Marking 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau
This morning, a 46-member delegation from Rambam Health Care Campus departed for Poland to take part in the annual March of the Living, which will be held on April 24. This year’s event marks 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp by Allied forces in 1945.
The President of the State of Israel, Isaac Herzog and First Lady, Michal, will lead the march between the Auschwitz and Birkenau camps, alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda and Merrill Eisenhower, great-grandson of General Dwight Eisenhower, who commanded the camp’s liberation at the end of World War II. Eighty Holocaust survivors from around the world—about half of them from Israel—are expected to participate.
One of Israel’s most meaningful commemorative events
The Rambam delegation led by Dr. Michal Mekel, deputy director of Rambam includes representatives from across the hospital’s departments—doctors, nurses, administrative and housekeeping staff—and reflects the diversity of Rambam, with Jewish, Christian, and Muslim participants. This is Rambam’s second delegation to take part in what has become one of Israel’s most meaningful commemorative events.
During the journey, the delegation will visit key sites across Poland where the Nazi extermination machine operated and where European Jewry was systematically murdered. Participants will visit the Warsaw Ghetto, Treblinka extermination camp, Lodz Ghetto, the Chelmno and Majdanek camps, and the Children’s Forest in Zbylitowska Góra, among other sites.
Rambam director general Professor Michael Halberthal will join the group for the march itself. Together with Dr. Mekel, he will lead the hospital delegation alongside Holocaust survivors, survivors of the October 7 massacre, bereaved families, and some 15,000 participants from around the world.
The closing ceremony will feature performances by Daniel Weiss, a resident of Kibbutz Be’eri whose parents were murdered on October 7, and hostage survivor Agam Berger—both accomplished musicians. Berger will play a 130-year-old violin that survived the Holocaust and was brought to Israel.
I’m filled with mixed emotions
“I’m filled with mixed emotions. Everything we’ve experienced over the past 18 months—both in Israel and at Rambam—has left a lasting impact. Moving our entire hospital underground due to rocket attacks was a stark reminder that, as Israelis, we must always be prepared for existential threats,” Dr. Mekel shares, before the delegation’s departure. “The March of the Living takes us back to our grandparents’ generation—those who endured unimaginable horrors 80 years ago, without the protection of a Jewish state. It stirs powerful emotions.”
Each member of the Rambam delegation has a personal story and a reason for joining this journey. “I am certain it will be deeply meaningful, and the experiences and emotions we encounter will stay with us for many years to come,” she concludes.
