world had never seen," he said. "The history of the Jews did not end, it was only bruised."
Ministers Yitzhak Herzog, Limor Livnat and Abraham Hirchson, as well as Holocaust survivors and relatives also participated in the march.
"We are standing here today so the eternal Jewish march will continue to exist, to promise ourselves that Jewish lives will never again be abandoned," Education Minister Livnat said during the ceremony.
"We can pledge this today only because the 'March of the Living' is possible due to the revival of the State of Israel 57 years ago," she said.
"Our march is not a hike…it's a march of pride. A march of freedom and liberty," Livnat said, turning to the youth present at the ceremony.
Hate messages
Earlier, Sharon slammed disengagement opposers for comparing Israel's planned pullout of all 8,500 Jewish settlers from the territories to the atrocities committed to Jews during the Nazi Holocaust.
"Anyone who tries to compare the situation of the Jewish people today to their situation then is making a very grave mistake," he told reporters travelling with him to a Holocaust memorial service at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland .
"Israel is an independent country with a large army and it has the ability to do what it thinks is right," he said.
