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Message תחלשמה')שה (דר)ש2025 םייחה דעצמר)רחשל ה,ש 80
, , , :תרב)חה ת,.הב )פתתשה . . , , , :ב)0(1 | :ה.(ר1 . , . , ם(.מ)תה ל.ל בלה 3מ)1מ הד)מ (מל)1ה ם((חה ד10מ 4)גר' ,“ם)לחה (1רז” 4ר3 ,ת)(ל'רש(ה 3ט((הה ת),ר3) ת)רבח . ת ( ר ש פ ' ל ה ז ד 1 0 מ ב ה ' ) ש ה ( ד ר ) ש ל ש ם ת ) פ ת ת ש ה ת ' ) . פ ה ש ם ( ש , ' ה ל . ל ) .הר)בגה) ה')שה 4)ר.(ז תח0,הל ם.לש ת)ב()חמה ל1 הד)ת
,םירקי םידרושו תודרוש ןוטלשהמ הפוריא רורחשל הנש 80 ןמיסב הנשה םייקתמ 2025 םייחה דעצמ .היינשה םלועה תמחלמ לש המויסלו יצאנה 80 ,םכתא דחי דועצל םיכוז ונאו – האושה תועווזל ףשחנ םלועהש זאמ הנש 80.םייח םידע לש ןורחא רוד ,םלועה יבחרמ האוש ידרוש וכפהש תורענו םירענ ,הווקתו ןברוח לש םימי םתואב ודלונש תוקונית םכיניב ןתינ אלש תפות םתרבע ,הלזגנ םכתודלי .תע םרטב םירגובמל םחרוכ לעב תורמל ,תאז לכבו .םימלש תומלוע ,םיתב ,תוחפשמ םתדביא ,תעדה לע תולעהל םכמ םיבר .תונידמ ,תוליהק ,םישדח םייח םתינב ,תוסירהה ךותמ םתמק ,לוכה .לארשי תנידמ לש הסוסיבלו התמקהל םיפתוש ויה.חורה ןוחצינל היח תודע םתא תודעצ דגנכ ,ןוחצינו ןורכיז לש הרהצהכ םירושע העברא ינפל דלונ םייחה דעצמ ךפוה התא – דעל בישקמ התאשכ״ :רמא ל״ז לזיו ילא האושה דרוש .תוומה דעצמב ופתתשהש םלועה יבחר לכמ תוריעצהו םיריעצה יפלא תואמ .״דעל .םישדחה םידעה םה םייחה ריבעהלו דועצל ךישמנ .חכשנ אל םלועלש םכל םיחיטבמ ונחנא ,םירקי םידרוש.םיאבה תורודל ןורכיזה דיפל תא.יח לארשי םע
רכוז ינא!רכוזו יח ןיידע ינא.דרסב תויצקלסה תא רכוז ינא .םירמושה דצמ םייוניעה תא רכוז ינא.וחצרנש ונתחפשמ ינב תא רכוז ינא.יחאמו םירוההמ הדירפה תא רכוז ינא.ובערוהש םידלשה / םיריסאה ינפ תא רכוז ינא.תילמשח רדג לע ודבאתהש םיריסא רכוז ינא .סא סא ישנא ידי לע ורונו תוומה תדעצב וטטומתהש םיריסא רכוז ינא .םיחותפ תבכר תונורקב ואפקש םיריסא רכוז .בערהו דחפה תא חכשא אל .םידוהי ןוילימ השיש וחצרנ הב ,הלודגה הפירשה תא ודרשש ,םילחגה ונחנאטסריפ ילתפנ ץיוושוא B-14026 רפסמ דלוונכוב 120041 רפסמ
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 6(91) ר,ג(' השמ :תחלשמ | :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1934 :הד(ל ת,ש . , . . , . 1940 " , , , , . , . . ,1944 . " , , ." 1950 , , . , . , " ." 1957 . Moshe Igner (91)Year of birth: 1934 | Place of birth: Romania | Delegation: IsraelMoshe Igner remembers a happy childhood, which was suddenly interrupted when he was six years old. He spent his childhood years mainly with his mother. His father was absent from home a lot.”From 1940 onwards, the authorities persecuted us. We could not attend public school, we were kicked out of the house and had to live in a rented house far from the school.My father, who was a lawyer, was not allowed to work in his profession and was forced to earn a living from other occupations. My mother had to work very hard jobs so that my brother and I could attend school.””My family was murdered in camps in Yugoslavia. In 1944, after the Russians liberated Romania, we got our house back, but it was nationalized in 1947 by the communist regime and to this day we haven't gotten it back. During the entire time my father was in prison, I couldn't get accepted to university and had to work for a living.”In 1950, his father was arrested for underground Zionist activity and released after four years. Only later, after his father died, did Moshe discover that he had been one of the leaders of the Zionist underground in Romania, both under the Nazi and communist regime.Moshe Igner immigrated to Israel in 1957 and had two children and five grandchildren.ךליאו 1940 תנשמ.תונוטלשה ונתוא ופדר תיבב דומלל ונלוכי אל ושריג ,ירוביצ רפס ונייהו תיבהמ ונתוא תיבב רוגל םיכירצ ,םידורי םיאנתב ,רוכש רפסה תיבמ קחרה-From 1940 onwards, the authorities persecuted us. We could not attend public school, we were expelled from home and had to live in a rented home, in poor condition, far from schoolNaftali Furst (92) Year of birth: 1933 | Place of birth: CzechoslovakiaDelegation: Israel”I am Naftali Furst, born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, 92 years old. When I was nine years old, I was imprisoned in the Sered concentration camp in Slovakia, together with my mother Margit, father Artur, and my brother Shmuel.”“On November 2, 1944, we were sent..to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The first sight I saw at the door of the train car was red flames shooting from the chimneys of the crematorium. A miracle happened. The day before we arrived at Auschwitz, Himmler ordered the gas chambers to cease operation. The gassing was stopped, but the piles of bodies continued to be burned in the crematorium. The number 14026-B was stamped on my arm. Shmuel and I were separated from our parents and left alone".In January 1945 Shmuel and I were sent on a death march. The suffering was worse than death. The journey continued in open train cars, in the freezing cold of minus 25C."On January 23, 1945 we arrived at Buchenwald. Exhausted and sick, I had a fever and was hallucinating. I was once again on the verge of ending my life as a pile of ashes. The head of the barracks, Antonin Kalina, ordered my brother to take me to the hospital. A second miracle occurred - I recovered and healed. Kalina was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations for saving over 900 Jewish children from death.”“On April 11, 1945, I was liberated by the American army in Buchenwald, and I was 12 years old, alone in the world. I returned to Bratislava. My parents and brother had also survived, each in a different camp. We were reunited". "I grew up and started a family in Israel. Thanks to my daughter Ronit, I have four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, and I live in a relationship with Tova Wegman.(92) ט8ר(פ (לתפ, :תחלשמ | ' :'0)מ 9ר' | 1933 :הד(ל ת,ש , Sered " Sered . , . . . .- , , 2.11.1944-" . . , . . . .B-14026 . 1945 " , . . .25C , . , 80 ,1945 23-" . ,Antonin Kalina , . . , . . 900- 1945 11- . - " ,12 , , . . . . . " , ) BRATIA FURST , .FURST !? . ,( , . , , . ." , ןושארה הארמה ייניעל הלגנש ויה ןורקה חתפב תומודא תובהל תובוראמ ועקבש עריא .םוירוטמרקה ונעגהש ינפל םוי .סנ הוויצ ץיוושואל תא קיספהל רלמיהםיזג יאת תוליעפ-A miracle happened. The day before we arrived at Auschwitz, Himmler ordered the gas chambers to cease operation
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 7Chana Ben Ary (86)Year of birth: 1939 | Place of birth: Romania | Delegation: Israel Chana was her parents' only child."We lived in a traditional and supportive Jewish community. Dad was in business with his brother. In the city where we lived, all Jews had to wear a yellow badge, and we were only allowed to buy products at the local market and only in the early morning hours, when there was nothing to buy.”Chana's father was taken to a labor camp. She and her mother were forced to move from place to place. "My mother sent me to a local bakery. I gave the baker the money and he said there was no bread, or in other words, he refused to sell to Jews.”“On the day of liberation, we were in the basement together with my father's sister and many others. Suddenly the doors opened and Russian soldiers entered. They threatened the people with their guns and demanded that they be given money, watches and gold. Mother hugged me and quietly told me, "Cry." But I was speechless with panic. She pinched me so that I would cry, and at the sound of my cries the soldiers left us. We came out of the basement and the whole street was full of corpses of people and horses.”At the end of the war, Chana's father returned and she went back to school until the family immigrated to Israel in 1950. Chana has three children, six grandchildren and a great-grandchild."Marching on the March of the Living is a kind of victory. I feel great pride in what I have done and achieved, and also in the fact that as a people we have managed to recover and rebuild ourselves. I feel that with this joruney I am repaying a debt to my parents who suffered so much during the war.”Azriel Zyperberszt (95) Year of birth: 1930 | Place of birth: Belgium | Delegation: IsraelAzriel Zyperberszt was born in 1930 in Belgium. He remembers his childhood, with his parents and two sisters, fondly. "Every Sabbath I went to synagogue with my father and I don't remember encountering anti-Semitism."The Germans arrived in Belgium in May 1940 and began arresting Jews. The family immediately boarded a train and fled to France: "We traveled for three days and three nights. The train stopped many times. The Germans shot at the train but did not hit our carriage. In France, one woman helped us and a priest found us a hiding place with farmers. We slept on hay that was intended for cattle. We did not shower for four years.”“My parents were arrested and sent to a labor camp in the south of France. A few weeks later, the pressure on the Jews increased and they tried to catch us. The family was forced to move to other hiding places and split up. My little sister and I found refuge for four years and two months in the basement of a family that hid us. We lived in difficult conditions, without electricity or water. The family took care of our food, and the priest provided us with clothes, notebooks, and pencils."”When the war ended, representatives of the Jewish community moved us to a place where there were many Jewish refugees. The family was reunited, we returned to Belgium and discovered that many of our relatives had been murdered in Auschwitz. In 1950, I left Belgium and immigrated to Israel."Azriel had two sons, one of whom passed away, and two grandchildren.(95) טשרברפ(0 ל'(רז1 :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1930 :הד(ל ת,ש , . 1930 " . , ." . 1940 " . . . . . . . . " . . , . , , . . " , . . ." 1950 . , , (86) (ר' 4ב ה,ח :תחלשמ | :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1939 :הד(ל ת,ש . . . , , . .- " , . , , , , . . . . ." . , . . . , ." " . . . , . , . .." , . 1950 . . , . ." תותלדה וחתפנ עתפל .םיסור םילייח וסנכנו לע םהיבורב ומייא םה הטבצ אמא .םישנאה לו ,הכבאש ידכ יתוא־םילייחהו ייכב עמשמ ונתוא ובזע-Suddenly the doors opened and Russian soldiers came in. They threatened the people with their guns. Mother pinched me to make me cry, and when they heard my crying, the soldiers left usהנטקה יתוחאו ינא ךשמב טלקמ ונאצמ םיישדוחו םינש עברא החפשמ לש ףתרמב ונתוא הריתסהש. ,םישק םיאנתב ונייח םימו למשח אלל-My little sister and I found refuge for four years and two months in the basement of a family that hid us. We lived in dicult conditions, without electricity and water
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 8(85) 4מפ()3 לט(ג :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1939 :הד(ל ת,ש , ,() .' . ,' 1939 . 1941 , . . . , ,1944 . , . , . , . ' , , . , " .1973 2016 . , . . , . , . Gital Koifman (85)Year of birth: 1939 | Place of birth: Moldova | Delegation: IsraelGital Koifman (Brunsport), now known as Gita, was born in 1939 in Briceni, Moldova. As a child, she was affectionately nicknamed Gitelae.In June 1941, the German army deported the Jews to Transnistria. Gital and her family were forced to march there on foot, in harsh conditions of cold and mud, and without food. Along the way, her mother's brothers were murdered and her grandmother was run over and killed.When they arrived at the Azarinci ghetto, her mother died of typhus. Gital managed to survive in the ghetto thanks to her aunts, who protected her. In March 1944, when she was five years old, the ghetto was liberated. She and her father set out on a journey of hundreds of kilometers back home, with her father carrying her in his arms. When they arrived in Brzeczny, they discovered that their home had been destroyed and most of their family had perished. Gital lost dozens of her family members in the Holocaust, including her mother, grandmother, uncles, and aunts.Gital immigrated to Israel in 1973. She is currently the chairwoman of the Association of Survivors of Concentration Camps and Ghettos in Israel. In 2016, the association planted a grove in the Ruhama Forest in the western Negev, in memory of the million and a half Jewish children who perished in the Holocaust."It is important for me to march on the March of the Living in Auschwitz, to remember and identify with the Jews who went to the crematoria and with the million and a half children who were murdered in the Holocaust".Gital is also a member of the board of Yad Vashem, and the Center for Holocaust Survivors' Organizations, and a member of the executive board of the Claims Conference.וכלהש םידוהיה ץיוושואב תופרשמל חוכשל אלש ושקיב יל בושח .םתוא םייחה דעצמב דועצל רוכזל ,ץיוושואב םעו םתיא תוהדזהלו םידלי יצחו ןוילימ האושב וחצרנש-It is important to march, to remember and identify with the Jews who went to the crematoria including the million and a half children who were murdered(81) 4מ8)רג לר)מ :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1944 :הד(ל ת,ש , , 1944 . . ," . .1944- ,1947 . . , " . . 1962 , . ." , . , , . . ." " .() .2010 . . " . 22 , . . , , " , . ." Morel Grosman (81)Year of birth: 1944 | Place of birth: Romania | Delegation: IsraelMorel was born in February 1944 in Bucharest, Romania, to Mordechai and Perla Grossman. Together with his mother and his older sister, Elvira, they hid in the barn of a friend of his mother. The father was sent to a labor camp for three years and was only released in 1947.”I was a baby, I don't have many memories. We all survived. I can only see in one eye due to an event that happened in my childhood and I don't remember much of it."“After my father returned from the labor camp, we returned home. I completed high school in 1962, and we began our journey to Israel. We moved from Romania to Vienna, from Vienna to Italy, and from there we immigrated to Israel.”Morel studied Hebrew at the Ulpan, and since he already had a matriculation certificate, he could continue studying. He went down south and studied to be an X-ray technician.Over the years, he worked and advanced, joining the Meir Hospital team and working with cardiologists on computerized imaging."I felt like I was a partner in saving lives.”In Israel, Morel met Kochava (Stella). The two married and had two children and four grandchildren. Kochava died in 2010.”It's important to me to participate in the March of the Living. It wasn't until I was about 22 that my sister told me that I was a Holocaust survivor. It's important to me to connect with my roots and try to understand what was there. It's important to me that the stories be preserved for future generations and that future generations continue to learn and hear what the Jews went through in the Holocaust.”When I see the anti-Semitism that exists in the world, it makes me feel rage, anger, and sadness that something like this still continues to exist and probably will continue to exist. We must fight anti-Semitism and be proud of who we are.” תא האור ינאשכ ,תוימשיטנאה הז ,םלועב תמייקש סעכ ,םעז יל םרוג העפותש ,תובצעו .תמייקתמ ןיידע וזכ םחליהל םיבייח ונחנא תויהלו תוימשיטנאבונחנאש ימב םיאג-When I see the anti-Semitism that exists in the world, it makes me feel rage, anger and sadness that something like this still continues to exist
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 9Gitel Tova Belahousky (95)Year of birth: 1930 | Place of birth: Ukraine | Delegation: Israel"I was born in the spring of 1930 to Yehuda Kretzman and Miriam (nee Stoler) in Dombrowicz.” "My brother Hershel was two years older than me. Hannah, born two years after me, contracted meningitis and remained bedridden.”In the summer of 1942, at the Dombrowicz ghetto, the Germans and Ukrainians ordered everyone to line up outside, and from there they were taken to the train station. A Ukrainian policeman entered the house and shot [Hannah] to death in front of us.During the march to the train station about 800 were shot to death, but we survived. My mother and baby brother did not flee with us and contact was severed. We lived in the forests for about three weeks without food and decided to go to the Wisoczek ghetto.. where we hid in a hole in a yard.My older brother, who had typhus, remained in his bed - we have not seen him since. We escaped to the forests and lived there for about three years with the partisans. About a month after the escape, we reunited with my mother and younger brother.After the war, we lived in Poland, and continued to suffer from anti-Semitism.I immigrated to Israel in 1949. One year later I married the late Moshe Belahousky. We had 4 children and I have 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. My eldest daughter Ahuva passed away on January 1, 2025 from cancer.I have told my descendants about my family's history. I wrote an autobiographical book. I only hid from them the murder of my little sister, and I only told them about it a year ago. I also tell about it in schools, to soldiers in the army, high-tech workers, and anyone willing to listen.”Zili Wenkert (83)Year of birth: 1941 | Place of birth: Romania | Delegation: IsraelZili Wenkert was born during World War II in Czernowitz, then Romania and now Ukraine. At the age of six weeks, she and her family were deported to the Djurin ghetto in Transnistria. The family lived in a small room with her grandparents and aunts. In order to survive, her grandparents sold the property they had brought with them. Zili’s first memory of the war is the bombing of the retreating German army by the Soviets.At the end of the war, the family traveled to Radowitz, Shchukovina.In 1965, Zili and the late Boris immigrated to Israel and settled in Nahariya. Zili has 2 sons and 3 grandchildren.On October 7, 2023, her eldest grandson, Omar, was kidnapped from the Nova party and was held captive in Gaza until his release, in February 2025, after 505 terrible days. According to Zili, this was the real Holocaust for her.(83) טר3,) (ל(0 :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1941 :הד(ל ת,ש ,' . . ' . . . . . " 1965 . 3- 2 2023 7- 505 ,2025 , . , . (95) (38)הלב הב)ט לט(ג :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1930 :הד(ל ת,ש 1930 " .( ) , . ' . , , 1942 , . " . , . , " . , 800 . . . , . " , , . . . . . " . . . 4 ." 1949- " " . 13 - 11 . 2025 1- . . . . . ." תא דמל אל םלועה הבוח .האושה יחקל .הרק המ עדי םלועהש המ תא וחכשת לא וגאדת דימתו ונל ושעש תוכזב םיקזח תויהל תויהל אלו םכמצעםירז ידסחב םייולת-The world has not learned the lessons of the Holocaust. It is imperative to know what happened. Do not forget what they did to us 2023 רבוטקואב 7-ב ידכנ ,רמוע ףטחנ תביסממ ,רוכבה ררחוש אוה .הבונה םימי 505 רחאל ירובע התייה וז .םיארונתיתימאה האושה- On October 7, 2023, Omer, my eldest grandson, was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival. He was released after 505 terrible days. This was the real Holocaust for me
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 10(83) 4,ר' ד()ד :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1942 :הד(ל ת,ש , . 1942 , . , , . . : , – . . , . , , . . . , . .. , , . . . ,1949 . , 7 . , . ,13 . . , . , . , . " , ." David Ernan (83)Year of birth: 1942 | Place of birth: Slovakia | Delegation: IsraelDavid Ernan was born March 1942 in Slovakia. At the time of his birth, his mother saw her family being deported through the window. Because she was pregnant, she was not taken with the rest of her family.David's father, a dentist, noticed many German soldiers suffering from toothaches, so he suggested setting up a clinic for them. The German officer agreed. In response David’s father asked that his wife and infant son stay with him.The officer agreed and sent his driver to drive the mother and child to a nearby village, where they hid in a basement for three years. That officer looked after their safety and provided them with food. He had a special affection for little David. At the end of the war, three of the father's six brothers had not survived. David's brother and mother's parents also perished. In 1949, when David was 7 and a half years old and his sister was about three years old, they immigrated to Israel on the last train of Jews that left Slovakia.Many years later, David chose to give a new life to a 13-year-old Ethiopian boy, whom he adopted with love and devotion. When the boy was in high school, he raised the amount of money the boy needed to participate in a journey to Poland. David also kept in touch with the German officer who saved his family, visited him in Germany, and hosted his wife at his home in Israel.Participating in this March of the Living will be David’s first time and is an exciting opportunity for him. "The world learned nothing from the Holocaust. It is enough to hear the leaders of Europe, in universities and on the streets, to understand that hatred has not disappeared, it has only changed form.” גאד ינמרגה ןיצקה םוקמל ומיאו דיודל שולש ךשמב .רותסמ םמולשל גאד םינש אוה .לכוא םהל קפיסו תדחוימ הביח שחרןטקה דיודל-The German ocer provided David and his mother with a hiding place. For three years he ensured their safety and provided them with food (95) ט.(ל,רטש ה,ח :תחלשמ | ' :'0)מ 9ר' | 1930 :הד(ל ת,ש ,9 ,1939 15- . , " , : . , , .'' , . . . . , ,1942 6-" " 50 . .. .' . . , " . . . . , " , 1944- . , . , . , , , . " . ,14 16 . 12 , " . ,15 . . , ." 29 . . . 1949 " , . . . . ." . 4- 6 Hana Sternlicht (95)Year of birth: 1930 | Place of birth: CzechoslovakiaDelegation: IsraelHana was born in Prague, an only daughter. When she was 9, the Germans arrived, and the decrees began against the Jewish population.“I eagerly awaited the movie 'Snow White.' When we arrived at the cinema, a girl informed on me that I am Jewish, and they threw me out. After a while, the usher came, apologized, and refunded me the money. I left the place.”"On December 6, 1942, darkness and freezing cold, we were required to leave our home. We were allowed to take equipment weighing up to 50 kg, so we wore everything we could."They were sent to Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia. "The conditions were extremely harsh. Theresienstadt was a showcase ghetto, and the Germans used it to supposedly prove they treated Jews well. Of course, this wasn’t the case.”"We went through difficult things, but nothing prepared us for the hell of Auschwitz. I was sent there in 1944 in a cattle car, with no windows and complete darkness, until the train stopped and the doors opened. Searchlights, smoke, barking dogs, kicking, and the screams of SS officers. We arrived at the selection of Dr. Mengele. Someone whispered to me to say I was 16, not 14, and that's how I survived.”"We slept on bunk beds, about 12 women in each bed. In the soup, we could feel the sand from the vegetable peels.”"I was liberated at the age of 15, weighing 29 kg, fromMauthausen. I don’t remember the liberation, I was in a very bad condition. My parents and most of my family were destroyed in the Holocaust.”Hana immigrated to Israel in 1949 where she married and had two children and worked as an aide in special education. “I have 6 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. They are my victory over Hitler."לדהו הרצענ תבכרה־ ,םירוקרז .וחתפנ תות ,םיבלכ תוחיבנ ,ןשע לש תוחרצו תוטיעב ר"דל .סא סא ישנא ינאש יתרמא הלגנמ יתייהש ףא לע 16 תביתלצינ ךכו ,17 תב-The train stopped, and the doors opened. Searchlights, smoke, barking dogs, kicking, and the screams of SS ocers. I told Dr. Mengele I was 16 and that's how I survived
