Who We Are
The March of Remembrance and Hope (MRH) is a program designed for university and college students of all religions and backgrounds and post-secondary educational levels and programs. The program takes place in mid-May, and includes a two day orientation in Toronto, a two day visit to Germany, followed by a six day visit to Poland.
During the trip students visit locations in Germany and Poland related to the Holocaust and other World War II genocides, including the site of the Wannsee Conference, and the former concentration/death camps of Auschwitz, Treblinka and Majdanek.
The purpose of the March of Remembrance and Hope is to teach students of various religious and ethnic backgrounds about the dangers of intolerance through the study of the Holocaust and other World War II genocides, and to promote better relations among people of diverse cultures and faith backgrounds. Students learn about the importance of community and the beauty of learning from and with one another.
Each student delegation is accompanied by a Holocaust Educator, several guides who specialize in Holocaust history, and a Holocaust survivor (whenever possible). Throughout the course of the trip, each Holocaust survivor provides leadership to the students’ experience as they share their painful memories in the very places in which their stories transpired. Throughout the course of the trip, whenever possible, students also meet one of the Righteous Among the Nations, and learn of the heroic actions a minority of Europe's population took to resist Nazi tyranny.
Presently, MRH is sponsored on an annual basis in Canada by Jewish Federations of Canada - UIA after being run for several years by the Canadian Centre for Diversity. Though the international iteration of MRH is currently on hold, American groups such as Nazareth College and Hobart and William Smith Colleges have travelled with past Canadian MRH delegations and have subsequently launched their own program entitled, The March: Bearing Witness to Hope.