Pro-Palestine protesters spark outrage after massing at Auschwitz death camp during Holocaust Remembrance Day march
PRO-Palestine protesters have sparked all-out fury after massing near the grounds of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp during a Holocaust remembrance march.
Demonstrators today rolled out Palestine flags and hoisted balloons as crowds gathered to remember Holocaust victims at the March of the Living in Poland.
Police sirens wailed as protesters held “Stop genocide in Gaza” banners directed at groups donning Israeli flags.
Witnesses reported that some of them were also “chanting” at march participants, to which Israelis answered with passages from the Jewish unity anthem “‘Am Israel chai”.
An Israeli participant reportedly approached the demonstrators but was pushed back by a member of the security detail.
He told Ynet: “I feel immense anger.
“If we thought never again, we received another blow to the head at Auschwitz with the realisation that what was done to Jews on this cursed land, could be repeated especially after October 7.
“I face them fearless and proud with our national flag.”
One pro-Palestine protester reportedly lectured the marchers through an amplification system, The Times of Israel reports.
The female demonstrator said: “How dare you disrespect the victims of the Holocaust by cheering, as a new genocide is happening in Gaza.
“Your mothers are watching you! Show some respect. Ceasefire now!”
Thousands of Jews, including Holocaust survivors affected by the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, walked through the former Auschwitz death camp on Monday for the annual March of the Living.
Walking along the 1.8 mile path towards the crematoria of Birkenau, they paid tribute to the millions of Jews murdered by the Nazis during World War Two.
This year’s ceremony was overshadowed by last year’s events when 1,200 people were killed in a Hamas-led rampage through Israeli towns and 253 hostages taken by terrorists.
Daniel Louz, 90, saw his hometown Kibbutz Beeri lose a tenth of its residents to the terror group last year.
He now came to the Auschwitz camp for the first time since his mother’s family was killed there in 1942.
Louz said: “I am convinced that on October 7 in Beeri the good souls (of the Holocaust dead) protected me and did not let the Hamas criminals shoot at our home.
“So that I might be able to tell the story. I am really thankful to you all.”
More than 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, perished in gas chambers or from starvation, cold and disease at Auschwitz, which Germans set up in occupied Poland during the Second World War.
More than three million of Poland’s 3.2 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis, accounting for about half of the Jews killed in the Holocaust.
Phyllis Greenberg Heideman, president of the International March of the Living, said during Monday’s event: “Prior to October 7 it is my belief … that the worst event in human history happened on these grounds.
“That this place, the very word Auschwitz, speaks volumes in one word about fear, death, destruction, annihilation.
“And then came October 7, and perhaps we have to come as a people to the realisation that perhaps in some ways the Shoah (Holocaust) isn’t over for us.
“It’s not a competition, certainly not a comparison, it’s a continuum.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) are continuing to gear up for their immense six-week assault on Rafah to once and for all eliminate any remaining Hamas terrorists in a final battle.
ON THE BRINK
Israel warned that residents still trapped in the Gazan city will be used as “human shields” by Hamas thugs if they don’t evacuate the war-torn city immediately.
Israel‘s defence minister warned on Sunday that an invasion of refugee-filled Rafah is imminent after a ceasefire deal crumbled due to Hamas’ demands.
Bodies have already been piling up on the streets of Rafah as reports of dogs feasting on the corpses have started to emerge as the city awaits an almighty siege.
Yoav Gallant warned his government was preparing to launch “a powerful operation in the very near future in Rafah and other places across all of Gaza”.
Some 1.5million civilians are sheltering in Rafah, with most having fled from cities, refugee camps, and villages further north.
Less than half of the 250 hostages snatched by militants on October 7 have been released in the seven months since Hamas launched its assault on Israel, though many are believed to have died in captivity.
The United Nations have warned any assault on Rafah could spark a bloodbath for helpless civilians.
Nations including the UK and the US are also pushing to avert a Rafah offensive.