June 13th, 2017 – A very touching event took place in Ashdod for 100 Holocaust Survivors when a group of March of Life representatives came to meet with them. Some survivors waited patiently for 40 minutes before the meeting started. They did not want to miss anything, so they arrived early. When 16 people from the March of Life Movement arrived, the audience received them with a shout of joy and applause.
Two Ghetto survivors from Belarus shared their family stories and how they joined the partisans after almost everybody in the Ghetto was killed. Many of the visitors cried when they heard the horrific details of how people in the ghetto were killed.

Afterward, when three young Germans shared about what their grandparents had done during the World War II and asked for forgiveness from the survivors, nobody in the auditorium could hold back the tears. At the end of the meeting the group was singing, dancing and sharing the purpose of the March of Life which is “Remembering, Reconciliation and Standing with Israel.”

What a way to finish the meeting but with hugs and kisses of reconciliation between the two generations – the Holocaust survivors and descendants of the Nazi perpetrators. This will be a lasting memory for everyone who was there.