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FOR YOU WHO DIED I MUST LIVE ON ... REFLECTIONS ON THE MARCH OF THE LIVING: CONTEMPORARY JEWISH YOUTH CONFRONT THE HOLOCAUST

Eli Rubenstein
Oakville (Ont.), Mosaic Press, 1993. 126pp paper
ISBN 1-88962-452-6 (paper) $14.95 ISBN 0-88962-453-4 (cloth) $24.95. CIP


Subject Headings:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)-Influence.
Holocaust Remembrance Day-Poland.
Independence Day (Israel).


Grades 9 and up / Ages 14 and up

Reviewed by Val K. Lem

Volume 22 Number 4
1994 September


Thousands of Jewish teenagers from around the world are brought together by the March of the Living, a biennial educational event held in Poland and Israel. The "March" itself is the culmination of a week in Poland when participants mark Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah) by retracing the final three-kilometre march many Jews made from Auschwitz to Birkenau. A second week in Israel coincides with Yom Ha'atsmaut Israel's Independence Day.

This volume presents reflections in the form of poetry, essays, drawings and photographs by Canadian and American participants of marches held between 1988 and 1992. A few excerpts from writings by victims of the Holocaust such as Anne Frank and Hannah Senesh are also included. Photographs are uncredited; other contributions usually include the creator's name, age and place of residence.

Contributions are grouped into three sections. The first, "Memory," recalls that Poland once had a vibrant Jewish population. The largest section, "Anguish," reflects the range of emotions experienced upon visiting concentration camps and Jewish cemeteries and encountering a largely cool, often hostile populace. In contrast, the final section, "Hope," reflects the warm reception the youths faced in Israel and the hope it symbolizes for the future.

Sometimes repetitive and exhibiting varying levels of skill, the collection includes many powerful contributions that attest to the impact of the March on its participants.

Recommended for readers of all faiths.


Val K. Lem is a librarian with the Board of Education for the City of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario

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