The Hindu : International : "Jews can only rely on themselves"

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Friday, May 06, 2005

International

International

"Jews can only rely on themselves"

Sharon leads survivors' march in Auschwitz

OSWIECIM (POLAND): Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, accompanied by 20 survivors of the Holocaust and their grandchildren, joined thousands of people on Thursday in an emotional memorial for the victims of the Nazis at the biggest World War II death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Some 18,000 persons — a number chosen to symbolise the Hebrew word for life, ``Chai'' — were participating in this year's March of the Living. It was the largest group to attend the annual memorial since it began in 1988, and the first time the procession has been led by an Israeli Prime Minister.

A different trip

Mr. Sharon last visited Auschwitz 16 years ago. He said this trip was different because he was coming as Prime Minister.

``I feel the significance, I think what we need to do, with all the desire to advance in the peace process, we always have to be on guard and to rely only on ourselves,'' he told reporters on the flight from Israel. ``Jews can only rely on themselves.''

Mr. Sharon also touched on Israeli politics, saying that opponents to his Gaza withdrawal plan who use Holocaust images as part of their resistance are making a ``grave mistake.''

Some opponents have compared the planned evacuations of thousands of Jewish settlers from their homes to Nazi deportations. The 3-km march from Auschwitz to Birkenau — the largest camp complex built by the German occupiers, where about 1.5 million people, most of them Jews, were killed during World War II — is an annual memorial for all 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust.

The March of the Living is also a commemoration of the death marches that took place when the Germans began emptying camps and forcing the inmates to walk hundreds of kilometres in freezing weather and with little food. Thousands of people died in the marches.

Yitzhak Pery, who spent eight months in Auschwitz, said it was his first time back, but that the memories were still fresh. — AP

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