Gov. Phil Murphy has been to hundreds of ceremonies and events in his terms as governor; none may have a greater lasting impact than his recent visit to Poland, where he took part in the annual Walk of the Living in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau.
Murphy, who was accompanied by first lady Tammy Murphy, told BINJE that the ceremony at Birkenau, at the end of the two-mile walk, was “bone chilling.”
“The ceremony (takes place) between the ruins of crematorium one and crematorium two, where the train tracks go right down the middle,” he said. “It was just bone chilling, an extraordinary experience that Tammy and I won’t soon forget.”
The governor and the first lady, whose father was Jewish, laid a wreath in the name of New Jersey at the memorial site at Auschwitz.
Tammy Murphy noted the emotion of the moment on her Instagram account.
“As we reflect on the atrocities of the Holocaust, I am thinking of my Jewish family members who fled the pogroms of the 1800s and then helped other surviving relatives get to the United States in the 1930s,” she wrote.
“The March of the Living is both a commemoration and a lesson. It serves as a reminder of the horrors endured by Jewish people and the rampant antisemitism that continues today. Never again. “We are proud to stand alongside members of our Jewish community to combat hatred in New Jersey and around the world.”
The Murphys, who met briefly with the presidents of Poland and Israel at the ceremony, also took an extensive tour of Auschwitz. The event also included 80 survivors of the Holocaust.
The ceremony met with a torrential rainstorm that Murphy said was perhaps fitting for the somber occasion.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” he said.
The governor has been a strong supporter of Israel throughout his administration — not only visiting on numerous occasions on economic and cultural missions but speaking out publicly against antisemitism.
The trip to Poland came before the governor embarked on a weeklong economic mission trip to three Gulf Arab States (Saudia Arabia, Bharain and the United Arab Emirates).
