“I knew that I would remember this trip for the rest of my life.” Says Avery Platt, a student who participated in the March of the Living this year. As someone who first went on the March 11 years ago as a student, I can hear in these words my own experience too. There is a certain weight in the air as you step out of the airport in Poland – a knowledge that nothing will ever be the same. The March of the Living has always been an important trip, but today as we watch antisemitism skyrocket around the world and here at home in Toronto, it is all the more imperative, and the weight of responsibility feels even heavier. The last stop of the trip in Poland is Majdanek, an eerily preserved and silent reminder of the depths of pain and evil in this world. ‘Let our fate be a warning to you’ is the inscription engraved on the side of Majdanek’s mound of ashes, a monument containing the remnants of ashes of the victims of the concentration and extermination camp.

“Going from Majdanek, such a place of terror…to Israel, a place of joy, that may still experience pain, and we do, but has so much light within it, was so powerful.” Avery says of the contrast between the last stop in Poland and starting the second leg of the trip in Israel. The Israel portion of the trip has certainly taken on a new meaning since October 7th, with visits to Sderot and the Nova Festival site added, but it is impossible to ignore the resilience and spirit of Israel and of the Jewish people at the same time. Through the darkness and grief, there is light. Hand in hand with the duty to remember is the duty to live. We will never forget, and we will dance again.

– Hannah Warry-Smith, March of the Living 2014 participant