Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is in Poland this week on an official visit, where he is expected to participate in the annual "March of the Living" at the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp, along with some 10,000 other participants.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is in Poland this week on an official visit, where he is expected to participate in the annual "March of the Living" at the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp, along with some 10,000 other participants.
The Greek delegation at this year's somber commemoration is led by the president of Parliament, Nikos Voutsis, who is accompanied by the president of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, David Saltiel, and several Parliament MPs.
The march is expected to begin at 12.30 GMT, covering the distance from the train depot, where arrivals disembarked, to the Nazi death camp, some three kilometers away.
This year's "March of the Living" is devoted to the memory of Greek citizens that perished at Auschwitz-Birkenau, with Voutsis in the afternoon expected to inaugurate a relevant exhibition. The exhibition will become a permanent display at the museum at Auschwitz.
The exhibition has been prepared in cooperation with the Jewish Museum of Greece and is financed entirely by the Parliament of Greece.
Bartholomew, the primus inter Pares of the world's Orthodox Patriarchs, will address an official event after the march.
On Friday, the Ecumenical Patriarch will visit Warsaw, where he will be received by the Orthodox Archbishop of Warsaw and Metropolitan of All Poland, Sawa.