Young Jews march in Poland to remember Holocaust victims

OSWIECIM, Poland (AP) " Thousands of young Jews from around the world joined Holocaust survivors and politicians Thursday for an annual Holocaust remembrance march in southern Poland that focuses on fighting anti-Semitism and hatred.

About 10,000 marchers carrying Israeli flags and "Say NO to Antisemitism" banners took part in the annual March of the Living, which follows a 3-kilometer (1.8 mile) route between the two parts of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp operated by German Nazis.

At the former site of Birkenau, where Jews from around Europe were brought by train and killed in gas chambers during 1942-45, participants placed wooden signs with the names of relatives who died in the Holocaust on remaining train tracks.

The march takes place every year on Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day. It began in 1988 as part of an education program for young Jews.

Six United States ambassadors, including Ambassador to Israel David M. Friedman and Georgette Mosbacher, the ambassador to Poland, were among the international representatives who attended.

Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila and Poland's agriculture minister also walked in the march.

An estimated 1.1 million people died at Auschwitz-Birkenau during Nazi Germany's brutal World War II occupation of Poland, most of them European Jews but also Polish resistance members, Roma and Russian prisoners of war.