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DUKAS_112280767_EYE
The gates of hell: Auschwitz 75 years on. Renee Salt was 15 when she was sent to Auschwitz.
The gates of hell: Auschwitz 75 years on. The Nazi death camp where more than one million people perished was liberated on 27 January 1945. Renee Salt, a Holocaust survivor, photographed at her home in London. Renee was born Rywka Ruchla Berkowitz in Zdun?ska Wola, Poland, in 1929. Renee Salt survived the Holocaust working as a slave labourer, and surviving time spent in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen Concentration camps. After the war Renee Salt went back to Poland to find surviving family members. She found an aunt and they eventually moved to Paris where she met her husband Charles, who was in the British Army.
© Antonio Olmos / Guardian / eyevine
Contact eyevine for more information about using this image:
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(FOTO: DUKAS/EYEVINE)
© Guardian / eyevine. All Rights Reserved. -
DUKAS_112280768_EYE
The gates of hell: Auschwitz 75 years on. Renee Salt was 15 when she was sent to Auschwitz.
The gates of hell: Auschwitz 75 years on. The Nazi death camp where more than one million people perished was liberated on 27 January 1945. Renee Salt, a Holocaust survivor, photographed at her home in London. Renee was born Rywka Ruchla Berkowitz in Zdun?ska Wola, Poland, in 1929. Renee Salt survived the Holocaust working as a slave labourer, and surviving time spent in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen Concentration camps. After the war Renee Salt went back to Poland to find surviving family members. She found an aunt and they eventually moved to Paris where she met her husband Charles, who was in the British Army.
© Antonio Olmos / Guardian / eyevine
Contact eyevine for more information about using this image:
T: +44 (0) 20 8709 8709
E: info@eyevine.com
http://www.eyevine.com
(FOTO: DUKAS/EYEVINE)
© Guardian / eyevine. All Rights Reserved. -
DUKAS_112280766_EYE
The gates of hell: Auschwitz 75 years on. Renee Salt was 15 when she was sent to Auschwitz.
The gates of hell: Auschwitz 75 years on. The Nazi death camp where more than one million people perished was liberated on 27 January 1945. Renee Salt, a Holocaust survivor, photographed at her home in London. Renee was born Rywka Ruchla Berkowitz in Zdun?ska Wola, Poland, in 1929. Renee Salt survived the Holocaust working as a slave labourer, and surviving time spent in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen Concentration camps. After the war Renee Salt went back to Poland to find surviving family members. She found an aunt and they eventually moved to Paris where she met her husband Charles, who was in the British Army.
© Antonio Olmos / Guardian / eyevine
Contact eyevine for more information about using this image:
T: +44 (0) 20 8709 8709
E: info@eyevine.com
http://www.eyevine.com
(FOTO: DUKAS/EYEVINE)
© Guardian / eyevine. All Rights Reserved. -
DUKAS_183898830_NUR
Heavy Rainfall During International March Of The Living
Participants walk in the stormy weather after attend the commemoration ceremony od the 37th anniversary of International March of the Living at the former Nazi-German Auschwitz Birkenau II concentration and extermination camp in Brzezinka, Poland on April 24, 2025. Due to heavy rainfall the closing ceremony was shortened. The 2025 March of the Living from Auschwitz I to Auschwitz II-Birkenau is dedicated to the 80th Anniversary of the end of World War II and the liberation of the concentration camps in Nazi-occupied Europe. The annual march is a part of educational program, which brings Jewish students from around the world to Poland, where they explore the remnants of the Holocaust. (Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto) -
DUKAS_183898828_NUR
Heavy Rainfall During International March Of The Living
Participants walk in the stormy weather after attend the commemoration ceremony od the 37th anniversary of International March of the Living at the former Nazi-German Auschwitz Birkenau II concentration and extermination camp in Brzezinka, Poland on April 24, 2025. Due to heavy rainfall the closing ceremony was shortened. The 2025 March of the Living from Auschwitz I to Auschwitz II-Birkenau is dedicated to the 80th Anniversary of the end of World War II and the liberation of the concentration camps in Nazi-occupied Europe. The annual march is a part of educational program, which brings Jewish students from around the world to Poland, where they explore the remnants of the Holocaust. (Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto) -
DUKAS_183898811_NUR
Heavy Rainfall During International March Of The Living
Participants walk in the stormy weather after attend the commemoration ceremony od the 37th anniversary of International March of the Living at the former Nazi-German Auschwitz Birkenau II concentration and extermination camp in Brzezinka, Poland on April 24, 2025. Due to heavy rainfall the closing ceremony was shortened. The 2025 March of the Living from Auschwitz I to Auschwitz II-Birkenau is dedicated to the 80th Anniversary of the end of World War II and the liberation of the concentration camps in Nazi-occupied Europe. The annual march is a part of educational program, which brings Jewish students from around the world to Poland, where they explore the remnants of the Holocaust. (Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto) -
DUKAS_183860650_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Felicja Weiss,, Year of birth: 1935, Place of birth: Poland. "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!" (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860647_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Arne 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. (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860644_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Felicja Weiss,, Year of birth: 1935, Place of birth: Poland. "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!" (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860641_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Alisa Vitis Shomron, Year of birth: 1928. Place of birth: Poland. Aliza'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". (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/P
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860638_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Alisa Vitis Shomron, Year of birth: 1928. Place of birth: Poland. Aliza'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". (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/P
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860635_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Naftali Furst, Year of birth: 1933. Place of birth: Czechoslovakia. ”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 Martit, 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. (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860631_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 22nd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Hana Sternlicht, Year of birth: 1930. Place of birth: Czechoslovakia. Hana 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 From Mauthausen camp. 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. (Ziv Koren/Polaris)EXCLUSIVE: April 22nd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Year of birth: 1930. Place of birth: Czechoslovakia. Hana was born in Prague, an only daughter. When
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860627_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Bella Eizenman, Year of birth: 1927. Place of birth: Poland. When 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. (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARI
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860623_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 22nd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Dvora Weinstein (Rosenberg) Year of birth: 1936. Place of birth: Ukraine. Dvora 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 grandchil
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860619_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 22nd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Dvora Weinstein (Rosenberg) Year of birth: 1936. Place of birth: Ukraine. Dvora 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 grandchil