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 11Mate (Mazal) Hirsch (94)Year of birth: 1931 | Place of birth: Bulgaria | Delegation: IsraelMazal Hirsch was born in 1931 in Bulgaria and was ten years old when the war reached her.“In 1941, they closed the Jewish school and transferred us to the regional school. I stayed there for about a month. One day the school principal came, pointed at the Jewish students and said: 'You, you, and you cannot come to school tomorrow.' For two years we did not study.Restrictions were imposed on the Jews. My father was forced to move to a labor camp in the summer. The Germans confiscated our house and we were forced to move into my grandparents' cramped apartment. In addition, they took the family farm, which was very important to us. This is where we spent many days as children.As time passed, the restrictions intensified and became more severe day by day. For two years, we were only allowed to leave the house during the day from ten in the morning to twelve in the afternoon. During that time, we barely had time to buy basic products - milk, bread and vegetables. As children, we did not exactly understand the meaning of the restrictions and prohibitions, but we saw our parents in a daily struggle for our existence as a united family.We lived in a small, dense neighborhood. Each of the houses had a yard surrounded by ragged and broken fences, so we could open openings in the fences and sneak into our neighbors' houses during curfew hours, to spend long days with our friends. Even though some of our neighbors were not Jewish, we managed to maintain friendly and respectful relations. They did not make us feel different and humiliated, as the Germans wanted us to feel, and every Sabbath they used to greet us with the blessing of Shabbat Shalom".Mazal immigrated to Israel in 1949. She has two children and 5 grandchildren.Arne Rabuchin (81)Year of birth: 1944 | Place of birth: Sweden | Delegation: IsraelArne Rabuchin was born in 1944 in Sweden, the only son of parents who had fled Denmark during the occupation. During the war, while carrying him in her womb, his mother made her way to Gilley, a small fishing village in Denmark where many Jews were hiding. The mother hid in the village church until a woman from the Salvation Army invited her and her parents to stay with her. It was a stroke of luck. That very evening, the Germans discovered the Jews hiding in the church and deported them to Theresienstadt.A few days later, Arne's mother boarded a fishing boat that brought them to Sweden, where Arne was born in April 1944. In 1945, after the war ended, Arne returned with his parents to Denmark."I survived the war and I feel that the Germans were defeated. In the March of the Living, I want to show the whole world that I survived."Arne immigrated to Israel in the 1980s and enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces. Arne has 3 children and 3 grandchildren.(81) 4(.)בר (,ר' :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1944 :הד(ל ת,ש 1944 , . , , . . . . .1944 , . , ,1945 . 3- 3 .(94) שר(ה (לזמ) (טמל'רש( :תחלשמ | ה(רגל)ב :'0)מ 9ר' | 1931 :הד(ל ת,ש 1931 , 1941 . . . : , .' ,' . . " . , . . , . . , " . , , - . , , . . " , , , , . , . , ." . 5- , .1949 להנמ עיגה דחא םוי לע עיבצה ,רפסה תיב םידוהיה םידימלתה התאו תא ,התא' :רמאו אובל רחממ םילוכי אל ךשמב .'רפסה תיבל ונדמל אל םייתנש-One day the school principal came, pointed at the Jewish students and said: 'You cannot come to school tomorrow.' For two years we did not study המחלמב יתדרש שיגרמ ינאו .וחצונ םינמרגהש ינא םייחה דעצמב םלועל תוארהל הצוריתדרשש ולוכ-I survived the war and I feel that the Germans were defeated. In the March of the Living, I want to show the whole world that I survived
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 12 (82) ד3ש ל'רש( :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1942 :הד(ל ת,ש 3 . 1942 1943 . 3- . . . . " , , . . . 3 . " 1945 . . . , . , " . 1947 . . 130"." 10. 5- 3- , Israel Shaked (82)Year of birth: 1942 | Place of birth: Hungary | Delegation: Israel"I was born in the summer of 1942 in Hungary, the youngest brother in a family of 3 brothers and 3 sisters. In early 1943, my father was taken for forced labor at the ammunition factories. He contracted tuberculosis and passed away a few months later". Israel was one year old at the time of his death and never had the chance to know him."With the arrival of the Germans in Hungary, life changed beyond recognition. We were gathered in the ghetto in Debrecen, where we stayed for several months under harsh conditions, with violence, hunger, and disease. On one of the Saturdays, we were loaded onto a train on our way to Auschwitz. After several days, when we were deep into Poland, the three trains that had left Debrecen suddenly stopped. Today I know that the main reason for the stop was the Austrians' demand for laborers to help clear the rubble in the city due to the Allied bombings."We stayed in Vienna for several months and then began the death march towards the Mauthausen concentration camp.We were liberated on May 1945 from a sub-camp of Mauthausen and began our journey home. The journey lasted about two weeks, and when we arrived at the village, we quickly realized we were not wanted."We heard a rumor about a Jewish institution helping Jews to immigrate to Israel. After a year of preparations, we boarded the immigrant ship 'Knesset Yisrael.' The ship was captured by the British on the way, and we were deported to Cyprus. We stayed there for about a year, and in November 1947, we immigrated to Israel."There were 130 people in our large and illustrious family, and only 10 of us survived."Israel is married, a father of 3 children, and a grandfather of 5 grandchildren." וניה םייחה דעצמ הארמה יתמצוע עסמ םייחה רציו חכה תא לע םידוהיכ ונלש םע .תואלתה לכ ףאחצנל היחיו יח לארשי-The March of the Living is a powerful journey that shows the strength and vitality of our lives as Jews. The Jewish people live and will live forever.(84) ר)' רג ם((ח :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1940 :הד(ל ת,ש . " . , . . , " . . , . , . . . , " . . (15- 11 ) .1950- , . . . " . . . , . " . 7- . . ". Haim Gar Or (84)Year of birth: 1940 | Place of birth: Romania | Delegation: Israel"I was born in the city of Botosani in Romania, amidst severe anti-Semitism. I was the fifth of five brothers. My father was a builder and my mother was a seamstress.""During the war, my father was taken to a forced labor camp. The Gentiles took over the house, and my mother and the children were thrown out onto the street. We managed to survive thanks to my mother.""My mother continued to work and obtained a little food and water to survive. I was a very sick baby because of the hunger. They told my mother to stop feeding me, because I would die anyway. My mother did not give up on me.""The family survived and was reunited, but my father returned broken in body and mind and never recovered. The financial situation was difficult. My mother sent my brothers (ages 11-15) to Israel during the youth immigration as illegal immigrants and they ended up in Cyprus. My parents, my sister and I immigrated to Israel in 1950. We lived in a transit camp in Acre, where my father died.""It is important to me to participate in the March of the Living. As a Holocaust survivor, I am proud that I was able to survive and establish a family and a home in the State of Israel. It is important to me to revisit the places where my family was during the war. This is part of my story and my family's story.""I am very concerned about the rising anti-Semitism. I thought that after the Holocaust, the world would understand that there are things that should not happen. We must not hate each other. Since October 7, anti-Semitism has raised its head and we see that in many countries we are hated. It is very important that we show ourselves and explain ourselves to the world." םיאג תויהל ונילע ,ונלש םעבו תודהיב .דחוימו דיחי אוהש רומשל םיבייח ונחנא םירחאה יכ הז לע הז תאז ושעי אלונליבשב- We must be proud of Judaism. We are unique and special. We must protect each other because others will notdo it for us
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 13Felicja Weiss (89) Year of birth: 1935 | Place of birth: Poland | Delegation: Israel"In our building, the Germans set up a factory to manufacture leather boots, and my father worked there until May 1942, when we received a letter to report to the Gestapo offices. My father sent my mother, brother, and me to my aunt's house, and stayed to hide in the factory. At midnight, the Germans entered my aunt's house and sent us all to a barracks in the city. In great distress, I lost my mother and brother."In the morning, some of the Jews were released, and I saw my aunt with her six daughters walking towards the exit. I joined them. When we got to the registration desk, I realized that they would find out that I did not belong to them. I saw an open door to my left, I took advantage of the opportunity and crawled out. My father was waiting for me outside. He told me that my mother and brother had been taken to Auschwitz (from where they never returned). At home, he washed me, dressed me nicely and told me that I was seven years old. We survived the great Aktion.In March 1943 we moved to the Srodula ghetto. Father knew many people. He used to leave me with Polish families and came to visit me."In January 1944, he brought me to Ochowe (Katowice), to the Pasel family (who, after the war, were awarded the Righteous Among the Nations title). He told me to say my name was Helena Birentzka, and that my mother had died. Only at the end of the war, when no one came to pick me up, did the family conclude that I was Jewish. Since April 1944, my father has not come to visit me, and to this day I am waiting for him to return."In January 1945, the Germans left and the Russians arrived. I was free, and alone in the world.I immigrated to Israel in 1957, and I have two sons and four grandchildren.I defeated Hitler!"Shoshana Bogler (91)Year of birth: 1933 | Place of birth: Poland | Delegation: Israel“I was born on July 25, 1933 in the city of Lomza, Poland.There were five children in our family: Esther, the eldest, Deborah, me – Reizle, and after us Chaim and David.”"When the Germans invaded, Poland was annexed by the Soviet Union. Father was taken to forced labor – and we haven't heard from him since. We were left alone with Mother. The army ordered us to pack up quickly and we were deported to Siberia, and I remember my brothers and sisters and I crying. Mother sold the few belongings to buy us food, and sometimes good people gave us a piece of bread. In cold Siberia, Mother and my sister Esther worked hard, and we stayed in the apartment.""When the war was over, we were happy to leave. We went to Szczecin, Germany, which was devastated by the war. We lived in a ruined building, and to survive, we collected scraps from the bins. From 6 p.m. there was a curfew for Jews to go out on the street for fear of violence and murder. Even after everything we had been through, I experienced anti-Semitism again.""I joined the 'Hashomer Hatzair' group, started learning Hebrew, and traveled with the movement to Israel aboard the ship Exodus. When we arrived at the port of Haifa, the British arrested us, and we were returned to Germany to a detention camp. There I met my mother who took me to the "Kassel" DP camp.""Aboard the ship "Pan York" we sailed to Haifa again. This time we succeeded - we arrived in Palestine." "During this time, I met Shmuel, my late husband, who was also a Holocaust survivor. We were happily married for 72 years. We have two children, five granddaughters and nine great-grandchildren. This is our victory."(91) רלג)ב ה,ש)ש :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1933 :הד(ל ת,ש , . ,’ 1933 25- " , : . . ,’ – , ,. , , " . – . . . , , . . . , , . , " , , . . , . . , ,' ' " . , , . , ."" " " . – . - . . , , , ," , " , . 72 . ." . (89) 8(() ה(0(לפל'רש( :תחלשמ | 4(ל)פ :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1935 :הד(ל ת,ש. , , . ,1942 " , , . , " . . 6 , , . . – . . , . .1942 . , . 1943 " , . , 1944 . .( ) . , . , , . . 1944 ". . 1945 " . . 12 .' , ,1949 ". , . ,1957 "! " , " 1944 לירפא זאמ רקבל אב אל יבא ינא םויה דעו יתוארוזחיש הכחמ-My father hasn't come to visit me since April 1944, and to this day I'm waiting for him to return םינמאנ ויהת ,ונלש הנידמל ןאכ .הב םיאג ויהת תויהל םילוכי ונחנאםיישפוחו םיחמש-Be loyal to our country, be proud of it. Here we can be happy and free
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 14(97) ש3רפ :8)( :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1927 :הד(ל ת,ש . 13 . ' 1944 . . . , . '? ,' : . . , . 32 . 18 , . " . . . . , . . . . . 28 . ." , . . . , ,1949 , ! 64 20 . " ." Yosef Farkash (97)Year of birth: 1927 | Place of birth: Hungary | Delegation: IsraelYosef Farkash was born into a working-class family of 13 children. He studied at the local high school and suffered severe anti-Semitism and physical abuse. Around Passover 1944, he and his family were taken to the Nirjahza ghetto and on Shavuot eve they were sent by train to Auschwitz.Yosef was assigned to forced labor in the cement commando. "I lifted a sack on my back each time, and sometimes two sacks, and carried them to the second floor. One day I saw an empty sack and decided to make a vest to keep warm. One of the guards patted my stomach and asked: 'What, are you fat?' Then he discovered the cement sack. I was put on trial. The sentence was death by hanging, and while I was still with the rope around my neck, the defense attorney said that I was not yet 18 and that I was a workhorse. The sentence was commuted to 32 lashes. When they started beating my back, planes bombed the camp, and the order was given to disperse, and that's how I escaped the lashes." Yoseph participated in the death marches from Auschwitz to Buchenwald. "We walked for days in the snow and cold. At one point they put us on a cattle train. Every now and then the guard of the carriage woke up and fired a volley. In one of the volleys of fire, a bullet hit the side of the carriage and flew to my leg. I didn't report it and all that night I changed rags to treat the wound. When I was released from Buchenwald, I was suffering from terrible exhaustion due to the leg injury. I weighed 28 kg. They carried me by hand to the train and with the help of Rabbi Schechter I traveled to Switzerland, was hospitalized in a hospital and there I met Shoshana."Yosef's parents and nine siblings perished. He and his four sisters survived. In 1949, after immigrating to Israel, Yosef married Shoshana in Jaffa. They had three children, added three foster children to their family, and have 20 grandchildren and 64 great-grandchildren! רורחשב דאלוונכובמ .ג״ק 28 יתלקש יתמקהש רודה אוה לארשיבילש המקנה-When I was released from Buchenwald,I weighed 28 kg. The generation I raised in Israel is my revenge (98) 4מ,ז((' הלב :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1927 :הד(ל ת,ש , .12 1942 . , . , ." . . . , . ,' ,1944 " . . . , . "... , . , , , . . . ' . , , 1946 . , . . . . 15 , . 80 , . . Bella Eizenman (98)Year of birth: 1927 | Place of birth: Poland | Delegation: IsraelWhen the war broke out, Bella was 12 years old. "Our large house, in the ghetto area, was joined by several other families. In 1942, my father was taken to the Gestapo headquarters, which was opposite our house. He died under the torture of interrogations while we heard his screams. My brother died of hunger a year later.”To get a little food, Bella sewed saddles. Her fingers cut until they bled. Then she knitted various products and also completed her mother's quota, to be eligible for food stamps and not be sent to extermination.In 1944, after the liquidation of the Lodz ghetto, Bella was sent to the Auschwitz camp and passed Mengele's selection. Her mother was taken to the other side. "I tried to run after my mother, but a Jew who was there stopped me. The next day I asked someone if he knew where my mother was. He told me to look at the smoking chimneys.”Bella was left alone. She contracted tuberculosis and typhus, worked in a weapons factory, then was sent to Bergen-Belsen and from there, towards the end of the war, went on a death march. One night she left the marchers and hid with three of her friends in a barn. The Germans bayoneted the pile of straw in which they were hiding but did not discover them.Under cover of a blizzard, Bella crossed the border into the Czech Republic and was cared for in a village where the people thought she was a Polish orphan. A Jewish officer from the Russian army put her in touch with a group of Jewish orphans in Pilsen, where she met Zvi, who would later become her husband. Bella arrived to Israel in 1946. She became a nurse in Israel and, together with Zvi, started a family. They have two children, eight grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren”This March of the Living moves me, because it is taking place exactly 80 years from the day I escaped with my last strength from the death march. It is a march that is all about victory.” םא והשימ יתלאש הפיא עדוי אוה אוה .ילש אמא לכתסהל יל הרוה תובוראה לע...תונשעה-I asked someone if they knew where my mother was. He told me to look at the smoking chimneys
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 15Esther Kamil (93)Year of birth: 1932 | Place of birth: Romania | Delegation: IsraelEsther (Erika) was born to her father, Joseph Haimovich, and her mother, Feiga, the middle child between the eldest Shelly and the younger Shush. Her father was a merchant and the mother a housewife. The family lived in the Jewish area of Bucharest. The family lived a quiet and pleasant middle-class life. In 1940, an extreme right-wing government came to power in Romania, and its “Iron Guards (Garda de Fier)” allied themselves with the Nazis.”First, they banned Jewish children from attending government schools, and after a few weeks they began burning shops and homes, and even slaughtering Jews they managed to capture in slaughterhouses.””We hid in the attic. When an order was issued requiring father to go to forced labor paving roads, my mother, my sisters and I moved to Peschan, where my father's parents lived. Peschan was a kind of ghetto where the Jews were concentrated. After a while we returned to our home, I went back to study at the Jewish school and joined the Zionist Youth Movement.”Esther immigrated to Israel in 1950. Esther had three children, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild“I am happy that I am given the opportunity to march with other survivors from Israel and around the world. I also march in the name of my husband, Menachem Kamil, who was born in the village of Zhadova in northern Bukovina in 1924, survived the Holocaust, lost both of his parents, his eldest sister and other family members, and immigrated to Israel on the illegal immigrant ship Pan York (Kibbutz Galuyot). The British captured the ship and transferred it to Cyprus. We both decided to dedicate our lives to educating the children of Israel. The wonderful families we have established are our victorious answer, the survivors, to those who wanted to destroy us".Edgar Sluizer Minden (81) Year of birth: 1943 | Place of birth: Netherlands | Delegation: IsraelEdgar was born in 1943 in the Jewish ghetto of Amsterdam. As a baby, after his father was captured by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz, his mother gave him to a Christian family, who hid him in their home. "Aunt Amy," his rescuer, was a member of the Dutch underground and later received the title of Righteous Among the Nations. From Amy's home, after he was almost exposed by the Nazis because of a whistleblower, Edgar was transferred by the underground to the settlement of Penelo in southern Holland, and given to a childless couple. His father, Werner Joseph Minden, was sent to the Hailfingen-Tailfingen concentration camp, where he perished from starvation and typhus, just three months before the end of the war. Many of Edgar's family members were murdered in Auschwitz.After the war, his mother found him through lists published by the Red Cross. Edgar remained in the Netherlands, where he suffered from anti-Semitism, until the age of 15. Then he immigrated to Israel and settled with his mother and sisters on Kibbutz Gvar'am. When his mother remarried, the family moved to Ashkelon, and he studied at the Nitzanim Youth Village and later at the Horticulture and Nursery School in Petah Tikva. Edgar has a plant propagation nursery, where he works with his wife. For Edgar, contact with the earth has a healing value that helps him cope with his difficult life.Edgar served as a soldier in the Nahal paratroopers and fought in Israel's wars. He raised a large family in Israel, and this is his victory. (81) 4ד,(מ רז)'לש רגת' :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1943 :הד(ל ת,ש . 1943 , , , , , ," " . . , , , ," , . ,Hailfingen-Tailfingen) ) - , . . , , . , ." . . 15 ."" 15 , , , "" , . . . . " . (93) ל(מ3 רת8' :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1932 :הד(ל ת,ש , ' () . . . , . 1940 " . (Garda de Fier) , . , . " , , . , , . ." . . , .1950 . " , . ' ," , , ,1924 , .( ) . . , ." , םידליה לע ורסא הליחת יתבב דומלל םידוהיה ,םייתלשממה רפסה תועובש המכ ירחאו יתבו תויונח ףורשל ולחה טוחשל ףאו ,םירוגמ םידוהי םייחבטמ יתבבדוכלל וחילצהש-First, they banned Jewish children from attending schools, then they began burning shops and homes, and even slaughtering Jews they captured in slaughterhouses חכונ תויהל ןוצר יב שי ובש םוקמה ,ץיוושואב םלועמש ,יתחפשמ ינב ,םריכהל יתיכז אל .ודמשוהו ופסנ תתל ילש ךרדה וז דובכ םהל-I have a desire to be in Auschwitz, the place where my family members, whom I never met, perished. This is my way of paying my respects
