OSWIECIM, Poland (AP) — U.S. university presidents joined Holocaust survivors and thousands of Israelis on Monday for the March of the Living, a yearly memorial march at the site of Auschwitz that honors the 6 million Jews killed by Nazi Germany and celebrates the state of Israel.

This year, the mood at the march was overshadowed by the war in Gaza after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, the deadliest violence against Jews since Adolf Hitler’s regime sought to destroy the entire Jewish population of Europe.

The October attack unleashed a war that has led to a high number of Palestinian deaths, fueling pro-Palestinian protests that have swept U.S. campuses. Many Jewish students have felt intimidated by protests, which have at times included antisemitic tropes and calls for anti-Jewish violence.

A small group of pro-Palestinian protesters waving Palestinian flags stood along the side of the road as participants marched with Israeli flags from the site of Auschwitz in the Polish town of Oswiecim to the site of Birkenau about 3 kilometers (2 miles) away. The area was under German occupation during World War II and today the former death camps are preserved as memorials by the Polish state.