March of the Living held in Budapest
The 21st March of the Living event was held in Budapest on Sunday afternoon with participants marching from the Shoes on the Danube Bank monument, crossing Chain Bridge and then to the Várkert Bazaar area. There, Andor Grósz, head of organiser Mazsihisz and the March of the Living Foundation board, said the terrorist attack of October 7, 2023 had shaken the belief that the horrors of what happened to Jews in the middle of the 20th century could not happen again.
The March of the Living 2025
Michel Gourary, director of the European March of the Living, told the event that over 8 weeks between May and July 1944, some 437,000 Jews were deported from Hungary to Auschwitz, making it one of the fastest and most brutal deportations during the entire Holocaust. He added that it could not have happened without the participation of Hungarian officials and the gendarmerie. He said that since 2004, Hungarian state leaders, including current Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, have acknowledged the responsibility of Hungarian public officials, police and the gendarmerie during the Holocaust.
The March of the Living survivors started to the sounds of the shofar blown by Chief Rabbi Tamás Vero. European Affairs Minister János Bóka, Israeli Ambassador Maya Kadosh, US charge d’affaires Robert Palladino and Grósz also marched at the front of the procession. Grósz said that in 2025 the March of the Living had become more timely than it was ever before. “We march not only for the victims of the past, but also for those that are in danger even today, who are hostages still today and who are targets of hate, and also for those who live in places where they could have a reason to fear when they say that they are Jewish,” he added.
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