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 16(86) גלפ (ם(רמ) הר(מ :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1939 :הד(ל ת,ש .1939 () . , 1942 . . , , , . . 1941 . ,5 ,1942 , (Drancy) . , ,1944 . , , . . . 69 , 1950 . , 1953 ,1962 . , “ . ,. , . 3- 2 Myra (Myriam) Pelleg (86) Year of birth: 1939 | Place of birth: France | Delegation: IsraelMyra was born in Paris in 1939. Her parents had arrived in the city ten years earlier, from Kalish, Poland. Her brother was five years older than her. In 1942, her parents placed her and her brother in Christian orphanages, along with three of their cousins. At the end of the war, Myra's aunt came there and brought them back to Paris, to the apartment of one of Myra's uncles. The little girl concluded that the war was over.Myra later discovered that in 1941 a French policeman had arrested her father because he did not carry identification documents. The father was sent to the Drancy transit camp and from there, in 1942, in transport number 5, he was transferred to Auschwitz. After her father's arrest, her mother's family left Paris and settled in a rented house near Lyon. In March 1944, following a tip-off, the Germans arrived at the house. Miriam's mother, her grandfather, his eldest son and his wife were sent in transport number 69 to Auschwitz. None of them returned from there.In December 1950, Myra joined her aunt's family, who had immigrated to Israel and settled on a kibbutz, where she had other family members. Myra had difficulty finding her place in the children's home and in July 1953 returned to her aunt's house in Paris and lived there until 1962, when she returned and immigrated to Israel.Myra has 2 children and 3 granddaughters. דועצל תשגרתמ ינא םוקמה ,ץיוושואב ינבמ םיבר וחצרנ ובש תא עיבהלו ,יתחפשמ .תונברוקה םע יתוהדזה תאז תושעל החמש ינא ךשמהה רוד ,יתדכנ םעונתחפשמ לש-I look forward to march in Auschwitz, the place where many of my family members were murdered. I am happy to do so with my granddaughter, the next generation of our family (84) 9(ב)פמ(ג (רה :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1940 :הד(ל ת,ש 10 , , . .1940 , 1941 " . , .' " . 3,000 , , . , . , . , . , . , ,1944 " . 1946 , 1945 . . . 1947 . . 2- 4 , 2 .1963 Harri Ghimpovici (84) Year of birth: 1940 | Place of birth: Romania | Delegation: IsraelHarri was born in Bukovina Romania, in the town of Gora Homora, on May 10, 1940. The persecution began about five months after he was born. In October 1941, all the Jews of the town were sent to Transnistria, including his family, who were taken to the Mogilev-Podolsk camp. "A year later, I was sent by train with my grandmother Bertha Hart to the Pechora camp. It was a starvation camp, to which 3,400 mothers and children were sent. At the last minute, my grandmother threw me off the train to a man standing nearby who knew my family. He returned me to my parents, who were not in the camp at the time, and saved me. My grandmother managed to escape from the camp, but was caught and returned to it. When she escaped the second time, she managed to reach the Mogilev camp, where I was with my parents. At that time, I fell ill with typhus, my grandmother caught it from me and died shortly after.””In 1944, after the Russian army liberated us, I wandered with my mother between the various camps. My father was drafted into the Red Army and fought in the war against Japan. In April 1945, we returned to my hometown, but it was not until April 1946 that my father was released from the Red Army and returned home. I was the only child who survived from my extended family. In 1947, my sister was born.”Harri immigrated to Israel in 1963. He has 2 daughters, 4 grandsons and 2 granddaughters. ןורחאה עגרב יתבס יתוא הכילשה םדאל תבכרהמ ריכהו התברקב דמעש אוה .יתחפשמ תא יירוהל יתוא ריזחהיתוא ליצהו-At the last moment, my grandmother threw me o the train to a man who was standing near her and knew my family. He returned me to my parents
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 17 יתוא ואצמ יירוה ,דואמ עורג בצמב לכב םיעצפ תכומ םייח ןיב ,ףוגהתוומל-My parents found me in a very bad condition, covered in wounds all over my body, hanging between life and deathSuzana Leibovici (85) Year of birth: 1940 | Place of birth: Romania | Delegation: IsraelSuzana was born in 1940 in Romania. Her father was drafted into a labor camp in Ukraine in 1943. Since he was a shoemaker, he was forced to make boots for the Germans. Suzana, her brother, and her mother were forced to go to an open camp every day. "Mother worked in the camp laundry and took us with her so that we could get one plate of soup a day. We had to sit quietly without talking or playing, with Germans threatening us all the time. We didn't know what was happening to Father. About a year later, Mother received a letter from the army announcing that Father had been killed in the bombing. As small children, we didn't understand why Mother was crying all the time. “After 11 months, the Russians and Americans liberated the area and the men who survived began to return to their families. A friend of our family said that he met my father in the hospital and that his leg had been amputated. My father, the friend said, wanted to tell the family that he was injured, but alive. My mother hardly believed him after mourning my father for a year. She left my brother and me alone at home and went out to look for him. My brother was 9 years old and I was 5. We had no food or water, and to eat something my brother would go to the market and steal apples. I suffered from lice and wounds and my brother was unable to help me.After a month, my mother returned with my father. They found me in a very bad condition, covered in wounds all over my body, hanging between life and death. My father said that first I had to be saved and only then would we deal with everything else. When I recovered, I took care of my father, cleaned his amputation wound and bandaged it, and since then I have always dreamed of studying medicine.”Suzana immigrated to Israel in 1973 and has one child, 3 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. (85) '9(ב)ב((ל ה,ז)8 :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1940 :הד(ל ת,ש . 1940 ' , . 1943 , . . . . , . . . . , , 11 " . , . , , . . , .5 9 . , . . . , " . , , , . , , ." 3 , 1973 . 4(96) 4)רמ)ש 8(ט() הז(ל1 :תחלשמ | :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1928 :הד(ל ת,ש . , , 80 . . " " 1941 , . . 15 (1943 ) . . . . " . . . ," . 1945 13 . . . , . . , . ."Alisa Vitis Shomron (96)Year of birth: 1928 | Place of birth: Poland | Delegation: IsraelAliza's childhood was uneventful. Her extended middle-class family numbered more than 80 people, working in a wool weaving and knitting factory. During the war, the family lived in the terrible conditions of the Warsaw Ghetto.In February 1941, Aliza joined “Hashomer Hatzair" and became involved in underground activities led by Mordechai Anielewicz, the commander of the Jewish Fighting Organization in the Warsaw Ghetto. Aliza risked her life by helping children who smuggled food into the ghetto and by passing weapon parts to the fighters. When the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising broke out (April 1943), she was only 15 years old and was not allowed to fight. Members of the underground smuggled her out of the ghetto so that she could tell the story of their heroism. Her father was unable to escape and perished in Majdanek. Aliza was captured and sent to Bergen-Belsen.”About two and a half years before the end of the war, we were sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The hunger was unbearable. One day, we were told to leave the barracks and march to the train station. We marched with our remaining strength about eight kilometers, got on the train, and traveled back and forth for about eight days. On April 13, 1945, the train stopped. The German crew boarded the locomotive and disappeared, and suddenly, American tanks appeared before us. The damned war was over!”Aliza left her mother and sister and smuggled herself aboard an illegal immigrant ship and immigrated to Israel. The family was reunited in Israel two years later. Aliza has three children, seven grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. "Marching in the March of the Living is the fulfillment of the will of my comrades in the Jewish Fighting Organization. I survived the inferno, and I am proud to have raised a family for the glory of the State of Israel".דעצמב דועצל תמשגה וז םייחה יירבח לש םתאווצ ידוהיה ןוגראל םחולה- Marching in the March of the Living is the fulllment of the will of my comrades in the Jewish FightingOrganization
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 18 (92) 8בל3 דל),ר' :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1933 :הד(ל ת,ש , . 1933 . ,1941 , . . , . , , . . , ,10 , . . 131 . . . , " ,1945 . . . . – . . . , , . ,12 , . , " , ,2020 . 54 , ,. . 4- , 2 Arnold Clevs (92) Year of birth: 1933 | Place of birth: Lithuania | Delegation: IsraelWhen the Germans invaded in 1941, Arnold's family was captured by Lithuanian soldiers who transported them to the infamous Ninth Fort. Arnold's mother convinced an officer that her husband had been an officer in the Lithuanian army during World War I, and they were released from prison.The family was sent later to a labor camp" the mother and sister were moved to the women's section, and Arnold and his father to the men's section.The father became responsible for running the camp. When he realized that SS soldiers were collecting children for extermination, he hid Arnold and four other childrenAfter two weeks, the children were transferred to Birkenau and sent straight to the gas chambers. At the very last minute, a resourceful boy overheard an SS soldier say he needed workers. That boy instructed the children to behave like adults and they were taken to work in the camp. Arnold was separated from his father and sent to Dachau in a famous group of 131 Lithuanian boys who were saved from the crematoria due to a malfunction in the facility. One night the American Air Force bombers destroyed the camp. All around – burned bodies. Some of the people were so hungry, they ate from the bodies. It was the most shocking sight he had ever seen. (Arnold's father was murdered in Dachau.)After the liberation, his mother and his sister found him in Budapest. Arnold was a dentist in the US for 54 years. In 2020, after the death of his wife Batya, Arnold immigrated to Israel and settled in Jerusalem, reuniting with his son and daughter, who had immigrated to Israel many years before him.Arnold has 2 children and 4 grandchildren. ליח ץיצפה דחא הליל יאקירמאה ריוואה ביבסמ .הנחמה תא .תופורש תופוג ויה םישנאהמ קלח ידכ דע םיבער ויה לוכאל ונפש ךכתופוגהמ-One night the American Air Force bombed the camp. There were burnt bodies all around(90) 4((טש,() הרש :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1935 :הד(ל ת,ש ( ) 1935 1939 . , , , 1941 . , ,1942 , . , . , . . , – " : . . "! , , . . , , , . . ,, , , . , . . , . , ." , ,1944 . . , , , 6 , 3 . 1947 . 3- . . , .Sara Weinstein (90) Year of birth: 1935 | Place of birth: Poland | Delegation: IsraelSara Weinstein was born in 1935 in Stefan, Poland to Benjamin and Miriam, and had five brothers and sisters. In September 1939, the Soviet Union occupied Stefan, and Sara's two older brothers were drafted into the Red Army. In July 1941, the Germans occupied the town, and the family fled and hid in the surrounding village. They were captured and transferred to the ghettoOn the eve of the liquidation of the ghetto, the family was smuggled to the home of a gentile in the nearby village, but after a few months in hiding they were discovered by the Ukrainians.The mother was murdered in front of Sara's eyes, while trying to protect her. Sara was wounded in the shoulder and back. The murderers set the house on fire and fled. The father shouted: "Whoever is alive - get up and run!" Sara, her father, her brother, and two of her sisters carried their mother's body to the forest and dug a grave for her. In the forest, they dug trenches with their hands, lined them with leaves, and at night covered themselves with leaves and branches. They drank water from wells they dug with their bare hands. Sara, wounded, feverish, lay on the ground for days and nights, alone, without a hug. Everyone was sure that she was dying. But the forest protected them. "We learned to play games in silence. For three years we hid in the forest, I wore only one dress. For many years afterward, I simply did not feel cold.”In the summer of 1944, after the Red Army liberated the area, Sara's father was murdered by Ukrainian villagers. Sara and her two sisters were transferred to Lena Kichler's orphanage. In 1947 she immigrated to Israel. Sara has 3 daughters, 6 grandchildren, and 3 great-grandchildren. הבש הפוקתה לכב רעיב ונרתתסה הלמש קר יתשבל תובר םינש .תחא טושפ ןכמ רחאלרוק יתשגרה אל-The entire time we were hiding in the forest, I only wore one dress. For many years afterward, I simply didn't feel cold
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 19Pnina Beredjick (82) Year of birth: 1943 | Place of birth: Croatia | Delegation: IsraelPnina was born during the war in Zagreb. During the war, Pnina's mother was imprisoned twice in a transit camp. Pnina's grandmother was a Christian who converted to Judaism in order to marry her Jewish grandfather. Because of this, her daughter (Pnina's mother) managed to escape the camp twice and not be sent to Auschwitz.“My mother managed to bring a seven-month-old baby out of the transit camp with her, the son of a distant relative who had asked my mother to look after him, but she (his mother) perished in Auschwitz and he became my eldest brother. It was a Christian lawyer who rescued my mother a second time, married her, and that's how I was born."At the end of the war, my mother's fiancé, a Jewish doctor who was thought to be dead, unexpectedly returned, but it turned out that he had been hiding in the forests and was still alive. He expressed his desire to marry my mother and adopt me as a baby, but she chose to stay with my father out of a sense of obligation to the one who had saved her life.I remember the stories my mother and grandmother told me about shooting Jews in the street for no reason, and about what rioters called 'Sylvester's Fun.' [Sylvester is Hebrew for the secular New Year's Eve celebration.] The 'fun' was putting Jews on the roof of some house and shooting them so that they would fall to the ground. A relative of ours was murdered this way. My mother and grandmother wore the Yellow Badge and suffered from constant food shortages. My aunt and her four children hid until they were caught and sent to Auschwitz."When the war ended, I was two years old. My parents divorced. In 1949, we immigrated to Israel, my mother, grandmother and four children. I have three children and 12 grandchildren.Ella (Elka) Katz (85)Year of birth: 1939 | Place of birth: Lithuania | Delegation: IsraelElka Katz was born in 1939 in Lithuania – an only child. In November 1941, the Germans moved her and her family to the local ghetto. One day, the Germans ordered all the Jews of the village to board the trains for deportation. Elka's parents began to flee, but her mother was murdered on the spot.”My father grabbed me and fled while holding me. He had a gold coin that he had sewn to his shirt, and luckily the bullet fired at him hit the coin and thus his life was saved.”“We ran towards the forest, but as we were running away I fell from his hands. After a while he noticed that I had fallen, he retraced his steps to save me while escaping from the German gunfire. He hid in a threshing floor for a few hours and then fled deep into the forest, where he met his mother, sister and cousins, who also managed to escape.” The family hid in the forests for two years, in the snow and cold, under the open sky. Elka's father joined the partisans and at night would go with the other men to blow up trains. The family members were forced to flee from place to place so they wouldn't be found, and continued to live in the cold and under very difficult conditions.”My family members were murdered in the ghettos, forests, and camps. My grandparents and my maternal uncle were murdered in Auschwitz. In 1945 we moved to Germany and stayed for three years in a displaced persons camp. From there, when I was 10 years old, we immigrated to Israel.”Elka has 4 children, 12 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. Three generations are participating in the 2025 March of the Living – Elka, her daughter and granddaughter. (85) 9. (ה3ל') הל' :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1939 :הד(ל ת,ש . 1939 1941 . . , . . . , . . , . , . , , , . , , . . , . . , " 1945 . ,10 . ." 2025 . 4- 12 , 4 . , – 3(82) 3(זדרב ה,(,פ :תחלשמ | :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1943 :הד(ל ת,ש . . , ( ) " , . , , , . , . ,. " ' , '' .' . . . " . .'' : , , 1949 . . . 12- , . ." דועצל יל בושח םייחה דעצמב הלא םימיב דחוימב תחצנמ שוחלו החפשמ יל שישכילשמ הנידמו-It's important to me to march, especially these days, and to feel victorious when I have my own family and country תופתתשהה םייחה דעצמב היווח ירובע איה רקיעב ,הקומע תוימשיטנאה ללגבתיוושכעה-Participating in the March of the Living is a profound experience for me, mainly because of the current anti-Semitism
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 20(83) ((ב.רה) ר,((טש ה(לג :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1941 :הד(ל ת,ש , 1941 , , . , , , . . . . " . ." , , . . , , . , . . , , . - . , , , . . , , , . ."" , . . . 6- 4 1962 . , Galia Steiner (Harkabi) (83) Year of birth: 1941 | Place of birth: Belarus | Delegation: IsraelGalia was born as Hadassah in 1941 in Belarus, during the height of the war, a younger sister to Ruth. Her father, Tanchum, owned a flour mill, and the family was wealthy and prestigious, but her father was forced to enlist in the Russian army and was killed in the war.Galia was sent with her mother, Shifra, and her older sister, to the Novogrudok Ghetto. Many Jews were murdered in the ghetto. The family found refuge in the basement of the house of the farmer Bobrovsky, one of the Righteous Among the Nations who also saved many other Jews. Galia fell ill, coughed and cried, and so she was sent with Bobrovsky's little girl to play in the field and not give up those hiding. It seems that one of the neighbors had informed on the farmer. The Germans came to the house and burned it down with all its inhabitants. Those hiding perished in the fire, the farmer, his wife and children were murdered. Galia and the farmer's little daughter were saved, and the villagers brought them to a nuns' orphanage.Galia lived with the nuns for two difficult years filled with hunger, disease, and most of all, fear. After the war, a Jewish partisan came to the town, who had promised Galia's mother at the beginning of the war to check on her. She had heard about the Jewish girl in the orphanage, recognized Galia, but because she was young and wanted to start a new chapter in her life, she chose to leave her there. Some time later, a childless Jewish couple from Vilna heard about the orphan from Novogrudok, who was already four years old. They adopted her and continued on to the DP camp in Leipheim, Germany. Galia and her adoptive parents, Zviya and Chaim Wilensky, immigrated to Israel on the ship "Kedma". In the orphanage, she was called Galina, so her adoptive parents Steiner changed her name to Galia. In 1962, she married Zeev Steiner and they had four daughters and six grandchildren. One of her daughters is named Ruth, after her sister. ןישלה םינכשה דחא ריתסהש רכיאה לע ואב םינמרגה .ונתוא לע ותוא ופרשו ותיבלויבשוי לכ-One of the neighbors had informed on the farmer who saved us. The Germans came to the house and burned it down with all its inhabitants(87) רשש 4(ר((' :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1937 :הד(ל ת,ש .1937 12- . ,1939 , , . , ,(HELENA KIRSZENBERG LEWKOWICZ) ,((DAVID LEWKOWICZ , . . , . , ,' . . , , . , " . , , ." . , , , " . , . . . , . ." . , " . 1948 4 . . ." , , . 1956 . : 2 , 1963 . 7- . ." " Irene Shashar (87) Year of birth: 1937 | Place of birth: Poland | Delegation: IsraelWhen the Germans occupied Poland in September 1939, Irene was almost two years old. She and her family were sent to the Warsaw Ghetto. One day, she went out with her mother, Helena, to look for food, and when they returned, they found her father, David, on the kitchen floor with blood flowing from his neck. The Germans had murdered him. Her mother realized that they might be next in line. Equipped with Irene's bag and doll, Lalichka, they crawled on all fours through the ghetto's sewer system, overcoming the terrible stench and the rats.They went out to the Aryan area of Warsaw and removed the yellow stars. Michael Topilski, her mother's nephew, was already waiting. They went to the house where her mother, Irene and her doll hid in a small closet. "Mother hugged and kissed me, asked me to be a good girl, said she would bring me food and a chamber pot, and asked me to be quiet all the time.” Irene's mother, who did not look Jewish, worked as a cleaner. Every time she felt danger, they moved to another house. "But I was cold, I was in the dark and I couldn't see anything. We went through eight hiding places. I stayed alive thanks to her. It was only when the war ended and the hell ended that I finally saw a smile on my mother's face.”After the war, they traveled to Paris with relatives. Her mother worked as a cleaner in a hotel, and Irene went to an orphanage. "Every Sunday she came to visit and brought sweets to me and the other children.” But after March 4, 1948 she never saw her again. “The director of the orphanage took me to a cemetery, where I learned that my mother had died of a heart attack.”Yitzhak Topilsky, Michael's father, took Irene to Peru where she grew up. In 1956 she moved to New York and studied for a degree in linguistics. In 1963 she immigrated to Israel, married and had 2 children: David, named after her father, and Ilana, named after her mother. A grandmother of seven, Irene wrote a book called "I Defeated Hitler.” הבובבו קיתב תודיוצמ ,הק'צילאל ,ןירייא לש ךרד עברא לע ולחז לש בויבה תכרעמ יראה עבורה לא וטגההשרו לש- Equipped with a bag and Irene's doll, Lalichka, they crawled on all fours through the ghetto's sewer system into the Aryan quarter ofWarsaw
