Freed hostage Eli Sharabi spoke at the annual March of the Living program at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on Holocaust Remembrance Day yesterday.
Sharabi was held in captivity after he was taken hostage during the October 7 massacre in 2023. He was released this February within the framework of the January ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
The atrocities of the Holocaust “were unlike any other genocide committed against any nation throughout world history,” Sharabi said.
“We will not forgive, and we will not forget,” he added.
Addressing victims of the October 7 massacre who were taking part in the March of the Living, including survivors, bereaved family members, and former hostages, Sharabi said: “This is the Jewish spirit of triumph. It is a reminder that the Jewish nation will exist for all eternity.”
"העם היהודי יהיה קיים לנצח נצחים": צפו בנאום המרגש של אלי שרעבי על אדמת פולין@DaphnaLiel pic.twitter.com/mMggOSRgaq
— החדשות - N12 (@N12News) April 24, 2025
“The Jewish nation and Israel, specifically, sanctifies life, not death,” he said. “We hope to see the rest of the 56 hostages who are still in Gaza today return to Israel.”
“Like I said, we are the spirit of triumph,” Sharabi said at the end of his remarks.
Who is Sharabi?
Sharabi’s wife, Lianne, and two daughters, Noiya and Yahel, were murdered during the October 7 massacre.
Sharabi’s brother, Yossi, was also taken hostage. An IDF probe found that he was likely killed while in Hamas captivity by an IAF airstrike in January 2024. His wife, Nira, and three daughters, Yuval, Ofir, and Oren, survived.
After Sharabi was released from captivity, he described the torture and starvation he endured.
“You are kept 50 meters below ground,” Sharabi told Channel 12. “The sanitary conditions are simply terrible. You shower once a month with a bottle of water – maybe half a bucket of cold water. The chains on my legs never came off me from the day I arrived in Gaza until the last day.”
“Some people were shackled only part of the time,” he said. “I was chained for a year and four months with thick, heavy locks that tore into my flesh.”
Sharabi has been actively speaking out for the remaining hostages in Hamas captivity ever since he was freed.