Home · War & Conflict · Second World War · Life after Auschwitz
Topic spans: 1945 - 2004
Life after Auschwitz
Six decades after Auschwitz was liberated, the biggest and most brutal Nazi death camp remains a potent symbol of terror and genocide. More than a million Jews were murdered there, as well as tens of thousands of Poles, Gypsies and Soviet prisoners of war. When Allied soldiers liberated the complex in Poland in January 1945, they found skeletal prisoners, mounds of corpses, gas chambers and cooling crematoria. Survivors scattered, many to Canada, to rebuild their lives. But the Nazi atrocities they witnessed have echoed through the years along with the cry "Never again."
Topic photo by Terminalnomad Photography, used under Flickr Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
9 television clips
5 radio clips
March of the Living
Broadcast Date: April 18, 1994
"We rise again," sings a group of Jewish teenagers from Montreal after returning from an incredible odyssey. As part of a program called March of the Living, they joined other students from around the world on a trip to Auschwitz. Tears flowed as they saw the gas chambers, mounds of human hair and other gruesome exhibits of mass slaughter. Then, the students flew to Israel where pain turned to relief and joy, as we see in this CBC Television clip."We went through the highs and lows of Jewish life in the past century," one boy says.
March of the Living
• The first March of the Living was organized by the Israeli education ministry in 1988. It is now run by a New York-based non-profit agency with the help of Jewish groups in different countries. The name is a twist on the Nazi-ordered "death marches" that killed many concentration camp inmates. Students spend one week in Poland and one week in Israel. At first held every two years, the event has been held annually since 1996.• At Auschwitz, the students march three kilometres from the original Auschwitz camp to the Birkenau part of the complex where, during the Second World War, thousands of Jews were gassed and cremated daily. The students also learn what Jewish life was like before the Nazis invaded Poland in September 1939. There is a separate March of the Living program for adults.
• In 2004, about 8,000 high school students, teachers and Holocaust survivors from around the world participated in the March of the Living. Since 1988, about 3,000 Canadian students have made the trip. The event is usually held in April to coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day as well as Israel's memorial and independence days the following week.
March of the Living
Medium: Television
Program: Newswatch
Broadcast Date: April 18, 1994
Reporter: Gerri Barrer
Duration: 2:25
The song "We Rise Again" by Leon Dubinsky, Shagrock Music, SOCAN.
Last updated:
March 18, 2005
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14 clips in this topic . page
Radio
4:23
Nov. 11, 1944
In this 1944 CBC Radio clip, war correspondent Matthew Halton reflects on Remembrance Day.
Radio
3:41
April 20, 1945
Liberated Allied prisoners of war talk about the wretched living conditions in German prison camps.
Topic from Radio-Canada
For Teachers - Educational activities
- All GradesLearning About Genocide
- 9-10Hana's Suitcase?
- 11-12Rights Denied
- 11-12Surviving the Holocaust
- 11-12Preserving the Past
March of the Living .
The CBC Digital Archives Website.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Last updated: March 18, 2005.
[Page consulted on Feb. 16, 2012.]