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 21Dvora Weinstein (89) Year of birth: 1936 | Place of birth: Ukraine | Delegation: IsraelDvora Weinstein (Rosenberg) was born in 1936 in Khotin, Ukraine. Her childhood was happy, but in 1941 everything changed. War broke out, Khotin was occupied, and her house caught fire. Her mother ran into the house and managed to save the sewing machine head. The deportation to Transnistria began with a long march, without water or food. Corpses were left on the side of the road. At one point, parents were told that their children would be loaded onto carts to make the convoy lighter. The mother put Dvora and her sister Riva into the cart. Dvora, sensing danger, grabbed her sister's hand and jumped out of the cart with her. The next day, it was learned that all the children in the carts had been murdered.The deportees crossed the Dniester River on rickety rafts, and many fell and drowned. Then they continued walking in the deep snow. One night, at an abandoned train station, many froze to death. Their bodies, half-naked, including that of her two-and-a-half-year-old brother, were loaded into a wheelbarrow in the morning, without a word or a tear. After that, Dvora's grandparents also died.Soldiers, who were celebrating Christmas, wanted to have fun and ordered the Jews to stand in the cold. Anyone who fell was shot. Dvora moved a lot to survive, but Riva could not move and her legs froze. The mother continued walking, carrying Riva in her arms. The journey ended in Popovich. The mother went out to look for work. Dvora, five and a half years old, was left to look after Riva. One day Riva did not wake up. When her mother returned with some food, Dvora told her: "Riva doesn't need food anymore.”The two wandered between villages until liberation in 1944. After the war, they reunited with her wounded father and set off for Romania. Dvora immigrated to Israel along with 500 children. Today, Dvora has a wonderful family – 2 children, 5 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren.Giora (George) Shefi (94)Year of birth: 1931 | Place of birth: GermanyDelegation: IsraelGeorge (Spiegelglas) Shefi was born in Berlin in 1931. When he was one year old, his parents divorced and the relationship with his father was severed. George was almost 7 years old during the Kristallnacht pogrom in November 1938. He remembers that his mother forbade him to leave the house that day. A few days later, when he left his house, he learned that his school had burned to the ground: "I was shocked by the extent of the destruction. I remember the hat shop that belonged to a Jew. The shop windows were smashed and all the hats were scattered in the street. The stationery shop that belonged to a mixed-race couple was also smashed, and they wrote on the sidewalk that the shop belonged to a Jewish pig who married a German pig.” George's mother decided to send him at the age of 7 on the children's transport, the "Kindertransport," out of Nazi Germany. "I saw my mother for the last time at the train station in West Berlin. In January 1943, she was sent to Auschwitz, where she was murdered with her sister.”George arrived in Britain and was forced to move from house to house several times. The war years were a difficult experience for him because he could not find his place. At the age of 13, he took advantage of the opportunity to board a ship and sail to the United States. He found himself alone again. Later, he met his uncle, who convinced him to immigrate to Israel. Indeed, in 1949, at the age of 17, George immigrated to Israel and enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces. Later, he started a family and today he has 3 daughters, 6 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren. (94) (פש ('גר)'ג) 'ר)(ג :'0)מ 9ר' | 1931 :הד(ל ת,ש :תחלשמ .1931 () , . .7 ,1938 , , . . : . . , . , 7 . , 1943 . . , . . . 13 , . ,17 ,1949 , . . . 2- 6 , 3(89) 4((טש,() הר)בד :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1936 :הד(ל ת,ש . 1936- () . 1941- , . , , . . , . . , . . . , . . , , . , , , . . , , . – . , . , . . , . .' . , " : , .". .1944- . , 1948 . 500 " : ". . 9- 5 , 2 – הנש םישיש ירחא דעצא הקיתש לש םע םייחה דעצמב ופא לע ,יתבו ינברלטיה לש ותמחו-After sixty years of silence I will march on the March of the Living with my son and daughter, against Hitler's rage and fury םעפב ימא תא יתיאר תנחתב הנורחאה .ןילרב ברעמב תבכרה איה 1943 ראוניב םש ,ץיוושואל החלשנהתוחא םע דחי החצרנ-I saw my mother for the last time at the train station in West Berlin. In January 1943 she was sent to Auschwitz, where she was murdered along with her sister
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 22(88) לגר)ב 'גר)'ג :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1937 :הד(ל ת,ש , .1937 . 33 , , 1940- . , ' 1942 . . , . , , . . . . 1943 . .1949 . , , . 7- , 12 , 4 . , . ,George Borgel (88)Year of Birth: 1937 | Place of Birth: Tunisia | Delegation: Israel George Borgel was born in the city of Tunis in 1937. His father, who was dedicated to his family, was sent to forced labor camps and passed away when he was only 33 years old. George clearly remembers his childhood, during which he experienced poverty and hunger. From 1940, the lives of Jews in Tunis became difficult. However, when the Germans entered in 1942, the situation worsened.The Jews, who were under the rule of Vichy France, which implemented Nazi policies, suffered from persecution and discrimination.“The Germans were guarding the entrances to the street, in the building next to ours there were stairs, and as a child, I cried out of fear. One of the German soldiers kicked me and threw me down all the stairs. To this day, I still have the scar on my leg.”In May 1943, Tunisia was liberated by the Allied forces. After the war, George recalls how they searched for food that the Americans had left in trenches near the lake close to his home.George immigrated to Israel with his brother in 1949. The move marked the beginning of a new path, full of challenges but also of hope.George now lives in Rishon Lezion. He has 4 children, 12 grandchildren, and 7 great-grandchildren.His family is a source of pride, and he often shares stories from his childhood, passing on memories of the past and instilling in future generations the values of family, survival, and inner strength. םירמוש ויה םינמרגה ןיינבב .בוחרה תוסינכב ויה ונילא דומצה יתיכב דליכו תוגרדמ םילייחה דחא .דחפמ יתוא ףיעהו יב טעב םויה דע .תוגרדמה לכמלגרב תקלצ יל הראשנ- The Germans were guarding the entrances to the street. as a child I cried out of fear. One of the soldiers kicked me and threw me down all the stairs. I still have the scar onmy leg(95) ר38,(פ ה(ר' :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1930 :הד(ל ת,ש ' 1930 1940 .( ) . , , 1944 . , 1944 . . , . "" " , 1,000 . . . , .350 , , . , , 26 " , , , " " ."... , . , " . " .1945 . , , . , , ,1949 , . . 10- 9 , Arie Pinsker (95) Year of birth: 1930 | Place of birth: Romania | Delegation: IsraelArie Pinsker was born in 1930, in Nagyvárad in northern Transylvania. In March 1944, the German army invaded Hungary, and two months later the city's Jews, including Arie's family, were concentrated in ghettos.In mid-May 1944, the Germans began sending Hungarian Jews en masse to Auschwitz. A few minutes before the selection for the gas chambers, Arie was still holding on to his father's coat, but in the great hurry they separated and he was lost among the thousands of people there.At that time, the Germans gathered boys who were left without their parents and forcibly participated in an "experiment" designed to test the length of time boys could survive on different types of food. "The Germans wanted to exploit the children until they died. I was there for four months. Out of about 1,000 children, only about 350 survived…I was destined for death, but fate would have it that they sent me and my brother, who was two years older than me, to hard labor in the subcamps in Dachau.”“I worked there with 26 other boys, the only ones who survived the children's block in Auschwitz, in the terrible cold, with only thin prisoner clothes on my body, no sweater and no coat. Actually, with nothing...".Arie was liberated by Allied forces in May 1945. "I don't remember the moment of liberation. I was completely exhausted, unable to react, and I couldn't understand that I was free.”After the war, Arie and Yitzhak, the brothers who survived the Landsberg camp, met their older brother Yosef. Together they immigrated to Israel. Arie fought in the War of Independence. Afer his discharge from the army, he was one of the founders of Moshav Yogev.Arie has three sons, 9 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. תא רכוז אל ינא יתייה .רורחשה עגר תוחוכ תסיפאב תלוכי ילב ,תטלחומ יתלוכי אלו ,ביגהלישפוח ינאש ןיבהל-I don't remember the moment of liberation. I was completely powerless, unable to react, and I couldn't understand that I was free
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 23Anna Richter (87)Year of Birth: 1938 | Place of Birth: Slovakia | Delegation: IsraelAnna Richter was born in 1938 in Slovakia.Until 1941, she lived on a family farm that her father managed, until the Slovaks nationalized their farm, and the family moved to Humena.In 1943, her parents smuggled Anna to her uncle's in Ko!ice and her sister Kati to her uncles in Nove"a.After the Germans invaded Hungary, her uncle smuggled her back to her parents, in Humena. They then decided to flee to the forest. Over the next ten months, they wandered through Slovakia in the forests and found shelter in small villages.“On January 27, 1945, a farmer from the village informed us that the Russians had liberated the area... The journey back home, a distance of about 400 km, took several weeks. By a miracle, all of our immediate family survived, but many of our uncles and cousins perished, some in the camps and others from the hardships of the journey.”“We returned home to Humena, and I immediately started first grade. In April 1949, my sister left home and immigrated to Israel as part of the Youth Aliyah program. After completing my engineering degree at the Bratislava Technical Institute,I immigrated to Israel in 1964. Three months after my arrival in Israel, I married my beloved, Ernest-Isaiah, whom I had met in Slovakia during my studies, and with whom I lived for more than fifty years until he passed away in 2016.”“In Israel, I initially worked as an engineer and later as an accountant until I retired in 2005. During our marriage, we raised three children and twelve grandchildren together.”Michael Kupershtein (84) Year of Birth: 1941 | Place of Birth: Moldova | Delegation: IsraelMichael was born in 1941 in Chișin$u, Moldova. When the war reached them, rockets struck their building. His father was enlisted in the army at the time. His mother fled the building with Michael in her arms. They boarded a train, but German planes bombed it, killing almost everyone. His mother ran with Michael into the forest, where others were also hiding.The group wandered through the forests for a week, day and night, without food, surviving only on whatever they could find. In Chernivtsi, Michael and his mother were discovered and sent to the ghetto. From there, they fled with the help of partisans reaching Uzbekistan.Michael's father escaped and returned to the Soviet Union. He forged a document, and set out to search for his family. However, the forged document was discovered, and he was sentenced to ten years of imprisonment in Siberia. He was released only after Stalin’s death in 1953. The family reunited and settled in Chernivtsi, where Michael’s sister was born.In 1966, Michael married Faina. In 1972, they immigrated to Israel with their two children. His son, Tal Kupershtein, a volunteer paramedic, was injured in a car accident and remains paralyzed.Michael’s grandson, Bar Kupershtein, was working as a security guard at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023. Under heavy fire, he evacuated wounded people, saving many lives before being abducted to Gaza. As of the writing of this text, Bar remains in captivity, and we pray for his return.About a week after October 7, Michael suffered a stroke. “I worked for 20 years in the Israel Police. I’ve been through difficult times and survived. Now, it feels like a second Holocaust. I constantly think about Bar—he’s only 23. I want only one thing: for all the hostages to come home so we can get our lives back.”(84) 4((טשרפ)3 ל'.(מ :תחלשמ | :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1941 :הד(ל ת,ש . , 1941 " . , . . . , , " 14 , . ." , , , . , , , , ' . , , . . , . , , .1944 . 10 ,' .(1953) . 1972 1966 , , . . , 2023 7- . , . . , " . 7- . . 20 .23 , . : ." (87) רט.(ר ה,ח :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1938 :הד(ל ת,ש , 1938 20- " , 1941 . , . , . , , , 1943 " ," " . , ,1943 . ,1944 " , . , . , , . , " 1945 27- . . . . ," 400- , , . , .' " 1949 . .1964 ,- , .2016 , , .2005 ." םייחה דעצמב האור ינא םעה לש טספינמה תא םלועלו ומצעל ידוהיה אלו חכשנ אל .ולוכ .חוכשל שיאל ןתינ דעצמב תופתתשהה הלודג תוכז איה םייחהירובע לודג דובכו-I see the March of the Living as the manifesto of the Jewish people to itself and to the whole world. We will not forget, and we will not allow anyone to forget ,לאכימ לש ודכנ דבע ,ןייטשרפוק רב תביסמב חטבאמכ אוה שא תחת .הבונ תא ליצהו םיעוצפ הניפ דע ,םיבר לש םהייחהזעל ףטחנש- Michael’s grandson, Bar Kupershtein, worked as a security guard at the Nova music festival. Under re, he evacuated the wounded saving many lives before beingabducted to Gaza
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 24(88) )'ל ר('מ ל'רש( ברה :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1937 :הד(ל ת,ש 1937 . 1942 . . , , , . , , , . . , . , . . , 1944 . , . ' , . . . , . . ' , – . . . 1945 ." ,- 2003–1999 2005 .- . ,- " " .". Rabbi Israel Meir Lau (88) Date of Birth: 1937 | Place of Birth: Poland | Delegation: IsraelIsrael Meir Lau was born in 1937 in Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland. In 1942, most of the city's Jews were deported to Treblinka, including his father, Moshe Chaim Lau, the rabbi of Piotrkow, where he perished.5 year old Israel escaped deportation together with his mother, with the help of Jews and non-Jews. They hid with other Jews in the attic of an apartment in the city. His mother gave him honey cookies that she had baked in advance, to prevent him from crying. The first years of the war were spent by the mother and her two sons (Israel and Naftali) in the Piotrkow ghetto in conditions of great deprivation. In November 1944, the Germans conducted an Aktion in the ghetto. His mother managed to have him and his brother Naftali sent together to Częstochowa (and from there they were sent to Buchenwald), but she perished."At the entrance to the camp, I was hidden in a sack of belongings". A Russian prisoner named Fyodor Mikhailichenko helped him survive. "The conditions in the camp were extremely harsh – extreme hunger, forced labor, and abuse by the guards. The American soldiers who liberated the camp were surprised to find such a young child there".In 1945, Israel and Naftali immigrated to Israel. Israel studied at many institutions for Torah and Talmud study. He later served as the Chief Rabbi of Netanya and Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel. In 2005, he was awarded the Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement for his contributions to society and the state .Rabbi Lau was the Chief Rabbi of Israel, a Co-Founder of the International March of the Living, has met with world leaders, and published his autobiography "Do Not Lay Your Hand on the Boy." He serves as Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council and continues to work to commemorate the Holocaust and strengthen unity among the people. הנחמל הסינכב ואיבחה דלוונכוב ךותב לארשי תא יסור ריסא .קש דורשל ול עייס םימויאה םיאנתבהנחמה לש-At the entrance to the camp I was hidden in a sack.A Russian prisoner helped me survive(85) ר,מ(8 הד1 :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1940 :הד(ל ת,ש . , .- , - . . , . , . , , . . , . . . . , . . 300- . , . . , . . , . . . , . . . 17 . 62 , , , 21 . . 10 , 3 . , , . Ada Simner (85)Date of Birth: 1940 | Place of Birth: Poland | Delegation: Israel“When the Germans bombed Bialystok, my parents boarded a train, and on the way, they saw cities and villages burning, so they decided to continue traveling to Russia.”"We arrived in the city of Saratov. My parents were both teachers, so they were sent to a kolkhoz where there was a school. Two years later, when the Germans besieged Leningrad, the men in the area, including my father, were drafted. From then on, we had no news of him. We only learned of his death when we immigrated to Israel. My father’s entire family perished, except for one sister, and from my mother’s family, only one sister survived."After the war, we returned to Poland. The devastation was enormous….My mother met a distant relative named Israel [a partisan] who later became her partner. He brought us into this group, and together, we organized with members of the Jewish Brigade and the Bricha movement.”".. To reach Austria, we crossed the Alps on foot. From there, members of the Jewish Brigade helped us into Italy. We spent two years in the displaced persons' camp in Santa Maria di Luca. My mother, Zehava, established a Hebrew school there for the children of the survivors.”"When we arrived in Israel, I was seven years old…At the age of 17, I began studies at a nursing school, a profession in which I worked until I was 62. Since then, I have volunteered at the clinic in Ein Vered. At the age of 21, I met my husband, Bentzi, and we had three children, ten grandchildren, and so far, two great-granddaughters."Participating in the March of the Living with my granddaughter is very emotional for me. It is a moment that symbolizes continuity and the responsibility to pass the memory on to future generations." דעצמב תופתתשהה ,יתדכנ םע דחי ,םייחה .דואמ יתוא תשגרמ למסמש עגר והז תאו תויכשמהה תא תא ריבעהל תוירחאהםיאבה תורודל ןורכיזה-Participating in the March of the Living with my granddaughter is very emotional for me. It is a moment that symbolizes continuity and the responsibility to pass the memory on to future generations
