The March of the Living (Hebrew: מצעד החיים, Mits'ad HaKhayim; Polish: Marsz Żywych) is an annual educational program which brings students from around the world to Poland, where they explore the remnants of the Holocaust.

On Holocaust Memorial Day observed in the Jewish calendar (Yom HaShoah), thousands of participants march silently from Auschwitz to Birkenau.

[1][2][3] Adler travelled to  Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1986 to set the groundwork for the first March of the Living, and also to search for his mother’s rescuer (but could not make contact until the fall of Communism, after 1989).

“We believe that our children and grandchildren will continue carrying the torch of identification with the values of loyalty, courage, perseverance and faith in life, and hope that goodness will prevail.

They were assisted in the early years by Jewish communal leaders and philanthropists from the United States (Alvin Schiff, Gene Greenzweig, Dr. David Machlis, and Joseph Wilf, the first North American Chair of the March of the Living), and Canada (Walter Hess, Shlomo Shimon, Rabbi Irwin Witty, and Eli Rubenstein).

Notable personalities such as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Yitzhak Navon, Bibi Netanyahu, and some Polish dignitaries were among its attendees.

[12] When Nazi Germany withdrew its soldiers from forced-labour camps, inmates – most already starving and stricken by oppressive work – were forced to march hundreds of miles farther west, while those who lagged behind or fell were shot or left to freeze to death in the winter climate.

[15] The title of the exhibit is taken from the words of Judy Weissenberg Cohen in a speech given to students on the 1997 March of the Living describing the last time she saw her mother during the selection of Hungarian Jewry in Auschwitz-Birkenau in the spring of 1944.

[11][16][17] On 10 March 2014, a group of students from New York's Pine Bush High School[18] – part of a district where there have been press reports alleging widespread anti-Semitism – visited the UN Exhibit.

They were addressed by Holocaust survivors Judy Weissenberg Cohen and Fanya Heller, as well as by Rick Carrier, a World War II Liberator.

When their image is accessed with a smart phone or other device, the reader is taken to an excerpt of their video testimony on USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education (created by Steven Spielberg) or March of the Living Digital Archive Project websites.

"[24] In recent years the March of the Living (MOTL) has attempted to broaden its focus from only concentrating on the Holocaust, and include other program content in the Poland portion of the trip.

[25] in 2018, marking 30 years since the first March, Israel's delegation to the United Nations headquarters held an event with participation from Holocaust Survivors and other ambassadors from around the world.

The exhibition features a collection of photographs showcasing Holocaust survivors as well as students who have taken part in the parade since 1988, creating an additional experience for its visitors.

"[28] When speaking about this year's upcoming march [in 2024] Rosenman stated special attention will be paid to fighting antisemitism, with emphasis on the atrocities of 7 October.

"[29] In January 2024, the Israeli president Isaac Herzog hosted an event at his residence with March of the Living to commemorate the Kindertransport, which brought nearly 10,000 children from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland to the United Kingdom in 1938–1939 during the Nazi regime.

This was an Emmy Award-winning film with Suzanne Lasky Gerard directing, while Colleen Dewhurst and Jonathan Silverman provided the narration, and the soundtrack was by Vadim Dreyzin.

[35] Each of Us Has a Name (1999) was produced and directed by Fern Levitt follows the journey of Canadian Jewish teenagers and Holocaust survivors on the March of the Living as they visit former Nazi German death camps in Poland, as well as other historic sites in the country.

The book is inspired by a 2014 United Nations exhibit showcasing the reflections and images of Holocaust survivors and students who participated in the March of the Living since 1988.

Like a drop of water falls on a stone and erodes it, so, hopefully, by telling my story over and over again, I will achieve the purpose of making the world a better place to live in.'

[47] The movie depicts the emotional experiences of six Holocaust survivors as they return to the moment when Allied troops liberated the Nazi concentration camps, granting them the long-awaited freedom.

March of the Living Survivors featured in the film include Lillian Boraks-Nemetz, Judy Cohen, Max Eisen, Max Glauben, Bill Glied, Pinchas Gutter, Denise Hans, Anna Heilman, Mania Hudy, Max Iland, Howard Kleinberg, Nate Leipciger, Faigie Libman, Sol Nayman, Edward Mosberg, Irving Roth, Rena Schondorf, Albert Silwin, Stefania Sitbon, Sally Wasserman, Elie Wiesel, Helen Yurmas,  Miriam Zacrojcyk, and Sidney Zoltak.

The Polish rescuers – all honoured at Yad Vashem as  Righteous Among the Nations – are Zygmunt Krynski,  Sister Klara Jaroszynska, Czeslawa Zak, and Krystyna Puchalski-Maciejewskai.

The Holocaust survivors they rescued who share their story in the film are Sidney Zoltak, Eva Kuper, Olga Kost & Felix Zandman.

In its place, an online virtual program was implemented instead in 2020 and 2021 [80][81][82] The in-person March of the Living resumed in 2022, though some groups cancelled because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"[88][87] In May 2024, Shmuel Rosenman, Co-Founder and Chairman of March of the Living, speaking in Krakow, Poland, stated: "The Holocaust remains the most unique and unprecedented tragedy in Jewish and human history.

"[90] On 18 June 2024, the International March of the Living publicly denounced a summer youth program advertising a "revolutionary" education, organized by Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at McGill University.

[91] The Office of the President and Vice-Chancellor at McGill University released a statement on 14 June addressing their concerns and "appealing to public safety authorities.

"[92] The March of the Living quoted Holocaust survivor, educator, and Montreal resident, Angele Orosz, stating, ""What's happening today at McGill is so frightening for me.

"[91] Commenting on the McGill protests, Chairman Shmuel Rosenman and President Phyllis Greenberg Heideman, issued the following statement: "Education for young people should never encourage the use of violence.