The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew led this year’s “Walk of the Living”, the supreme tribute taking place every year since 1988 in memory of the six million Jews exterminated by the Nazis in the Second World War, which took place in Auschwitz on 2 May 2019. The Ecumenical Patriarch addressed thousands of people from at least fifty-seven different countries, who participated in the walk. The Ecumenical Patriarch visited the sites where millions of people died, showing solidarity with the Jewish community all over the world who commemorate and honor the victims of the Holocaust.

A Greek parliamentary delegation was also present, headed by the Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament. Nikolaos Voutsis. At the end of the walk, the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament participated in the inauguration of the Permanent Greek Exhibition at the State Museum of Auschwitz on the victims of the Greeks in Auschwitz, the vast majority of which were Jews. The Greek Jewish community was brought to the verge of complete extinction during World War II, as thousands of Jewish people were transported from Thessaloniki, Veria, Corfu, Zante and many other cities, villages and islands to Auschwitz in the early 1940s. The vast majority of these Greek citizens died there in the hellish camp after enduring unspeakable conditions.