The March of the Living is an annual Holocaust education program where high school students, accompanied by Holocaust survivors, travel to Poland to learn about Jewish life in Europe before, during and after the Second World War. This is a unique experience as students learn about the Holocaust through the testimonies of the survivors, in the towns, concentration camps and death camps where the Holocaust took place.

In Poland, their program includes visits to once-thriving sites of Jewish life and culture as well as sites of Jewish persecution and martyrdom. Then, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, the students march arm in arm with Holocaust survivors from Auschwitz to Birkenau. They are joined by thousands of other people of goodwill – of diverse backgrounds and faiths –  as they march side by side in memory of all victims of Nazi genocide and against prejudice, intolerance and hate.

After visiting additional historic sites, many students travel to Israel, the birthplace and homeland of the Jewish People.

In Israel, they tour the length and breadth of the land, visiting its ancient and modern sites, and commemorating Israel’s fallen soldiers on Yom Hazikaron and celebrating Israel’s independence on Yom Ha’atsmaut.

In 2013, the March of the Living Archive Project was established to gather 25 years of precious survivor testimony recorded on video during March of the Living trips. The material has been digitized, logged, archived, and edited into mini documentaries, which will be viewable online, on demand, to the public. This material will prove to be invaluable to students, historians, and anyone interested in Holocaust education.

History

The March of the Living Digital Archive Project encompasses three stages:

The first stage began in 2013 and focused on gathering and editing testimony from Canadian Holocaust Survivors who have participated in the March of the Living since 1988. 

In 2018, a partnership was launched with the USC Shoah Foundation (Stage 2) and the International March of the Living, featuring Holocaust Survivors in 3 unique film formats: 360 On-Location, iWalk & Travelogue.

In 2019, the Holocaust Survivor Vignettes Project (Stage 3) was launched, featuring short clips of Holocaust survivor testimony shared with students on location in Poland in recent years.

For more detailed descriptions of each phase of the project, please see below:

Pilot Project – Stage 1 (2013)

  • Sourcing and gathering all the raw (unedited) video footage shot on the March of the Living, dating back to 1988, from across Canada and other parts of the world.
  • Creating a digital archive of all the raw footage. The footage is being labelled, categorized, and backed up to hard drives for future long-term use.
  • Logging and categorizing all raw footage into searchable documents. Raw footage will be searchable by year, locations, survivors’ names, age, subject matter, theme, videographer, and March of the Living contingent. For example, Toronto, Coast to Coast or Montreal, or if it was part of another March of the Living program, such as the March of Remembrance and Hope.
  • Editing archive footage into short documentary films focusing on individual Holocaust survivors’ stories and experiences.
  • Building a website to screen our documentaries. Videos will be tagged and searchable by theme and content.

The 2013 initiative (Stage 1) was made possible through the generous support of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, The Claims Conference (The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany), and Laura& Dennis Bennie. The 2013 project was initiated by Evan Zelikovitz (chair), Eli Rubenstein (Director) and Naomi Wise (Producer).

Partnership with USC SF: 360 on Location, IWalk & Travelogue – Stage 2 (2018)

  • 360 on-Location: Using 360-degree 3D technology, North American March of the Living Holocaust survivor testimonies were filmed on location, in the places where their Holocaust experiences unfolded. This multi-camera technology creates a new, immersive experience for the viewer. Further reading here:
  • IWALK is an interactive app utilizing testimonies shot in 360 with March of the Living Holocaust survivors in the very locations where their Holocaust stories transpired. Using GPS technology, students can use the app “on the go” to locate and listen to testimonies of March of the Living Holocaust survivors filmed in the very locations where the students are now visiting.
  •  Travelogue: Survivors spontaneously recall their experiences and retrace their history and memories in the very places their stories unfolded when they visited Poland during the March of the Living with students. The footage taken during the week of March of the Living in Poland often captures details of stories never shared elsewhere in any previous testimony.

This ongoing partnership is overseen by Cate Wilson, Director of Programs at USC SF, and Eli Rubenstein, Director of Education at the International March of the Living. Further reading at USC SF: https://sfi.usc.edu/testimony-location

Holocaust Survivor Vignettes Project – Stage 3 (2019)

Launched in 2019, the March of the Living Holocaust Survivor Vignettes Project features short clips of 2-5 minutes of moving Holocaust survivor testimony, shared with students on location in Poland during the March of the Living. The project was first initiated in 2019 by Toronto March of the Living chair Tammy Glied and Canadian Israeli filmmaker Igal Hecht, who has documented numerous Toronto March of the Living journeys over the last 15 years. The material includes footage filmed and edited by Igal Hecht and Toronto filmmaker Naomi Wise, who has been documenting March of the Living programs since 1998. This is an ongoing project, with new videos being edited and added each year using archival materials from previous March of the Living trips.

Eli Rubenstein, Director of Education, International March of the Living, continues to oversee the project.