Holocaust survivor Felix Zandman's Speech to the 2008 March of the Living
Felix Zandman (1927--2011) born in Grodno, Poland, survived the Holocaust with the help of a courageous family of Catholic
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Polish Righteous Among the Nations, Jan and Anna Puchalski, who hid him and his uncle for 17 months. Their main hiding place was a dugout 170 cm long, 150 cm wide and 120 cm tall that Felix Zandman shared with three other Jewish refugees. One of them, his uncle Sender Freydowicz, taught him trigonometry, and advanced mathematics in the long hours of darkness. After the war, he went on to found Vishay Intertechnology Inc. which he developed into a Fortune 1000 company with over 22,000 employees worldwide.
Felix Zandman participated in the 2008 March of the Living, where he paid tribute to his rescuers (whose family members were present) in front of thousands of young Jewish teens who had gathered from around the world to participate in the March. Felix Zandman, together with many of his own family members, along with Gabi Ashkenazi, Chief of Staff of the Israel Defence Forces and Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Chief Rabbi of Israel, led the March, which began under the iron gates of Auschwitz and concluded amid the ruins of Birkenau's crematoria.
The annual March of the Living program brings thousands of young people from around the world each year on Holocaust Remembrance Day to Auschwitz-Birkenau to honour the memory of Holocaust victims and to pledge to build a better world for all humanity.
Following their trip to Poland, where they visit other places of Nazi German persecution as well as once thriving sites of Jewish life and culture, many participants travel to Israel, the birthplace and homeland of the Jewish People, where they celebrate Israeli Independence Day.
Eli, Eli is sung by Hashachar Choir from Japan.
Photos by Yossi Zeiliger and Ryan Blau.