Bondi survivors march with Holocaust survivors

Fifty Holocaust survivors joined thousands of people, including Bondi survivors, last Tuesday for the 38th March of the Living, held at the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp, in memory of the six million Jews killed by Nazi Germany during World War II.

The annual march on Yom Hashoah is from Auschwitz to Birkenau, where Jews were murdered in gas chambers.

This year’s participants included survivors of recent antisemitic attacks including from the Bondi Beach massacre, the attack on the Manchester Synagogue, and the shooting of Israeli embassy staff in Washington DC. Survivors lit the Torch of Fighting Antisemitism at a ceremony.

Hanna Abesidon, daughter of 78-year-old Tibor Weitzen, who was killed at Bondi Beach, recounted her memories of the attack. She described attending the Chanukah event with her parents, her daughter and her three-year-old grandchild. It was only when she managed to get her grandchild to safety that Abesidon returned to check on her parents.

“I came closer to the area where Mum and Dad were sitting, and I recognised Dad’s shoes and pants, but he was covered already, so I knew that he was gone,” she said.