Wednesday, 14 May 2025

March of the Living

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (09:50): During April as part of a delegation of Victorian MPs, I visited Poland for the March of the Living, an annual event that retraces the death marches from Auschwitz I to Auschwitz II Birkenau extermination camps, where a million Jews and others were murdered during World War II. The march serves as a tribute to all victims of the Holocaust, their memories, their legacies and the legacies lost. It was emotional. It was striking, harrowing, seeing the systemic brutality, the clinical organisation and the industrial scale of death. It will stay with me for the rest of my life.

As parliamentarians it was important to bear witness to the lessons of the Holocaust firsthand and reaffirm our unwavering commitment to confronting hatred and prejudice in all of its forms. I want to thank Sue Hampel, co-president of the Melbourne Holocaust Museum, for her invaluable knowledge and guidance during the tour, along with Gary Samowitz from March of the Living and the members for Box Hill and Caulfield for coordinating.

We learned in history that hate began with words, but it ended in places like Auschwitz. As the sun set on that day, it rose in Melbourne on Anzac Day, where neo-Nazis tried to disrupt the dawn service at the shrine, booing the welcome to country and other speakers. It was a despicable act of hate that, without question, we must all lend our voice to condemn – and without hesitation. Fascists are attempting to sow division in Melbourne using whatever opportunity they have. Today they might start booing a welcome to country, but that is not where it ends; it never does. We must stop fascism wherever it rears its ugly head.