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 25Allan Hall (90)Year of Birth: 1935 | Place of Birth: PolandDelegation: Miami-Dade, USAAllan was born in 1935 in Krakow, Poland. At the start of the war, in September 1939, his father insisted they flee to the Soviet side, while his mother thought otherwise. “She had faith in their German friends and never imagined anything bad could happen.”In 1939, attempting to flee from the Nazis, Allan’s family walked 200 miles to the east, where Allan was the first child picked up in the children’s pogrom in the Lvov Ghetto. With false identity papers, the family fled to Warsaw, where Allan and his mother were arrested and taken to the train station to be sent to Treblinka. When the trains briefly stopped running, Allan was taken to an orphanage in the Warsaw Ghetto. “A doctor helped my parents forge documents that served as proof that an illness forced us to move to Krakow with other patients.”"My father pretended to be an Aryan. He rented an office in the building that housed the German Air Force headquarters. My mother and I hid in that office for two years in a small closet". During the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, the family crawled under sniper fire to a bomb shelter where Allan’s mother gave birth to a baby boy, Andrew.When the war ended, Allan’s father was arrested. Knowing the Soviets would hold the children as hostages, Allan’s mother instructed eleven-year-old Allan to take the baby and make his way to Palestine. The family was finally reunited and immigrated to the United States in 1947. Allan is a graduate of the University of Florida School of Law.(90) ל)ה 4ל' :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1935 :הד(ל ת,ש " ,- :תחלשמ , . 1935 ,1939 " . , ." , 200 . , . . " . ." . . (1944) . , . . , . 11- .1947 . היה ילש אמיאל הירבחב ןומא איה .םינמרגה ללכ הבשח אל ונלש החפשמלשער הנואי-My mother had faith in their German friends and never imagined anything bad could happenAliza Hershkovich (81) Year of Birth: 1944 | Date of birth: Romania | Delegation: IsraelAliza's family escaped from the city of Iași in Romania after the great pogrom carried out against the city's Jews. On that fateful, bitter day, the Jews of the city were gathered in the main square, where the Romanians beat them with sticks, rifle butts, and whips. Many were put on death trains, crammed into cars without food or water, traveling back and forth in the intense heat until they breathed their last. Aliza's mother was brutally beaten while protecting her 10-year-old daughter with her own body; Aliza's older sister was not yet born at that time. The mother was left disabled, physically and mentally scarred.Aliza was born in Bucharest, a year before the end of World War II. At that time, the Allies were bombing the city because Romania had joined the Axis powers and collaborated with the Nazis. Whenever air raid sirens pierced the air, Aliza's parents and sister would rush to the nearby shelter, carrying her in their arms. This repeated every time the sirens sounded throughout the entire year, until the end of the war.In 1951, the family immigrated to Israel and was transferred to the "Sha'ar Aliyah" immigrant absorption camp in Haifa. From there, they moved to a transit camp in central Israel. Due to her mother's severe health condition, Aliza was sent to Kibbutz Galil Yam, where she found a supportive, warm, value-based, and loving home.Aliza enlisted in the IDF in 1962. After her discharge, she married Asher (of blessed memory), and together they built a family in Bat Yam. In 1981, the family joined a group that established the village of Shekef in the Eastern Lachish region. In 2013, Aliza moved to Ashkelon, where she volunteers in several organizations.Aliza has three children and seven grandchildren.(81) 9(ב)3שרה הז(ל1 :תחלשמ | :'0)מ 9ר' | 1944 :הד(ל ת,ש . , . , , , . , . , . , . , . . , 1951 , . . , , , .1962 " . ," 1981 2013 . . . 7- 3 התכוה הזילע לש המא רשאכ הבר תוירזכאב תב התִב לע הפוגב הנגה הריכבה התוחא ,רשעה הרתונ םאה .הזילע לש תינפוג העוגפ ,הכנ תישפנו-Aliza's mother was brutally beaten while protecting her 10-year-old daughter, who was Aliza's older sister. The mother was left disabled, physically and mentally scarred
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 26 (86) 8(3,רפ הרברב :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1938 :הד(ל ת,ש :תחלשמ , ,1942 . , " . , ,1943 . . , ." . , . , . , . , . , : . , . " .." , , . " . 1946 . ." ,1961 . 1958 ,1949. Barbara Frankiss (86)Year of Birth: 1938 | Place of Birth: PolandDelegation: United KingdomIn early 1942, Barbara remembers her father being transported to what would be the first of eight concentration camps. She and her mother were then smuggled out of the ghetto to find a place to hide. In November of 1943, she recalls being told to go outside with everyone else, after a few months of hiding.“I heard screaming and shooting but did not see who was shot as the grown-ups were blocking my view. My mother was one of those shot.”One of Barbara’s earliest memories is hiding behind a wardrobe belonging to a Polish family in Warsaw, who protected her from the Nazis. When the hostilities increased, the family feared the worst was coming, and while Barbara was asleep, they moved her in a tram, where she woke up alone in a field, cold and hungry. Two boys found her and brought her to the police. At just 4 years old, Barbara recalled her parents' life-saving instructions: To live, she would have to lie about her Jewish identity.The Gestapo questioned Barbara. Since she could recite Catholic prayers and kept her surname and parents’ names hidden, she convinced them her name was Maria.A policeman, Antoni Nowacki, and his wife brought Barbara to their home and treated her as their daughter. “I told them about my background, including the names of my parents and the fact that I was Jewish. She and her husband kept me with them throughout the war despite that.”Barbara’s father survived the Holocaust (and eight camps), and upon his liberation, he returned to Warsaw to find his daughter. In April 1946, he succeeded. “He found me, and this moment was a very emotional one. I kept in close contact with my adopted family.”Barbara’s father and stepmother returned to Warsaw in 1949, and in 1958, they emigrated to New York. In 1961, Barbara married and moved to London, England.תוחרצ יתעמש אל לבא תויריו ,הרונ ימ יתיאר םירגובמהש ןוויכמ תא יל וריתסה הגרהנ ימא .השענה עוריא ותואב-I heard screaming and shooting but did not see who was shot as the grown-ups were blocking my view. My mother was one of those shot (84) 3טפ הב(ב' :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1940 :הד(ל ת,ש , :תחלשמ 1940 , " . ,1941 "... , . , , . . . . " , , . , . . , , ." , . , . " . , , , ." . , , , " . , , . ." Aviva Ptack (84)Year of Birth: 1940 | Place of Birth: LithuaniaDelegation: Montreal, CanadaAviva Ptack was born as Leba Deitch in 1940 in Kovno, Lithuania, to Leah and Abba Deitch. “Lovingly they gave me life, and lovingly they saved my life…Yet I have no memories of them.”In 1941, the Nazis ordered the Jews of Kovno to relocate to a nearby ghetto. Her parents underwrote the purchase of a farm for a gentile couple in a community in which no one knew them — on the condition that they take Leba/Aviva along with their own family. “After the war, I was moved 4 times before my adoptive mother and I found each other.”Her biological parents were killed in the Kovno ghetto. “Growing up, I always thought my adoptive mother was my biological mother….It was only at the time I was getting married that I discovered my mother was not my biological mother, and my father was my biological uncle.”After both parents died, Aviva found out her “father” was an inmate at Dachau for 3 years.Aviva knew that her adoptive parents had survived the Holocaust but knew little of their past. But growing up in her home, “the Holocaust was a subject never to be discussed.”She describes a happy and secure childhood, attending school, spending time in the Laurentians in the summers, dating and eventually meeting the man she would marry, Morty Ptack. They have two children and four “amazing” grandchildren.To this day, even after sharing her Holocaust story with many students, Aviva still finds it difficult to do so – but continues with her efforts.”I want to try and reach some young people who might be able to make a difference in this crazy world that we live in. If I get two or three at a time, then I feel like I’ve done something to make a difference.” עיגהל הצור ינא רתויש המכל םה ילוא .םיריעצ יוניש ללוחל ולכוי ףרוטמה םלועבוב םייח ונאש-I want to try and reach some young people who might be able to make a dierence in this crazy world that we live in
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 27Benjamin Albalas (88)Year of Birth: 1937 | Place of Birth: GreeceDelegation: European March of the Living Benjamin Albalas was born in Athens in 1937. He and his family managed to survive the war with the help of a close family friend, Greek Doctor Panos Macheras, who was also a member of the resistance. He warned the family about Nazis plans in 1943, after the persecution of Jews in Thessaloniki. He helped them escape by providing them with a place to stay, and supplying them with food and new identities as Christians.“We were really taking all precautions to avoid any problems. We stayed there until the end of 1944 when Greece was liberated by the allied forces. During this period, on March 24th, 1944, hundreds of Jews were captured in the Athens Synagogue, where I was living as baby. Only a few returned.”In 1981, Dr. Macheras received recognition as one of the Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem.In May 2010, a memorial to Greek victims of the Holocaust was unveiled in Athens, the last European capital to erect a memorial to victims of the Holocaust."The desecration of the cemeteries as well as the rulings of the appellate court and the Supreme Court is of great concern to us Jews," he said.For over 40 years, Benjamin Albalas has one of the key pillars of the Greek Jewish community. Among his many titles, he is Chair of the European March of the Living (EMOTL) and currently shares his Holocaust story children in Greek high schools, to mainly non-Jewish students.Benjamin's message to future generations of the Jewish people is: “Keep your Jewish identity. Any difficulty should pass away. Don't forget what happened to your parents, and your grandparents and your people during the Holocaust. Let's hope that things like that would not happen again – never!” (88) 8'לבל' 4(מ(,ב :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1937 :הד(ל ת,ש :תחלשמ ,1937 . , , ,1943 . , . , , . ,1944 24- , . . . " ,1944 ." " " " 1981 2010 . . 40- , , . (EMOTL) " , : . . . " . , "! םכתוהז לע ורמש וחכשת לא .תידוהיה ,םכירוהל הרק המ םכמעלו םהירוהל הווקנ .האושב אל הלאכ םירבדש םלועל בוש ורקי-Keep your Jewish identity. Don't forget what happened to your parents, and your grandparents and your people during the HolocaustCantor George Lindenblatt (87)Year of Birth: 1938 | Place of Birth: HungaryDelegation: YPO – Mosaic ChapterGeorge Lindenblatt was born in 1938 in Budapest, Hungary, to Jeno and Piroska Lindenblatt.After his father Jeno was depoted to a labor camp in 1944, his mother Piroska moved George and his two brothers. from one protective house to another, as well as finding refuge in the Glass House where thousands of other Jews were saved. Piroska helped other Jewish children, trading her wedding ring for food to help feed the starving children. Understanding the dangers, the Lindenblatt boys hid any outward evidence of their Jewish identity.“My star of David was in my pocket - I was only 6 and a half years old.”While George and his immediate family survived, his grandfather, Rabbi Zsigmond Platchek, a leader in the Jewish underground, was shot into the Danube by the Arrow Cross. His uncle, Rezso Platchek was murdered in Auschwitz.George fled Hungary in 1956, to England, and reunited with his parents and two brothers in 1959 in Brooklyn, NY.In New York, George received his cantorial investiture at Hebrew Union College. He joined the Astoria Center of Israel in Queens as Cantor in 1971 and retired in 2021 as Cantor Emeritus.In 1990 George and his family returned to Budapest for the dedication of a memorial, in the courtyard of the Dohany Synagogue, to the 565,000 Hungarian Jews who perished in the Holocaust – among them many relatives. One major stone bears the inscription of George’s grandfather.George's interests included the world of sports. As a teenager in Hungary, he joined the Junior National Water Polo team that competed throughout the Iron Curtain. In the US, he was a champion in water polo as a member of the American National Water Polo team.George and his wife Elaine are parents and grandparents of three children and five grandchildren – their greatest achievement. (87) טלב ,ד,(ל 'גר)'ג 4זחה :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1938 :הד(ל ת,ש - YPO :תחלשמ , , 1938 '' , 1944 . , . ( ) Schutzpass- ," " . . . , " . , . ,. ,' , . '' . , . . ,' ' , '' 1956 1990 . , 1959 . ,'' . , 565,000 .' , 1971 . '' ' Astoria Center of Israel - . 2021 . , , '' '' . , " . ." , 5- 3- ' '. ןגמ היה יסיכב ןב קר יתייה .דוד ינא לבא ,יצחו שש יל ביאכה הזש רכוזדואמ-My star of David was in my pocket, I was only 6 and a half years old
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 28 (84) ם)לבר((פ רת8' , :תחלשמ | :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1941 :הד(ל ת,ש ) . .( , . , . , . , , , . . , " ,' . . ,' , ." . . , , . . . . . , . . . . , . .. Esther Fairbloom (84)Year of Birth: 1941 | Place of Birth: PolandDelegation: Toronto, CanadaWhen Esther Fairbloom’s mother was pregnant, she went to a ghetto in Tarnopol to deliver Esther. Her mother’s seven brothers, one sister and both parents were in the ghetto at that time. One of the brothers was an exceptional doctor, and he delivered all the children there. Her mother did not know that the Nazis were in Tarnopol until she arrived there 9 months pregnant. Her mother was horrified to see Nazis with guns, dogs, and barbed wire. Travelling with two bodyguards, she was snuck into the ghetto and then into her apartment, filled with strangers that the Nazis had placed there. With nowhere else to go, her mother stayed to give birth to Esther in the Tarnopol ghetto.“Within two weeks, I was born, and as soon as I was healthy enough to be moved, the bodyguards somehow snuck my mother out with me, and she went back to Zbarz, where my father was with my 5-year-old sister.”At 2 months old, her mother placed her in an orphanage in Zbarz, and her sister with a family on a farm. Her parents’ slaughterhouse donated meat to this nearby orphanage; her mother knew Mother Superior. Esther was kept in the church for five years. There was very little food and water. She was very weak and ill. When the Nazis would come into the town, she had to stay in the basement in hiding.She was too young to remember her exact birthdate and her name. Both parents were murdered by Germans, who came to take the slaughterhouse.After the war, her aunt and uncle adopted and named her. She was hospitalized and taught to eat again. After leaving the hospital in Poland, Esther's aunt and uncle moved to Germany for three years. After that, they were allowed to come to Canada as farmers. Her sister was sent to Israel to live with relatives. After finding a picture of her sister, Esther sent her a letter, and they kept in touch. Esther travels to Israel once a year to see her and her family. םיישדוח ליגב הריאשה ימא םימותי תיבב יתוא׳זרבזב-At 2 months old, my mother placed me in an orphanage in Zbarz (89) ר,3 ה(ל(8 :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1935 :הד(ל ת,ש" , :תחלשמ ) , 1935 1- . ,( . . . . , . , , . . , , . . . , . . , , , . 1949 , . Celia Kener (89)Year of Birth: 1935 | Place of Birth: PolandDelegation: Broward County, USACelia Kener was born December 1, 1935, in Lvov, Poland (now in Ukraine). She was an only child and had a normal childhood with many friends.Celia loved ballet and had not started school before the war. Her father owned a metal shop, and her mother stayed home with her. When her father was drafted into the Russian army, Celia and her mother moved into the Lvov ghetto.Celia’s mother was selected for a labor camp and was periodically brought in to visit Celia on weekends. Celia stayed with her aunt and cousins in the Ghetto. When the Ghetto was about to be liquidated, her aunt's family went into hiding but did not take Celia.They were eventually found and killed. Celia stayed behind, caring for abandoned babies during Nazi raids bringing sugar water to the wailing babies hidden by their mothers among the ruins.Before the Ghetto's liquidation, Celia's mother returned and took her to a Roman Catholic Polish family to hide her.Celia stayed with them until it became too dangerous. The family wanted to send her to Palestine, but her Polish mother hid her in their barn instead. Celia's biological mother later joined her in hiding, and they stayed there for about a year until liberation. Her father escaped the Russian army to an Uzbekistan displaced persons camp under an assumed name and survived. Celia and her mother were later reunited with her father and lived in DP camps for a few years. Celia and her family moved to New York in 1949. ינפב דמע וטגה רשאכ תחפשמ התנפ ,לוסיח רותסמל התדוד היליס תא הריאשהו לרוגה הצר .הדבל ידיב ודכלנ םה אקוודוופסנו םינמרגה-When the Ghetto was about to be liquidated, her aunt's family went into hiding and left Celia behind. They were eventually found and killed
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 29Eva Kuper (85)Year of Birth: 1940 | Place of Birth: PolandDelegation: University Presidents, North AmericaEva’s parents were born in Sandomierz, Poland. Her father was a chemical engineer and her mother was a teacher. They married in 1936 and moved to a suburb of Warsaw called Bielany.After the beginning of the war, Eva and her family were forcibly relocated to the Warsaw Ghetto.The conditions in the ghetto were unbearable. People were forced to work as slave labourers, deprived of food, of space, of freedom and began dying in large numbers. In 1942, the Nazis began deporting Warsaw’s Jews, forcing them unto cattle cars destined for Treblinka.When Eva and her mother were rounded up, her mother’s cousin Regina Bankier, ran to the cattle car, screaming that Eva was her child. Eva’s mother was permitted to pass Eva, hand to hand, allowing her to be thrown into Regina’s arms."Me and my father escaped from the ghetto through the sewers. I was placed in the care of Hanka Rembowska. When Hanka became too sick to care for me, she asked Sister Klara, who belonged to an order that took care of blind children, to take me under her care. I spent the rest of the war years in hiding with the nuns in a farmhouse in the south of Poland where they had fled to escape the bombing in Warsaw". Eva’s earliest memories are from her time with the nuns in the farmhouse.Eva’s father and aunt survived the war and they, with Eva, lived in Bielsko, as non-Jews, since it was not safe to live openly as Jews in post-war Poland. It was only on the ship bringing the family to Canada in 1948, that Eva learned of her Jewish identity.Eva grew up in Montreal, where she enjoyed a rewarding career as an educator and educational administrator. She has three children and two grandchildren.Eva Umlauf (82)Year of Birth: 1942 | Place of Birth: Slovakia | Delegation: AustriaEva Umlauf was born in the Nováky labor camp, a Slovak transit camp from which people of Jewish origin were deported to extermination camps in occupied Poland. "After almost two years in this camp, me and my mother, who was four months pregnant at the time, were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. It was the last transport from Sered; it only arrived in Auschwitz on November 2, 1944. The difference of two or three days saved her life, because by October 31, 1944, because of the advancing Red Army and the ongoing attempts to cover up the murder, the gassings in Auschwitz had ceased." As late as October 30, 1944, several thousand mothers and their children, who had been deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz, were murdered in the gas chambers. Despite the ensuing chaos of the retreat, the two-year-old girl still had her concentration camp number tattooed on her. She fainted during this painful procedure.Eva and her mother were separated from Eva’s father Imrich at the ramp in Auschwitz. On January 20, 1945 he was deported from Auschwitz to the Melk concentration camp, a side camp of Mauthausen concentration camp. He was murdered there on March 20, 1945.Only by great luck did Eva, who contracted tuberculosis and jaundice in Auschwitz, and her pregnant mother, survive their three-month stay in the concentration camp until liberation by the Red Army on January 27, 1945. Since they were unfit for transport due to malnutrition and poor health, they remained in the former camp for another six months. Their sister, Nora, was born there in April 1945; she was healthy and well. (82) :)'למ)' ה))' :תחלשמ | :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1942 :הד(ל ת,ש . . , , , . . 2- , ,1944 31- , .1944 , 30-) .( , . . . .(1945 27) ,1945 , . , , (85) רפ)3 ה))' :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1940 :הד(ל ת,ש , :תחלשמ . ,' , 1936 . . . . , , , . , 1942 , . , , . . . . , , , . , . , . . , - ,1948 . . . . . ונחרב ינאו יבא .בויבה תולעת ךרד תונש תיברמ תא יתרבעה המחלמה לצא אובחמבתוריזנ-Me and my father escaped from the ghetto through the sewers. I spent the rest of the war years in hiding with the nuns התייהש ,ימאו ינא יעיברה שדוחב ונעגה ,הנוירהל םיימוי ץיוושואל הקספוהש רחאלזגב הדמשהה הנחמב-Me and my mother, who was four months pregnant at the time, were deported to Auschwitz two days after the gassings in Auschwitz had ceased
