Auschwitz march held ahead of 80th Warsaw ghetto anniversary

By VANESSA GERA
Associated Press

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Thousands of people have gathered at the former site of Auschwitz for the March of the Living. The yearly remembrance march falls this year on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the start of the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto. Italian President Sergio Mattarella spoke at the event. Elderly survivors, some draped in Israel’s flag, assembled Tuesday under the gate with the cynical words “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Sets One Free) ahead of the march. The March of the Living, which takes place each year on Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, begins at that gate and leads to Birkenau, the large camp 2 miles away where Jews from across Europe were transported by train and murdered in gas chambers.