CAMP HILL, Pa. (WHTM) — A Camp Hill resident has returned from a meaningful mission.
17-year-old Sophia Swidler ventured to Poland and Israel to experience the “March of the Living,” an event where Jewish teenagers from around the world study the history of the Holocaust and examine the roots of prejudice, intolerance, and hatred.
The teenagers participate in a 2.5-kilometer march from Auschwitz to Birkenau to contrast the World War II death marches and symbolize the continued existence of the Jewish people despite the Nazis’ attempts at their elimination.
“It’s so important to see it in person, to see it with your own eyes and just like, see really what happened,” Swidler said. “We need to learn about this, so that way that this just terrible event in history never happens again.”
According to marchoftheliving.com, more than 300,000 alumni from 50 countries have marched down the same 3-kilometer path leading from Auschwitz to Birkenau on Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom Hashoah, as a tribute to all victims of the Holocaust.