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 30 (94) רלג)3 ב(' :תחלשמ | :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1931 :הד(ל ת,ש . , 1931 , . , , . 79- 1938 . . , . . , .. . . , 1939 . , . , . . 1941 , . . . , . (1942) , .1946 . . 1990 ,( ) Shattered Crystals. Eve Kugler BEM (94)Year of Birth: 1931 | Place of Birth: GermanyDelegation: United KingdomEve was born in 1931 in Halle, Germany and grew up alongside her sisters, Ruth and Lea, in a period of ever-increasing repression against Jews. In October 1938, Eve’s 79-year-old grandfather was arrested along with thousands of other Polish Jews living in Germany and returned to Poland in the first-ever Nazi deportation."Ten days later came Kristallnacht. The Nazis rampaged through the family home, destroying household possessions and my grandfather’s sacred Jewish books before marching my father out of the family home. During that night, the Nazis smashed the windows of my father’s store. Our synagogue burned to the ground, while the fire brigade stood by."Eve’s mother was able to secure her father’s release from Buchenwald. He then left for France, and the family was evicted from their home. In June 1939, the family fled to France on a forged visa.When the war broke out, the French interned her father. Her mother placed the girls in a home for Jewish children outside of Paris, where she became a cook. With the fall of Paris and the French surrender, the children were evacuated to central France.In 1941, the home received a visa for America for a small number of orphan children. For the next five years, Eve lived in New York City in three different foster homes, sometimes separated from her sister.In the Nazi roundup of Jews in 1942, the French Resistance hid Lea while her parents survived the war in French concentration camps. The family was reunited in New York in 1946. Eve worked as a journalist until she moved to London in 1990. Eve is a recipient of the British Empire Medal. Eve also authored a book, “Shattered Crystals,” in which she wrote about her family's Holocaust history. םיצאנה חלודבה לילב ורבש ,ונתיבב וללותשה ירפס ולליח ,םיצפח תא ואיצוה ,שדוק תא וצפינו תיבהמ יבאותונח תונולח- On Kristallnacht the Nazis rampaged through our home, destroying household possessions and her grandfather’s sacred Jewish books before, arrested my father and smashed the windows of his store. Our synagogueburned to the ground (79) 3ר'ל3 ה))' , :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1945 :הד(ל ת,ש :תחלשמ . .- 15 . , , , , . ,' , , . . , . 17 , , , . . , . , . " " 3.5- . . 2019 ." " .Eva Clarke (79)Year of Birth: 1945 | Place of Birth: AustriaDelegation: United KingdomEva Olga Clarke was born on a cart at the gates of the Mauthausen concentration camp; her survival is nothing short of a miracle. She and her mother are the only survivors of their family, 15 members of whom were killed in Auschwitz-Birkenau, including three of Eva’s grandparents, her father, uncles, aunts and her 7-year-old cousin, Peter."My mother, Anka Kauderova, a Czech Jew who endured overwhelming hardships, was deported from the Theresienstadt ghetto to Auschwitz while pregnant with me. Before that, she suffered 3 years in the Theresienstadt ghetto, 6 months of slave labour in an armaments factory in Freiburg, Germany, and a 17-day train journey in an open coal car to Mauthausen. My father, Bernd Nathan, a German Jewish architect, was transported to Auschwitz before Anka was able to tell him she was pregnant. Bernd was shot and killed just before the liberation of Auschwitz. Anka weighed less than 3.5 kilograms and managed to hide her pregnancy long enough to save both their lives.If Eva had been born one day earlier, she and her motherwould have been sent to the gas chambers, but that dayshe was born, the gas had run out.Six days after Eva Clarke’s birth, United States troops liberated Mauthausen, providing life-saving care to both Eva and her mother, Anka. Eva Clarke is one of only three babies known to have survived birth at Mauthausen. Eva was among four Holocaust survivors awarded the BritishEmpire Medal, “For services to Holocaust Education” in2019. In 2015 she was awarded an honorary doctorate in law by De Montfort University. Eva continues to share her story and experiences in order to combat modern-day instances of racism and prejudice and to ensure the world never forgets the Holocaust. דחא םוי יתדלונ ול יתייה ,רתוי רחואמ יאתל תחלשנ זגה ילזמל .םיזגה םויב לזא וב יתדלונש-If I had been born one day earlier, me and my mother would have been sent to the gas chambers
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 31Fran Malkin (87)Year of Birth: 1938 | Place of Birth: PolandDelegation: NorthEast, USAFran "Fay" Malkin was born in the spring of 1938 to Eli and Lea Letzter (nee Maltz), owners of a confectionary store in Sokal, Poland (now Ukraine). “I asked my mother why we didn’t leave with all these terrible things happening, and she said because we had a good life.”In 1941, shortly after the Germans invaded the Sokal region, the Gestapo, with the willing cooperation of the Ukrainians, ordered a roundup of 400 of Sokal's Jewish men, including Malkin's father. They were taken to an old brick factory on the outskirts of town and murdered. Fran and her family found out after the war that, “the Germans made them dig their own graves and then shot them all.” Fay, her mother, and other members of the Maltz family were forced into the ghetto but managed to escape. “All these people were crammed into small houses….They would round up as many Jews as they could capture and put them into cattle cars…they would take the cattle cars over to gas them all, then the cattle cars would return empty….they would start again.” They escaped to a family farm where Francisca Halamajowa, a Polish Catholic, and her daughter lived. They were among 16 people hiding in the hayloft above a pigsty for two years. "I was only four years old and could not stop crying. The adults, worried about being discovered, tried to poison me to silence me; Malkin survived the poisoning, and the adults accepted her survival as a miracle."In 1949, Malkin moved with her family to the United States, where she became a successful real estate broker. In 2005, Fay decided to tell her story by contributing to the book Moments in Time: A Collage of Holocaust Memories." Since participating in the making of the award-winning film "No. 4 Street of Our Lady," she has begun to speak publicly about her experience. Gabriella Karin (94)Year of Birth: 1930 | Place of Birth: SlovakiaDelegation: Los Angeles, USAGabriella Y. Karin lost 75 members of her family in the Holocaust. She was born in Bratislava, Slovakia. Her parents owned a delicatessen located next to the police station, and so they were friendly with many police officers. When the war broke out, her mother was able to obtain deportation lists from the police department and warn the families in advance. Gabriella’s parents soon secured false papers for her and sent her to board in a convent in Bratislava to be hidden. "I spent three years in that convent, run by nuns".Her identity indicated that she was a Christian girl, so she had to behave accordingly. Afterwards, Gabriella’s family hid in the apartment of a non-Jewish man, Karol Blanar, a young, courageous lawyer. Knowing the dangerous consequences, he illegally sheltered eight Jews in his small apartment. Gabriella lived in this apartment for nine months until Russian troops liberated Bratislava.After the war, Gabriella finished her education as a fashion designer and moved to Israel, where she lived for 11 years. She moved to the United States in 1960 and worked as a fashion designer and production patternmaker. After concluding a career in the fashion industry, she became a sculptor, well known for her depiction of experiences during the Holocaust. Gabriella has many sculptures permanently displayed in museums in the United States and Slovakia.As a result of the experiences of her childhood, some of her work is Holocaust-related, illustrating an emotional response to the horrors of the time by showing pain and suffering. Rather than depicting a sense of anger, Gabriella’s work and her lectures exude hope that her story can prevent persecution and cruelty in the world. (94) 4(ר3 הל'(רבג :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1930 :הד(ל ת,ש" ,' :תחלשמ . , , . . . . , . , . , , . . 75 1960 11 . . " , . . . , , ,. (87) 4(3למ 4'רפ :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1938 :הד(ל ת,ש " , :תחלשמ ,( ) 1938 "" " .( ) , , , ." , , ,1941 400 , , . . " : ". , , . " . . ...". . , . , , . 16 . . " 1949 2005 ." Moments in Time: A Collage of Holocaust Memories .( ' : ) ' ") No. 4 Street of Our Lady . ,(" 4 עברא תב קר יתייה קיספהל יתלוכי אלו ,םירגובמה .תוכבל ,תולגתהל וששחש יתוא ליערהל וסיניתוא קיתשהל ידכ-The adults, worried about being discovered, tried to poison me to silence me וחלש ירוה רתתסהל יתוא תוריזנ רזנמב .הבלסיטרבב ותואב יתיליב םינש שולש רזנמ היירצונכ-I spent three years in that convent, run by nuns
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 32 (78) 4לפ3 4לה , :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1946 :הד(ל ת,ש" , :תחלשמ , 1946 7- , . . , , . . 1940 , , .- , ,1945 . , ,(Radomer) . , . , , . ,1966 .' , . .(" ") Kaplan Companies - " " " , 75 ,. .83 2023 . , - , 85- - ' , , - , . . Helen Kaplan (78)Year of Birth: 1946 | Place of Birth: Stuttgart DP Camp, Germany Delegation: Temple Beth Jeshurun, USA"I was born on October 7, 1946, in a displaced persons (DP) camp in Stuttgart, Germany." During the Shoah, her parents, Itka and Mayer Rutman were prisoners at Pionki outside of Radom alongside the Kaplan family. They were eventually transferred to Auschwitz, but by some miracle, they survived.Liberated in 1945, the Rutmans left Germany and made their way to America, settling on the Lower East Side of New York. Mayer found work as a furrier, and the family became a part of the Radomer Society, a social group for Polish Holocaust survivors. It was through this community that they reconnected with Nathan and Fela Kaplan, also from Radom. Years later, when the Rutmans invited the Kaplans to their son Willie's bar mitzvah, Nathan immediately recognized that Helen would be a perfect match for his son, Michael.Michael was born inside a concentration camp in April 1940 and later deported to various Nazi death camps, including Bergen-Belsen, before ultimately emigrating to the U.S. with his parents and younger brother.Helen and Michael married in 1966, and later moved to Highland Park, New Jersey.Together, they raised three children and welcomed nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Michael dedicated most of his career to building his real estate and development company, Kaplan Companies. Now, after 75 years, Kaplan Companies proudly employs fourth-generation family members.Michael passed away in 2023 at 83. Helen and the entire Kaplan family are committed to preserving his legacy of hard work, philanthropy, and family values. In honor of what would have been Michael Kaplan's 85th birthday, Helen and their children—Lisa and Andrew, Amy and Will, Michele and Jason—along with grandson Matthew, are participating in this year’s March of the Living. They are celebrating his life, reconnecting with his origins, and honoring his remarkable achievements.7-ב יתדלונ 1946 רבוטקואב םירוקע הנחמב ,טרגטוטשב הינמרג-I was born on October 7, 1946, in a displaced persons (DP) camp in Stuttgart, Germany (87) ש', 4('גר)'ג :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1937 :הד(ל ת,ש , :תחלשמ . 1937 '' , , '' ,1940 . '' , 1944 . .( , ) ," . ." . '' , , '' 1945 . '' .. . " ". . (1957) 6- 3 '' 1961 " " . , . . . . Georgine Nash (87)Year of Birth: 1937 | Place of Birth: HungaryDelegation: Toronto, CanadaGeorgine was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1937. She was an only child and lived a comfortable middle-class life. In 1940, Georgine’s father, Szilard, was sent to a labour camp, and that was the beginning of the end.When Germany occupied Hungary in 1944, she and her mother, Martha, were forced to leave their home and move into a “yellow-star house,” and then into a protection house run by the Swiss.“I was scared, and my mother never lost that fear. Ever”When the protection house became unsafe, Georgine and her mother were hidden in the home of an elderly woman, where they were forced to stay in the coal cellar during bombing raids. In January 1945, Georgine was liberated with her mother.“A lot of people decided they were not going to be Jewish anymore. Nobody had papers, so it was a time when it was easy to reinvent yourself.”Her father was killed during the last few months of the war in an unknown location. They left Hungary in 1957 after the Hungarian Revolution and moved to Canada.Georgine married Marty Nash in 1961, and they have three sons and six grandchildren.“I go on the March of the Living because I believe it is my duty to teach what happened during the war. And if the younger generation will see it and hear it they will make sure that this will never happen again. The best way survivors can ensure that is by educating the younger generations.” .ןמזה לכ יתדחפ הדביא אל ימא תשוחת תא םלועמהזה דחפה-I was scared, and my mother never lost that fear. Ever
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 33Hershel Greenblat (84)Year of Birth: 1941 | Place of Birth: UkraineDelegation: Southern Region, USAHershel was born Grischa in Kremenchuk, Ukraine in 1941. His parents, Tolek and Manya Greenblat, took great care in relocating to several places to avoid capture during the war. They found shelter and safety in underground caves, where Grischa spent his first two years. "The caves were cold, damp, and dark, and the people there lived in constant fear of discovery". His father foraged to provide food for Grischa.Eventually leaving the caves, Grisha and his family travelled eastbound. His sister Alta was born in 1944. After the war had ended, Toklek, Grischa’s father, found out his parents and sisters had all been murdered. Soon after, the family found refuge in a displaced persons (DP) camp in Austria.In 1950, they received immigration papers to move to the United States, arriving in Atlanta, Georgia with $80 in life savings. They started their life with the support of the local Jewish community. Hershel (Grischa) married his wife, Rochelle. They have two sons, four grandchildren, and a great-grandson.“It is because of my father’s strong will that I, my sisters, and my mother survived the Holocaust. I want everyone to remember and ensure it never happens again.”Hershel has had a profound impact with participants on the March of the Living. “Marching with these young people gives me a sense that they will be here for me when I’m gone. They will carry on my story so the world will never forget what happened.”Laszlo Selly (87)Year of Birth: 1937 | Place of Birth: HungaryDelegation: Miami-Dade, USALaszlo Selly and his twin brother were born in Budapest, Hungary on December 31, 1937. In 1944, when the Budapest Ghetto became too crowded, the Nazis painted yellow stars on apartment buildings throughout the city and crowded Jews into them. "I was six, but I remembered my mother sewing a yellow star onto his outer garments".Laszlo’s family was relocated to a ‘yellow star’ apartment where, from the window, seven-year-old Laszlo watched as Jews were beaten, kicked and harassed. Soon he began seeing thousands of Jews, surrounded by Nazi guards, marching toward the train station. Food was scarce - he remembers eating part of a horse that was found dead in the street. Desperate to keep their twins safe, Laszlo’s parents made the difficult decision to send them into hiding. Being constantly in grave danger, they returned to their parents."Somehow, my father obtained a Raoul Wallenberg certificate of protection, allowing the family to move to a ‘safe house.’ A Swedish flag flew over the ‘safe houses’ protecting the inhabitants from the Nazis.The Hungarian Arrow Cross (the Nazi party), which had no respect for the Swedish safe houses, continued to go building by building rounding-up Jews. I could hear the screams as thousands of Jews were murdered on the banks of the Danube River.After liberation by the Soviets, Laszlo and his twin brother completed their education in Hungary under intense Communist indoctrination. The brothers escaped from Hungary during the 1956 Revolution and made their way to New York, where Laszlo became a successful photographer. Today, he lives with his wife Gail in South Florida and regularly shares his story with students at the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach. (87) (ל8 )ל8ל :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1937 :הד(ל ת,ש" ,- :תחלשמ , 1937 31- , ,1944 . , . . " " , , . . , . , . . , , . ," " . " " , .. , 1956 . , . , .' (84) טלב ,(רג לשרה :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1941 :הד(ל ת,ש " , :תחלשמ ,' , 1941 , , . . , , . . . , , .1944 . . . 1950 . 80 ." ,'' . ," . 4 , 2 . ". " . . ". תורעמה ןהב ונרתתסהש .תוכושחו תוחל ויה דחפב םש ונייח ולגי אמש ,דימתמונתוא-The caves were cold, damp, and dark, and the people there lived in constant fear of discovery תא יתעמש יפלא לש תוחרצה וחצרנש םישנא תודג לע רק םדבהבונדה-I could hear the screams as thousands of Jews were murdered on the banks of the Danube River
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 34 (91) (דוּה ה(,מ :תחלשמ | :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1933 :הד(ל ת,ש , 1933 ,"" , , . . . , . " 1939 , , 1940 : . , .1943 .' ' : , , ." , , . , , , . . , , . ,- . . ." " : . , 1949 " ." . ," . 11- 7 ,92 , . . . . . " , . . ." Mania Hudy (91)Year of Birth: 1933 | Place of Birth: Poland | Delegation: PanamaMania was born in November 1933, in Warsaw, Poland to Leon and Lea Rosman. “In December 1940, we were forced into the Warsaw Ghetto, where hunger, disease, and death surrounded us. Yet, in the middle of our suffering, my baby sister Bronka was born in 1943, a small ray of light in the darkness that surrounded us. But eight days later, my mother….handed her to a nun, whispering, "This is her only chance." I was too young to understand, but now I know that it was the purest act of love.”For two years, Mania, her mother and brother Sammy, survived in the Warsaw Ghetto.Then Mania’s mother found shelter for the two children with a kind non-Jewish Polish couple.But they were soon arrested and sent to Bergen-Belsen, where they again found their mother.When the war ended, Mania and her brother, reunited with their parents, and eventually with her younger sister..(Baby Bronka was found in 1949 in Belgium alive and well.)“It was the day our family was whole again.”Mania built a new life in Israel, Argentina, and Canada. Mania has seven grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.“I share my story because silence allows history to repeat itself. The Holocaust happened, and antisemitism is rising again. To future generations, I say: never stay silent. Learn, remember, and stand up for what is right. The past must never be erased.”Mania finds incredible strength in sharing her story with the next generation.“It’s an experience for the children unlike any other. They have never lived through these stories, the kind of stories I told them. They saw what Auschwitz; Treblinka and the Warsaw ghetto were like… Now they know what Israel stands for and how special Israel is to us because of the March of the Living.” הקנורב יתוחא 1943 תנשב הדלונ םימי הנומש לבא תא ימא הרסמ רחא ,הריזנל תקוניתה:תשחול איהשכ דיחיה יוכיסה הז''הל שיש-My sister Bronka was born in 1943. Eight days later, my mother handed her to a nun, whispering, "This is her only chance(95) '9(ב(רט הל'מ :תחלשמ | :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1930 :הד(ל ת,ש 1930 () ' ,1939 . , , . , , . ' , . . . . . "? " : , , . . , . , . . - , " - " . , . .." . . . , 1947 . . , . Mala Tribich MBE (95)Year of Birth: 1930 | Place of Birth: PolandDelegation: United KingdomMala Helfgott was born in 1930 in Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland. When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, Mala’s family fled eastwards, eventually returning to her hometown, the first ghetto in Poland.The family sent Mala and her cousin, Idzia Klein, to Częstochowa to pass as Christians. Idzia was homesick and asked to stay with friends of her parents. When Mala returned to Piotrków her father was waiting there with Idzia’s father. On seeing Mala, he turned white with shock and said, "Where is my daughter?" Idzia was never seen again."Shortly after I returned to the ghetto, there were further round ups during which my mother and my eight-year-old sister were taken. They were all murdered in the local forest. I took on the responsibility of caring for myfive-year-old cousin Ann Helfgott. When the ghetto wasliquidated, I became a slave laborer. I was separated from my father and brother and together with Ann was sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp.Soon after, they were transported in cattle trucks to Bergen-Belsen.While interned at Bergen Belsen, two women, Dr Bimko and Sister Luba, took her under their wings. She later would say, “It just makes me realize….among all this evil there was some good somewhere that has helped people. “"At the time of the liberation by the British army, I was very ill. I was sent to Sweden where I spent nearly two years. I was surprised to receive a letter from my brother Ben in England, the only other member of my close family to have survived". In March 1947, Mala came to England to be reunited with Ben.Mala has been dedicated to sharing her testimony with schools and groups across the country and at the March of the Living to ensure the Holocaust is never forgotten. יתרבח לש היבאשכ יתוא האר היזדיא :וינפ וריווחה ,ידבל '?ילש תבה הפיא' אל היזדיא .לאשדוע התארנ-On seeing Mala, he turned white with shock and said, "Where is my daughter?" Idzia was never seen again
