Participants of the March of the Living exit a gate in the former Nazi camp Auschwitz in Poland, May 2, 2019. (Courtesy of the International March of the Living)

(JTA) — Refugees from Ukraine are scheduled to join the March of the Living commemoration event at Auschwitz.

The refugees are among 2,500 people from 25 countries who have signed up for the mission to the former death camp, the first since March of the Living suspended such activities due to COVID-19, the educational group said in a statement. The March brings young people from around the world to Poland and Israel to study the history of the Holocaust.

The event on April 28 will culminate in the traditional two-mile march between the Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau camps near Krakow in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, the statement said.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

One of the Ukrainian participants is Yefim Podlipsky, a Jewish refugee from Vinnitsa. He ran a tourism company before he fled Ukraine after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of the country.

Lila Buzeniuk, another Ukrainian refugee participating in this year’s event, also comes from Vinnitsa.

“The war divided our family and forced us to leave our home and our country,” Buzeniuk, a mother of three, said in the March of the Living statement. “But we survived and we are alive. We found shelter and refuge in a sister country,” she said of Poland. “Thanks to wonderful people we will live, we will remember — and never forget.”

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re in the middle of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount