Former Gaza hostages Moran Stella Yanai and Keith Siegel spoke at the Majdanek concentration camp as part of the World Zionist Organization's delegation to the March of the Living in Poland.
This delegation commemorates the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on Holocaust Remembrance Day. It was initiated by Yaakov Hagoel, Chairman of the WZO and the Menomadin Foundation, led by its founder and president, Haim Taib.
The delegation included hostages who were freed from Hamas captivity, families of fallen hostages whose remains were returned for burial in Israel, wounded IDF soldiers, and various officials.
As part of the trip, members of the delegation arrived at the Majdanek concentration camp, where they toured the site and held a ceremony. During the ceremony, both Siegel and Yanai, who had been freed from Hamas captivity, shared their personal experiences.
In her speech, Yanai said, "After a long struggle to escape, I stand here today at the Majdanek concentration camp, looking at the line of trees visible in the distance. I felt trapped in a field with nothing but those trees on the horizon. I thought that if I could just reach them, I might survive and escape. I think of those Jews who tried to flee from that camp, aiming to reach those trees, hoping to blend into the great forest and be saved."
She added, "My connection to the Holocaust didn’t begin with this trip. I’ve been studying it since I was a child. Something inside me drives me to understand, to learn, and to remember—not just the facts, but the people, and what was broken in society after I, too, experienced trauma myself."
"This place, this moment, carries a completely different weight now," she said. "I find myself endlessly reflecting on how such a tragedy could have happened, and how we, as a society, must never allow it to happen again—not to us, nor to any people anywhere in the world."
'Working to bring home the remaining 59 hostages'
Siegel added, "It is a tremendous privilege to be here with you. A little over two months ago, I returned to Israel after 484 days in Hamas captivity. Since then, I’ve been working to bring home the remaining 59 hostages to their families. When I read Chavka Folman-Raban’s words, I felt they reflected the feelings I too experienced, and I felt compelled to share them here."
Chavka Folman-Raban, a member of the Dror movement in Poland, was part of the Jewish organization fighting there and served as a liaison. She spoke these words at a rally at the Ghetto Fighters' House in 1988: "When World War II ended, those of us who survived faced a hard and painful freedom. The loss of everything—family, friends, millions of Jews—was felt with brutal force. Rebuilding our lives and starting anew seemed almost impossible."
"We were helped by the faith and hope that the new world would be different," she said. "That in our land, in Israel, society would be just, moral, and pure, where the dignity of each person would be upheld in all circumstances and situations. We dreamed of peace, true peace, and that dream was fulfilled."