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 35Marek Frodis (85)Year of Birth: 1939 | Place of Birth: PolandDelegation: Montreal, CanadaMarek was born in Lublin, Poland, in 1939 to his parents, Leib and Sara Mark. Marek lost his parents in approximately 1942 at age 3. His mother perished at Majdanek, and his father in an unknown location.”“I survived the occupation hidden by a Polish family in Lublin. Unfortunately, I was unable to learn anything about these people. From before the hiding time, I have two scenes seared in my memory.”Marek remembers crossing a body of water while sitting on a man’s back.His second memory is of being in a two-story house during the German occupation, while a disturbance in the middle of the night had many people running around up and down the stairs.Marek’s hiding place was a dark room with a big bed.“I do not remember how many times other people were with me except for one instance when two older girls shared the bed with me. I do not remember how I was fed and clothed, but I definitely do not recall being hungry, cold, or scared.”Marek recalls the occupation ending with a couple of days of continuous bombardment.“I remember the “happy days” of roaming in the ruins, taking apart and burning the unexploded munitions.”His next memory was of a man in a Polish army uniform driving Marek to a Jewish orphanage in Chorzow. At this one, and in other Jewish orphanages, Marek completed elementary school.Marek was adopted in 1952 by the Frodis family, also Holocaust refugees from Warsaw. In 1957 they emigrated together to Israel. Marek and his wife moved to Canada in 1972, where they raised two sons and 4 grandchildren.Mark Schonwetter (91)Year of Birth: 1933 | Place of Birth: PolandDelegation: Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ, USAMark Schonwetter was born to farm owners Israel & Sala Schonwetter in Brzostek, Poland. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Mark was 5, living happily and comfortably on the farm with his younger sister, Zosia. The Gestapo came into their town, forcing them out of their home.Sala, Mark, and his younger sister later escaped their hometown and walked 15 miles to a ghetto, thinking they would be safer. They spent 3 months in the Debica Ghetto and escaped with the help of a Polish friend.For the next three years, Sala, Mark & Zosia survived by hiding in the attics, barns and below a pig stye belonging to kind Polish people during the winters and in a forest during the warm months. During the fall of 1944, they joined others escaping the front lines and took on false identities to live as refugees for a few months until the Russian army liberated them in 1945. After the war, Mark, his mother and sister stayed in Poland and lived under the Communist Regime until 1957 when they emigrated to Israel.Making a living in Israel was difficult, so he moved 4 years later to the US. Now in retirement, Mark has dedicated his time to speaking with students and adults about his life’s journey.Mark has always lived by the saying, “Live every day with love, not hatred, and you will accomplish so much more in life.” He has been married to his wife, Luba, for over 55 years and has two daughters, Ann and Isabella.In January 2025, Mark was chosen as a Shine A Light on Antisemitism Civic Courage Award Recipient in the category of Outstanding Influencer In Action Against Antisemitism.Mark shares his story to help inspire the next generation to choose kindness over hate.(91) רט)),)ש 3ר'מ :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1933 :הד(ל ת,ש" ,' :תחלשמ , , 1- , . ,' ,1939 . . . . , . , 15 . , , . , . , . . . 1944 , 1945 , . , , , 1957 . , ." , , . , , " , 55 ." 2025 . , " " . , . (85) 8(ד)רפ 3ר'מ :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1939 :הד(ל ת,ש , :תחלשמ , 1942 . , 1939 , , , , . , . " . ." , : . . , . " . , . . , , . " , ' ' . ."' 1952 . 1957 . , ,1972 . . םייתסה שוביכה לש םימי המכב רכוז ינא .תוצצפה 'םירשואמ םימי' טוטיש לש תפירשו תוסירהב אלש תשומחתהצצופתה-I remember the “happy days” of roaming in the ruins, taking apart and burning the unexploded munitions יתרתתסה ףרוחב ,גג תוילעב תחתמו םימסאב .םיריזח רידל םימחה םישדוחבתורעיב יתרתתסה-I survived the winter by hiding in the attics, barns and below a pig stye and in a forest during the warm months
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 36 (87) 4רטש 4(טרמה(,ט(רב :תחלשמ | :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1938 :הד(ל ת,ש , , 1938 , ,1940 . . . . . , . , ,1945 25 , . , , . , ,1944 " . . , .". . . , . . . . " . ". , , . . . . 8 , 40 .' . , " . ; ;" , Martin Stern BEM (87)Year of Birth: 1938 | Place of Birth: HollandDelegation: United KingdomMartin was born in Hilversum, Holland, in 1938 to a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother.Martin and his parents moved to Amsterdam in 1940, the year the Nazis invaded the Netherlands. Mark’s father later disappeared – Mark later learned he was captured by the Nazis, after being hidden on a farm. He survived Auschwitz and died in Buchenwald in March 1945.Martin’s mother died of childbed fever, so Martin was moved to his parents’ friends until his arrest.In spring 1944, Mark and his sister Erica were arrested by Dutch collaborators at school.Erica and Mark were imprisoned in Westerbork. Instead of being sent to a death camp, they were sent to Theresienstadt.Martin and his sister were looked after by a female prisoner, Mrs. de Jong during their time at Theresienstadt, who worked in the kitchens and stole food for them.“When my skin became yellow and my urine the color of black coffee and I felt terrible, she told me to keep out of sight as I would be killed if seen.”Gradually Theresienstadt became less crowded as the death transports did their work. Eventually it was announced that children had to board the next train. Martin and Erica’s names were not called. The train had left and went to Auschwitz where many were gassed.Liberation occurred when the Soviet army passed through Theresienstadt on May 8th till the following morning.After five years back in the Netherlands, he and Erica moved to be with family in Manchester.Martin now dedicates himself to Holocaust education and remembrance.“I’m on March of the Living as a survivor; for my father, life ended in Buchenwald; for my mother, with a hospital infection in Amsterdam; and for my younger sister Erica and myself via Westerbork and Theresienstadt, in life as survivors.” ינאו ,1944 ביבאב יתרצענ ,שמח ןב לשב רפסה תיבב ףתשמ לש הנשלהידנלוה הלועפ-In spring 1944, age ve, I was arrested by Dutch collaborators at school(84) 4מלג(פש 3ר'מ :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1940 :הד(ל ת,ש :תחלשמ , , , . .- . The Words To Remember It. . ) Memoirs of Child Holocaust Survivors.2009 .( 1949 1965 .( ) ' 1971 , . , . .( ) , . . 2008 2010 . Mark Spigelman (84)Year of Birth: 1940 | Place of Birth: PolandDelegation: AustraliaDuring the war Majloch, Gustava, and Marek Spigelman were hiding in Będzin, then they lived in the ghetto in &rodula. They fled during the deportation to Birkenau. Marek survived the Holocaust dressed as a girl. They welcomed their liberation in a farm close to Auschwitz. The story of his survival was presented in a book, “The Words To Remember It. Memoirs of Child Holocaust Survivors” (2009). Recently his wife wrote and illustrated a children’s book based on the stories of his survival, ”Blue Eyes Wide Open”.In 1949, the Spigelmans immigrated to Australia, where their sons Jim and Allan (now professors) were born .. Mark obtained his medical degree from the University of Sydney, and in 1971, he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgery in London (FRCS).He also studied archeology and anthropology in London, receiving a BSc (Hons) from the Institute of Archaeology in 1993 where he has been attributed with being the first to find the DNA of ancient disease causing bacteria and Viruses in bones and mummies.Apart from his work a surgeon in Sydney he has held senior positions in healthcare as a Visiting Professor in Britain and Israel, exploring the history and development of microbial disease in ancient mummies. Currently he is an Honorary Professor at Macquarie University in Sydney in the Department of Egyptology.In 2008, he participated in the World Rally of Będzin Jews. In 2010 he was chosen to lead the March of the Living when it was dedicated to child survivors. וירוהו קראמ וטגהמ וחרב וב להנתה רשאכ .ץיוושואל חוליש ימי תא רבע אוה שובל המחלמההדלי ידגב- I survived the Holocaustdressed as a girl
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 37Mary Eckstein (88)Year of Birth: 1936 | Place of Birth: HungaryDelegation: Southern Region, USAMary Eckstein was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1936. Mary has limited memories of her father, who was taken to a forced labor camp in 1942. Most of her extended family from Eger, Hungary, perished in Auschwitz-Birkenau.In March 1944, Germany invaded Hungary. “I remember…we had to go to the air raid shelter, and we heard the bombs explode, and we would wait for our building to be hit. It was a scary time, especially for a child.”That fall, Eckstein and her mother were forced into the Budapest Ghetto by the Arrow Cross Party, which she recalls being terrified of because they could shoot you at the drop of a hat. “I remember I was always scared, and I was always hungry.”Mary and her mother were detained by the Arrow Cross at a brick factory. They were separated, but a German woman helped reunite Mary with her aunt, and later, her mother escaped to join them. The Arrow Cross later seized Eckstein’s aunt, along with her grandmother, who died in the concentration camps along with her uncles and cousins. Mary’s mother pretended to be sick and avoided deportation.Mary's family reunited in 1945 as the Russian Army liberated Budapest. Her father, however, died from an infection shortly after. The family moved to a town where order was restored, then to Eger.In 1956, after surviving the Hungarian Revolution, the family escaped to the U.S. They settled in Syracuse, New York, where Mary and her husband, Joe, raised a family. Mary later moved to Florida and became a passionate advocate for Holocaust education, speaking to students and participating in the March of the Living. She has touched the lives of many young people, helping them understand the importance of remembering the past.Miklos (Mike) Andradi (82)Year of Birth: 1942 | Place of Birth: HungaryDelegation: Montreal, CanadaBorn in Budapest in 1942. His father, Sandor Fuchs, was killed in a labor battalion in 1943. Miklos, his mother, and grandmother lived in the Budapest Ghetto from that time on. Miklos has no memories of before the war, he only knew what he was told. His grandfather had his own tailor shop in Budapest before he was taken away, and shot and killed.“I remember very many hardships living in one room with many persons. I was living with my lifetime friend, Andy Reti, his family, and others too. We were constantly harassed, and we had hardly any food. I was always hungry.”When the Russians came, Miklos recalls being put against walls and being threatened.“We were terrified. I still get memory flashes of that period. After the war, only my mother, grandmother and my uncle survived. All other family members were murdered.”Once he and what was left of his family were allowedto return to their apartment, and the yellow stars wereremoved from their clothing, Miklos understood thatthey were liberated.“There was complete chaos. My mother and my grandmother were looking for their relatives.”After the war, Miklos remembers the lack of food, harsh living conditions, and young children (including Miklos) being compelled to convert to communists. Religious activities were not allowed.“My grandmother was very religious but was not allowed to practice. The trauma still stays with me. I never had a childhood.” (82) (דרד,' (3((מ) ש)ל3(מ :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1942 :הד(ל ת,ש , :תחלשמ , , .1942 () , ,1943 . . " . , . . ." . . . , " . . , , , . . " . , . . . . ." (88) 4((טש3' (ר'מ" , :תחלשמ | :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1936 :הד(ל ת,ש .1936 , . .1942 ,.- , , " . 1944 ... , , , ". , . ," " , . . , " . , ".. , , , , . , , . . , , , , . 1945 . . , ,1956 , , ." . ' , , . . דימתש תרכוז ינא דימתשו יתדחפהבער יתייה-I remember I was always scared, and I was always hungry ונתוא ודירטה טעמכו עבק ךרד .לכוא ונל היה אלבער יתייה דימת-We were constantly harassed, and hardly any food. I was always hungry
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 38 (84) הש,מ המר), :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1940 :הד(ל ת,ש" , :תחלשמ . 1940 12- . . . ,' , . . , . ' . , ' . . Norma Menasche (84)Year of Birth: 1940 | Place of Birth: RussiaDelegation: Broward County, USANorma was born on December 12, 1940, in a labor camp in Siberia, Russia. Originally from Warsaw, her parents fled to the Russian border on foot. Norma's father was separated from her mother, and Norma was born in a forced labor camp. She and her mother spent two years there."After the war, we returned to Warsaw to find everything destroyed". Norma's parents and one uncle on her mother's side survived. They moved to Lodz but had no food or money and nowhere to live.Norma's mother placed her in an orphanage for about a year, visiting weekly. During this time, her mother tried to reconnect with Norma's father. After about a year, they reunited and lived in Lodz for ten years. Norma attended a Yiddish school there. Eventually, Norma and her parents moved to Paris to live with her uncle. She met her husband in Paris, and they later moved to the United States. המחלמה רחאל השרוול ונרזח לוכהש וניליגוסרהנ-After the war, we returned to Warsaw to nd everything destroyed (97) רג(0פ((ל ט((, :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1928 :הד(ל ת,ש , :תחלשמ 1939 . , ' 1928 . ' .' . , 15 . . , . . " . . , ." , , ,- – , 2- " . . " .1945 , ... ... . ". , ,1948 20 . 12- 16 , . ,. . . " . , . , ." , Nate Leipciger (97)Year of Birth: 1928 | Place of Birth: PolandDelegation: Canada AdultsNate Leipciger was born in Chorzow, Poland, in 1928. After, the Germans invaded Poland. they decided to make Chorzow “Judenrein.” Nate’s family was forced to move to Sosnowiec, which became a ghetto.At age 15, Nate and his family were transported to Auschwitz, where Nate was separated from his mother (Faigel Leah) and sister (Linka), who he never saw again. Nate recalls his father saving his life twice while there. "Once, I found myself in the queue for the gas chamber, only for my father to pull me out and bring me into the camp with him. On a second occasion, the Nazis were about to send his father to a factory in Germany, but he convinced an officer that his son was a practical electrician, so they let me accompany my father.Nate survived the death march and the camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Funfteichen, Gross Rosen, Flossenberg, Leonberg, and Muhldorf am Inn and Waldlager (two sub-camps of Dachau). Nate and his father were liberated on May 2, 1945, by American troops.“I saw the tank with a white star…. I felt like kissing their feet and hugging them. I was crying. I found a sack of flour and we mixed it with water and baked it as our bread of redemption. That was our moment of liberation.”Nate immigrated to Canada in 1948, where he married Bernice and had 3 daughters, and later 16 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren.Nate has attended the March of the Living 20 times more than any other Holocaust survivor from the Diaspora. On the trip, Nate advises young people not to hold hatred in their hearts.“You cannot have hate in your heart without being hateful against yourself….when you are hateful, you become bitter, you resent everything, and that becomes part of your nature." ימצע תא יתאצמ .םיזגה יאתל רותב יתוא ךשמ יבא ריזחהו רותהמהנחמל יתוא-I found myself in the queue for the gas chamber. My father to pull me out and bring me into the camp with him
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 39Reny Friedman (88)Year of Birth: 1937 | Place of Birth: NetherlandsDelegation: Toronto, CanadaReny and her twin brother, Leo Saloman, were born on April 4, 1937 in the Netherlands to Elsa and Karl Saloman.“My mother was a strong lady. She had heard that if a family member was sick, they could get a medical extension to delay being deported.”Reny’s mother sensed what was to come, so she convinced a local doctor to hospitalize her husband under false pretenses. With the help of the underground resistance, her family hid in the Ardennes region's countryside and in Brussels with her grandmother and two uncles.One of Reny’s earliest memories is being stopped crossing the border and having an arrangement made where the border person turned his back, letting them cross.“I remember my mother and father were quite worried – The Germans were coming. I remember [I was told] we were to pack one suitcase, and we would be picked up by someone.”Unfortunately, in both locations, they were discovered and forced to flee.“I never saw my grandmother again. I never saw my uncle again.”Reny’s mother was deported to Auschwitz where she was able to survive the brutality of slave labor at the hands of the Nazis. Reny’s father turned once again to the underground, who took Reny’s brother to a monastery and Reny to a convent.Reny spent the remainder of the war there, where she learned how to live in this new and different environment and began to appreciate the rituals and traditions of the Catholic faith.When her father came to retrieve her at the end of the war, he allowed her time to reconnect with her Jewish roots. In 1955, Reny moved to Canada, where she met and married Henry Friedman, a Holocaust survivor. They are blessed with three children and two grandchildren.Rita Starkman (83)Year of Birth: 1941 | Place of Birth: PolandDelegation: Toronto, CanadaRita Starkman was born in Ostrowiec, Poland in 1941 - the youngest of three children. That same year the Ostrowiec ghetto was established.“All the Jews had to leave their homes, and we were all rounded up in an area; there was somehow housing [I was told], but we were all crowded into small rooms with 2-3 families living there.”“In the ghetto, at first, Jews were not being killed. However, after three months of being there, the Nazis threatened to kill any Jew who had a bicycle, radio, gold watch, fur coat or anything valuable.” Shortly after, the Jews including children, the elderly, unemployed men and women, began being shipped to Treblinka.“My father had the foresight and knew that the family would be doomed if we were all together, so he started looking for Polish families for us.”He had met with the janitor at the candy factory where he worked and arranged for Rita, at 16 months old, to be given to the janitor’s [Polish] family for safekeeping. However, the Germans soon announced any Poles found hiding a Jewish person would be killed, and the family had a brother-in-law take Rita to another town.She was found abandoned on a train a few miles southeast of Ostrowiec, in Razwadow. A Polish couple adopted her, and she was baptized, named Teresa, and raised Catholic.When the war was over, Rita’s father set out to find her but was turned away by her adoptive mother. After a custody battle, “Teresa” was returned to her biological parents and the family—including her mother and brother who survived— left Poland and settled in Canada. Teresa’s name was changed back to Rita.She has three children and seven grandchildren and dedicates her life to her family. “My family is everything!” Rita says. (83) 4מ3רטש הט(ר :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1941 :הד(ל ת,ש , :תחלשמ , , 1941 " . , . , , . . , , . , , , . " . , . , 16 , , , ." , . , , . . , . . , , . . : 7- 3 . ," " (88) 4מד(רפ (,(ר :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1937 :הד(ל ת,ש , :תחלשמ . ,1937 4- , , . . , , . . : " . . , , , . ." , . " : , . , . ." . . . . . , , . . , 1955 . . םע רדסהל ונעגה רבעמב דבועה טושפ אוה .לובגה םילעה ,ובג תא הנפהרובעל ונל ןתנו ןיע-We were stopped while crossing the border. Then an arrangement was made where the border guard turned his back, allowing us to cross םישדוח השולש ירחא ומייא םיצאנה וטגב ויהש ידוהי לכ גורהל ןועש ,וידר ,םיינפוא ול וא הוורפ ליעמ ,בהזךרע לעב רבד לכ-After three months in the Ghetto, the Nazis threatened to kill any Jew who had a bicycle, radio, gold watch, fur coat or anything valuable
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 40 (86) 4((טשדל)ג טז)ר :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1938 :הד(ל ת,ש" , :תחלשמ , 1939 . ,1942 . 1940 , , , . . . , . . , . , " ." . . . ) , , . ,( . . " . ." . . . , . 86 , . , . , . Rosette Goldstein (86)Year of Birth: 1938 | Place of Birth: FranceDelegation: Southern Region, USARosette was born in Paris in 1938. Just after 1940, Rosette's father was discharged from the army because he was Jewish. In 1942, her father found work as a lumberjack, which was considered beneficial to the German economy. He was given a certificate protecting him and his family. When the certificates no longer guaranteed safety to Jews, Rosette’s father asked a local farmer to hide his daughter. The farmer and his wife agreed to help. They had three daughters of their own and made room for one more. “I was three and a half, but I remember everything.”“Monsieur and Madame Martin and the girls were very good to me," she said. "I was very lucky."Rosette’s father would ride a bicycle every night until one night he did not arrive. "The Nazis deported him to Drancy, Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and then Langenstein Zwieberg, a subcamp of Buchenwald, where he died five days before the camp was liberated".Rosette hid on the Martin farm until the end of the war. “Many times, the Nazis came to the farm. Once, I was hidden under a mattress, another time in a hayloft. I remember the loneliness and how frightened I was.”Her mother was hidden by a gentile family, and Rosette reconnected with her after the war. Rosette attended a camp run by leaders working on creating the State of Israel, and the seeds of her passion for being Jewish were planted.Today, at age 86, Rosette remembers much of it like it was yesterday. Even though there is much she'd like to forget, she talks about the Holocaust at every opportunity because the younger generations need to know. She emphasizes the need to promote education, discussion, and asking questions. Rosette has participated on the March of the Living 6 times. הווחל ואב םיצאנה םעפ .תובר םימעפ תחתמ יתרתסה תחא תרחא םעפו ןרזמל תרכוז ינא .ריצח תמרעב תודידבה יעגר תאםידיחפמה-Many times, the Nazis came to the farm. Once, I was hidden under a mattress, another time in a hayloft. I remember the loneliness and how frightened I was (83) גרב,ט)ר הז)ר :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1941 :הד(ל ת,ש :תחלשמ . , 1941 . . . , . . , , , . . . , . , . ,2015 , 70 , . , : . Rosa Rotenberg (83)Year of Birth: 1941 | Place of Birth: PolandDelegation: Argentine Holocaust MuseumRosa Rotenberg was born in 1941 in the Warsaw Ghetto, Poland. Her parents decided that her only chance of survival lay outside the ghetto and smuggled her out when she was six months old and left her on the doorstep of her maternal aunt's house. It is unknown what happened immediately afterward, but Rosa ended up in the "Kszęndza Boduena" orphanage, cared for by a group of nuns.Her mother did not survive the Holocaust, but her father did, and after intense searching, he found her when she was four years old.Rosa lived in Paris with her father for five years and then emigrated to Argentina."I dont have a single photo of my mother. I don't remember her face, her hands, or her eyes. The last time she saw her, I was barely five months old. I couldn't even imagine if any of her children or grandchildren resembled her". She was only able to reconstruct her story—the final months of her life—in 2015, 70 years after her death. But Rosa does have one certainty that warms her heart: her mother always took care of her, even when she had lost all hope of ever seeing her again. םוליצ םג ולו יל ןיא .ימא לש דחא םעפב התוא יתיאר יתייהשכ הנורחאהדוח השימח תב־דבלב םיש-I dont have a single photo of my mother. I don't remember her face, her hands, or her eyes
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 41Salomon Jacques Weisser BEM (83)Year of Birth: 1942 | Place of Birth: BelgiumDelegation: United KingdomSalomon was born in February 1942 in Antwerp, Belgium - the same year his father was summoned to do forced labour in France. His mother was rounded up on the 11th of September, 1942 in Antwerp and sent to Dossin in Belgium. From there she was deported to Auschwitz and was immediately murdered in the gas chambers.“My father managed to escape from Boulogne and his subsequent story of survival is in itself epic. He survived Auschwitz, Buna-Monowitz and then survived the death march to Gleiwitz and Buchenwald. Unbelievably he survived another death march to Valdenburg where, in nearby woods he was finally liberated by the Americans on the 15th of April 1945.”Salomon does not know the events between the date of his mother’s arrest in September 1942 when an unknown person brought him to the Meisjeshuis (Antwerp) orphanage. He was just a 7-month-old baby categorized as a “lone Jewish child”. Being so young seemed to have saved Salomon’s life.“On the 23rd of December 1942, several children, including myself, were rescued from the orphanage and taken under false pretenses of a serious illness to the Saint-Erasmus Hospital in Antwerp where we stayed in hiding until the 13th of June 1944.“They were arrested by the Sipo-SD and taken overnight to their headquarters in Brussels. On the 14th of June they transferred the children to the Baron de Castro orphanage in Etterbeek Brussels.“Towards the end of August, the Resistance hid me in Brussels, then Virton in the Ardennes, where my father managed to find me in June/July 1945 on his return to Belgium from Germany.”His family was badly decimated by the war but quite a few survived and settled in Israel, England and France.Sami Steigmann (85)Year of Birth: 1939 | Place of Birth: BukovinaDelegation: NorthEast, USASami was born in 1939, in Czernowitz, Romania.From 1941 through 1944, he was with his parents in Ukraine at a labour camp in Transnistria.Sami was subjected to Nazi medical experimentation in his early years but has no recollection of those years. However, he has felt and still feels the side effects every single day of his life.In 2002, He sought compensation through the Claims Conference Compensation Program stating:“My parents told me that I was subjected to Nazi medical experimentation but did not go into specifics (too painful to remember.) All I know is that I suffered all my life from neck, head and back problems. The severity was so great that I had days and weeks that I could not sit, lay down or walk (not all at the same time). My headaches were so severe that I was crying in pain. My parents and the other witnesses are all gone. Therefore, I hope that this information will suffice.”To his shock, he received a positive reply two years. The financial part was not as important as the response:"Fully aware that no amount of money can compensate you for the severe injustices that you suffered we do hope that you will regard this payment as a symbolic acknowledgement of those injustices."After the medical experiments, life was tough in the camp. At one point he was dying of starvation and his life was saved by a German woman living nearby who brought food to the SS and Ukrainian guards. She saw Sami and gave him milk, risking her entire family's lives. When he looked healthier, she would pinch his cheeks and say: "Those are my rosy cheeks!."After liberation, he emigrated to Israel, served in the Israeli Air Force, and moved to the United States. (85) 4מג((טש (מ8" , :תחלשמ | :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1939 :הד(ל ת,ש ) ,' 1939 21- 1944 1941 .( ,- .( ) ." " , 2002 8- ."" , . . , " : . , . , . , . ." . ,2004 26- , , : , " . ." . . , . , . . , , , , . "! " : , . . (83) ר8(() 3''ז 4)מ)ל8 :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1942 :הד(ל ת,ש :תחלשמ , , 1942 1942 11- . . , . " (-) - , , . 15- , , ." 1945 . , ." " , , -" . . , 1942 23- . ." -) Sipo-SD 1944 13- 14- . ( . , " ,1945 , ." , . , לש תובזוכ תונעטב יתחקלנ השק הלחמ םידלי המכ דוע םע םש .םילוחה תיבל ולפיטו ונתוא וריתסה יצחו הנשכ ךשמב ונב-I was taken to the hospital with a few other children under false claims of illness, where we were hidden and cared for about a year and a half םיצאנה יתודליב םייוסינ יב ועציב לכ יתלבס .םייאופר ,ראווצ תויעבמ ייח םימי יל ויה .בגו שאר יתלוכי אלש תועובשו וא בכשל ,תבשלתכלל-I was subjected to Nazi medical experimentation in my early years. I suered all my life. I had days and weeks that I could not sit, lay down or walk
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 42 (81) )ט((ר 4ז)8 :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1944 :הד(ל ת,ש" ,LA :תחלשמ ,1944 . , " . , "? - , . , , . ." " , , " ." . " , ( ) , " . . , . , 50- . . , , . . , .. Susanne Reyto (81)Year of Birth: 1944 | Place of Birth: HungaryDelegation: Holocaust Museum LA, USASusanne was born just six days before the Nazi occupation of Hungary in March 1944. When the Nazis occupied Hungary, they set up their base of operations on the ground floor of the hospital where her mother spent her birth week.“Can you imagine what my mother experienced being in the hospital with all the commotion and trying to determine if she and her baby daughter would ever be able to get out, and if so, how?”An incredible humanitarian doctor treating her mother arranged for an ambulance to take them to Susanne’s grandparents’ home with a sign on the ambulance which read, “Infectious disease,” under false pretenses to help get them to safety.“The road opened up to make room because no one wanted to be near an infectious-diseased person.” The actions of this doctor likely saved them.Susanne survived the first year living with her mother in so-called “protected houses,” with protective papers (Schutzpass) from the Swedish and Swiss legations. Her father was conscripted into the Hungarian military."Living under cold and damp conditions in the basement, I spent most of my first year suffering from colds or pneumonia with little food and without access to medication".Her childhood experiences and her ultimate escape from Communist Hungary in the late 1950s left Susanne with an unwavering spirit of optimism and perseverance. She grew up in Australia and lived in Guam. Her husband served in the US Navy and has travelled the world.Her life today is balanced between family, business, philanthropy and cultural activities. Susanne is married and has one daughter and two grandchildren.Susanne Reyto is an award-winning author, speaker, world traveler and an ardent supporter of Israel and the free world. תא ושבכש רחאל םינמרגה ונב הירגנוה םיעצבמה סיסב תא תמוקב םהלש תיב לש עקרקה ןמזב קוידב ,םילוחהןזוס הדלונ ובש-When the Nazisoccupied Hungary, they set up their base of operationson the ground oor of the hospital where her mother spent her birth week (89) 4מ((, ל)8 :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1935 :הד(ל ת,ש , :תחלשמ , ' 1935 5- 1939 . . ,( ) . (Yellowknife) . . .1948 , , ,1948 . , . . , . . 2016 " . 870,000 , , . . [] . , , . ." , , , " : 40- , , ". Sol Nayman (89)Year of Birth: 1935 | Place of Birth: PolandDelegation: Toronto, CanadaSol Nayman was born in Stoczek Wegrowki, Poland in 1935. In September 1939, fleeing the war, Sol and his family were sent to a labour camp in Syktyvkar in Komi, just south of the Arctic Circle, and later to another in the Ukraine. When the war ended, they stayed in a German DP camp until they learned that Canada was accepting a limited quota of tailors in the growing garment industry. Several Canadian Jewish manufacturers provided the financial guarantees.So in 1948, they settled in Montreal, then later moved to Toronto, where Sol helped create a major clothing label. Sol spends his time now working tirelessly to bring awareness to the history of the Holocaust, sharing lessons learned with the next generation.During the 2016 March of the Living, Sol visited Treblinka with his grandson Maurice, where his grandmother was murdered.“It was here that my grandmother, in whose memory I dedicated my March… and all those who did not escape perished among the 870,000 Jews murdered by the Nazis. We located the stone marking my town, and I recited a [prayer] for my grandmother and all others who perished there...then with Maurice and our group, we recited Kaddish. There is no way I could have contained my emotions if it weren’t for Maurice and our group. Instead of breaking down, I felt uplifted and somehow relieved as if a great burden had been lifted from my being.”He later related, “To you and every murdering Nazi in whichever hell you are, after you murdered 6 million of our people, I and thousands of others from 40 countries took a stroll from Auschwitz to Birkenau, linking arms with several dozen survivors who will never forget or forgive you.”Sol and his beloved wife Queenie have two sons and five grandchildren. לכב ,חצור יצאנ לכל התא ובש םונהיג עסמל ונאצי ...אצמנ ,ואנקריבל ץיוושואמ םע םיידי ונבליש םילוצינ תורשעוחכשי אל םלועלש-To every murdering Nazi in whichever hell you are, after you murdered 6 million of our people, we will never forget or forgive you
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 43Miklós Gráner (83)Year of birth: 1942 | Place of birth: Hungary | Delegation: HungaryMiklós was born in 1942 and has limited memories from WWII. He remembers being in a basement, constantly moved from one place to another, from the ghetto to different shelters. Miklos was separated from his mother and staying with his grandmother. His father was sent the Russian front and returned in 1946, sick with tuberculosis. He passed away October 1947. None of his father’s side of the family survived, including five siblings, and their families (approximately 40).Miklos’s sister was born in December 1944 in a basement on Wesselényi Street. His mother nearly lost her mind after witnessing a teenage Arrow Cross boy stab a pregnant Jewish woman in the stomach with a bayonet. She watched as the baby fell out. Miklos remembers it was his grandmother who kept them going. After the war, they returned to their old apartment—it was empty; everything had been taken. His mother became the sole breadwinner, supporting Miklos, his sister, and their grandmother.After the war, on major holidays, they attended the Dohány Street Synagogue. Despite earning only 400 forints, his mother donated 3 forints monthly to the Jewish community.His grandmother lit candles every Friday, covered her head, and prayed. “The Holocaust was never explicitly discussed, but we knew everything. She never stopped waiting for her “favorite son”…She waited for them all until she died.”“Many of our family members’ names are on the memorial tree at the Dohány Street Synagogue—they were killed in Auschwitz.”“I’ve never been to Auschwitz. Now, at 83, I feel like I should go. My wife asked me why now, after so many missed chances. I can’t explain it.”Montvai Attiláné (Veronika) (80)Year of birth: 1945 | Place of birth: Hungary | Delegation: HungaryVeronika’s father was a forced laborer who was killed in January 1945, shortly before she was born. Her mother and grandparents survived the Budapest Ghetto, where they faced the threat of Arrow Cross members.In mid winter, Veronika’s pregnant mother joined others to clear rubble in hopes of avoiding harassment. Veronika was born prematurely on February 5, 1945. The doctor believed Veronika wouldn't survive, but her mother’s instinct helped her to start eating despite her fragility. After the war, the family returned to a one-room apartment on Nyár Street.“We were poor, like almost everyone after the war. When my mother was taken to the Ghetto, she was only allowed to bring a small bundle of belongings. We had nothing—not even a jug—so we collected water in a glass jar.” Remarkably, her aunt Manci, returned to her family from a concentration camp. Manci frequently visited and shared her memories of the horrors they experienced.“My mother asked her not to talk about these things in front of me, but my aunt firmly insisted, ‘The child must know! She must hear everything!’”Veronika absorbed these stories, which haunted her throughout her life.Though not religious, Veronika carries a deep connection to her Jewish heritage. She has a photo of her mother wearing the yellow star and has passed copies on to her children and grandchildren. Veronika refrained from sharing much about their heritage until her children and grandchildren turned 18. Once they reached that age, she took them to significant sites, including the Dohány Street Synagogue, to share their family history. Her grandchildren embraced their heritage with joy and enthusiasm, expressing a desire to visit Israel until their plans were disrupted by COVID. Veronika reflects on how her mother didn’t just save her but an entire family, forever influencing their legacy.(80) (ה3(,)ר)) 4'ל(ת' ())ט,)מ :תחלשמ | :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1945 :הד(ל ת,ש . ,1945 . .1945 5- . , . . . , " , ." . , , " . , !"' ' . , . , , . . . 18 , , . , , , . , . , (83) ר,רג ש)ל3(מ :תחלשמ | :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1942 :הד(ל ת,ש 1942 , . 1944 . . . 1946 , .1947 . , 40- , . . . . , . , 400 , . . , " . , . . " . . ,83 , . , .". . . יתוהז לבא ,יתד אל ינא הליהקהו תידוהיה .יל םיבושח תידוהיה ךלוה ינא הנש שאר לכב בוחרבש תסנכה תיבלרבעב ומכ ,ינהוד-Despite everything, I still hold onto Jewish identity. I’m not religious, but the community matters. Every Rosh Hashanah, my family goes to the Dohány Synagogue, just like in the past .הגפ הדלונ הקינורו התוא קדבש אפורה לכותש ןימאה אל תוכזב ךא ,דורשל לש םייעבטה םישוחה קוניל החילצה המאתויחל ךישמהלו-Veronika was born prematurely. The doctor believed Veronika wouldn't survive, but her mother’s instinct helped her to start eating despite her fragility
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DELEGATION 80 YEARS SINCE LIBERATION2025 INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING I 44(92) רל8((ז ר)ד,ש :תחלשמ | :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1933 :הד(ל ת,ש 11 1933 , , " . ." . 1942 . 1944 , , 16- . , “ . , . . . , ." . , , . . . , . . 1945 , . , " . . . . , . , ." Sándor Zeisler (92)Year of birth: 1933 | Place of birth: Hungary | Delegation: Hungary Born in Budapest in 1933, Sándor lived a typical childhood in the eighth district until age 11. “There were Friday night candle-lightings, cholent, and everything a Jewish household should have. On holidays, they took me to the synagogue.”The anti-Jewish laws changed everything. Sándor’s father was drafted into forced labor in 1942, and by 1944, Jews were marked with yellow stars and moved into designated houses.On October 16, when Szálasi and the Arrow Cross seized power, they stormed their building, shooting randomly. “They shot two people in our building. One of them was my mother. They shot her dead. We were walking down the stairs with our hands up, and she collapsed in front of me. I had to step over her because the gendarmes were driving us forward with bayonets.”Sándor and his grandparents were taken to Tattersall, where thousands of Jews were gathered. They were eventually released and were allowed back home, but soon after, they were forced into the ghetto. Sandor’s aunt placed him in a Jewish shelter where older boys disguised themselves as Arrow Cross members to retrieve their bedding from their homes.As the situation worsened, they were discovered and forced into the ghetto at Síp Street. There, they witnessed unimaginable horrors—bodies stacked in courtyards and severed heads in the streets.In February 1945, Soviet tanks crashed through the ghetto’s wooden fence. Sandor ran to tell everyone, "The war is over!" To Sandor, the Russians were liberators."After the war, we were free, but my mother was gone, and life would never be the same. The struggle for survival continued, but my childhood had ended in that ghetto.When my child was born, I wasn’t married yet. So when I got a three-day leave, I quickly married my wife.And then life truly began." ימאב ורי םיחצורה תוגרדמב ונדרי .תוומל איהו ,תומרומ םיידיב .יילגרל הטטומתה לע ךורדל יתצלאנ םירטושה יכ התפוגםהינודיכב ונתוא ופחד-They shot her dead. We were walking down the stairs with our hands up. I had to step over her because the gendarmes were driving us forward with bayonets(92) ר(מ' הטרה ' :הד(ל ם)3מ | 1933 :הד(ל ת,ש ' :תחלשמ .' , 1933 22- , ,1939 . . , . , , . .1944 , .- . , ,1947 . . . ' ,' .UCLA , () . .1946 ..1960 . , – " 2020 . , Herta Amir (92)Year of birth: 1933 | Place of birth: Czechoslovakia Delegation: L.A.Herta was born in Ko!ice, Czechoslovakia, on February 22, 1933.In 1939, the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia and stripped Jews of all their rights. Six-year-old Herta was expelled from school, and even her library card was taken away. This trauma sparked a lifelong commitment to education. She and her family spent much of the war in hiding, until they were captured in November 1944. Her father was sent to Auschwitz. Herta, her mother, and her older sister were taken to Bergen-Belsen. Miraculously, Herta was one of the few children to survive.The family immigrated to the United States in 1947, settling in New York City with other relatives. Herta learned English and developed a love of mathematics in high school. She attended Queens College, and later Radcliffe, where she earned a master’s degree in Economics. When the family moved to Los Angeles, she continued her doctoral studies at UCLA.Herta reunited with Paul (Shmuel) Amir, whom she had known in childhood, during a visit to Israel. Paul had made Aliyah in 1946. He fought in the War of Independence and was a founding member of Kibbutz Yehi’am near Haifa. After a long-distance romance, they married in 1960.Herta and Paul were a team. In life, in work, and in philanthropy. Together, they built a successful real estate development company. They supported educational and cultural institutions around the world, especially in the United States and Israel. Paul passed away in 2020. Herta continues their philanthropic work together with their two daughters המא ,הטרה הריכבה התוחאו .ןזלב-ןגרבל וחלשנ הדרש הטרה ,סנ ךרדב םש םידליהמ תחא ודרשש םיטעמהארונה הנחמב-Miraculously, Herta was one of the few children to survive Bergen-Belsen
I rememberI am still alive and remember!I remember the selections in Sered.I remember the torture by the guards.I remember the members of our family who were murdered.I remember saying goodbye to my parents and brother.I remember the faces of the starved prisoners/skeletons.I remember prisoners who committed suicide on an electric fence,I remember prisoners who collapsed on the death march and were shot by the SS.I remember prisoners who froze in open train cars.I will not forget the fear and hunger.We are the embers, who survived the great re, in which six million Jews were murderedNaftali FirstNumber B-14026 Auschwitz Number 120041 Buchenwald
Dear Survivors, The 2025 International March of the Living is taking place as the world marks 80 years since the liberation of Europe from Nazi tyranny and the end of World War II. After 80 years of your survival and resilience, we are blessed with the privilege to march together with each of you from Auschwitz I to Auschwitz II-Birkenau on this historic global gathering of 80 Holocaust survivors. Among you are babies born in those days of both destruction and hope…boys and girls who were forced to become adults prematurely, often as the sole survivors of your family and friends. And yet, despite all these obstacles and more facing you, you rose up and built new lives, new families and new communities. Many of you were partners in the establishment and rebirth of the modern State of Israel, and for this the entire Jewish world remains eternally grateful. You, dear friends, are living proof of the victory of the human spirit. The March of the Living was born almost four decades ago as a tribute to memory and a salute to victory. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel z’l, himself a participant in several March of the Living programs said: "When you listen to a witness – you become a witness." The hundreds of thousands of alumni from around the world who have participated on the March of the Living since its inception in 1988 are proud to be “witnesses for the witnesses.”To you our heroes: We promise we will always remember. We promise we will continue to march. And we promise we will continue to honor you as we pass the torch of memory on to future generations.AM YISRAEL CHAI.
The International March of the Living expresses its heartfelt gratitude to those who so graciously partnered with our organization to enable our honored survivors to participate at this momentous gathering. We thank you for your commitment to the success of this very special journey. Revital Yakin Krakovsky, Eli Rubenstein, Ariana Heideman Tipograph, Liz Panitch, Roni Ofarim, Meital Goren, Colin S. White Editing: Yaacov Shkolnik I Design: Shelly WeinsteinThe material contained in this publication has been edited and condensed for length and clarity purposes. We have striven to be accurate as possible, and apologize in advance for any inadvertent errors, which we will endeavour to correct upon notification.
Holocaust Survivors DelegationInternational March of the Living 202580 Years Since Liberation