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860604_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Israel Shaked. "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." (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860601_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Sara Weinstein, Year of birth: 1935. Place of birth: Poland. Sara 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 ghetto. On 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, hey 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. (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860598_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Outside Auschwitz, Poland: Gitel Koifman (Brunsport), Year of birth: 1939 | Place of birth: Moldova. Gitel 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. Gitel 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. Gitel 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. Gitel lost dozens of her family members in the Holocaust, including her mother, grandmother, uncles, and aunts. Gitel 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". Gitel 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. (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860595_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Two holocaust survivors Irene Shashar (R) and Gitel Koifman (L) meet with two kidnapped soldiers Agam Berger (L) and Ori Megidish (R) who returned from captivity in Gaza, at the Auschwitz camp entrance gate. This year we mark 80 years for the liberation from camps. (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860591_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Outside Auschwitz, Poland: Gitel Koifman (Brunsport), Year of birth: 1939 | Place of birth: Moldova. Gitel 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. Gitel 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. Gitel 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. Gitel lost dozens of her family members in the Holocaust, including her mother, grandmother, uncles, and aunts. Gitel 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". Gitel 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. (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860587_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Felicja Weiss,, Year of birth: 1935, Place of birth: Poland. "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!" (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860583_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Arne 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. (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860579_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Felicja Weiss,, Year of birth: 1935, Place of birth: Poland. "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!" (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860574_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Felicja Weiss,, Year of birth: 1935, Place of birth: Poland. "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!" (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860698_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Two holocaust survivors Irene Shashar (R) and Gitel Koifman (L) meet with two kidnapped soldiers Agam Berger (R) and Ori Megidish (L) who returned from captivity in Gaza, at the Auschwitz camp entrance gate. This year we mark 80 years for the liberation from camps. (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860696_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Outside Auschwitz, Poland: Gitel Koifman (Brunsport), Year of birth: 1939 | Place of birth: Moldova. Gitel 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. Gitel 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. Gitel 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. Gitel lost dozens of her family members in the Holocaust, including her mother, grandmother, uncles, and aunts. Gitel 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". Gitel 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. (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860694_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Giora (George) Shefi, Year of birth: 1931. Place of birth: Germany. George Shefi (Spiegel) 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. (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860692_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Giora (George) Shefi, Year of birth: 1931. Place of birth: Germany. George Shefi (Spiegel) 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. (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860690_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Felicja Weiss,, Year of birth: 1935, Place of birth: Poland. "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!" (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860688_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Alisa Vitis Shomron, Year of birth: 1928. Place of birth: Poland. Aliza'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". (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/P
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860686_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Naftali Furst, Year of birth: 1933. Place of birth: Czechoslovakia. ”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 Martit, 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. (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860685_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 22nd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Arnold Clevs, Year of birth: 1933. Place of birth: Lithuania. When 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 children. After 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. (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860683_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Israel Shaked. "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." (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860682_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Israel Shaked. "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." (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860681_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Sara Weinstein, Year of birth: 1935. Place of birth: Poland. Sara 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 ghetto. On 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, hey 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. (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860680_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Israel Shaked. "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." (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860679_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Irene Shashar, Year of birth: 1937. Place of birth: Poland. When 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, name
Ziv Koren -
DUKAS_183860678_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Two holocaust survivors Irene Shashar (R) and Gitel Koifman (L) meet with two kidnapped soldiers (middle) Agam Berger (L) and Ori Megidish (R) who returned from captivity in Gaza, at the Auschwitz camp entrance gate. This year we mark 80 years for the liberation from camps. (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
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Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Irene Shashar, Year of birth: 1937. Place of birth: Poland. When 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, name
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DUKAS_183860675_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Felicja Weiss,, Year of birth: 1935, Place of birth: Poland. "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!" (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
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Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Giora (George) Shefi, Year of birth: 1931. Place of birth: Germany. George Shefi (Spiegel) 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. (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
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DUKAS_183860671_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Felicja Weiss,, Year of birth: 1935, Place of birth: Poland. "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!" (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
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Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Naftali Furst, Year of birth: 1933. Place of birth: Czechoslovakia. ”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 Martit, 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. (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
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Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Bella Eizenman, Year of birth: 1927. Place of birth: Poland. When 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. (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARI
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Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 22nd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Hana Sternlicht, Year of birth: 1930. Place of birth: Czechoslovakia. Hana 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 From Mauthausen camp. 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. (Ziv Koren/Polaris)EXCLUSIVE: April 22nd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Year of birth: 1930. Place of birth: Czechoslovakia. Hana was born in Prague, an only daughter. When
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DUKAS_183860663_POL
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 22nd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Arnold Clevs, Year of birth: 1933. Place of birth: Lithuania. When 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 children. After 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. (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
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Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 22nd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Dvora Weinstein (Rosenberg) Year of birth: 1936. Place of birth: Ukraine. Dvora 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 grandchil
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Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Sara Weinstein, Year of birth: 1935. Place of birth: Poland. Sara 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 ghetto. On 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, hey 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. (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
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Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on 80th anniversary of death camp liberation
EXCLUSIVE: April 23rd, 2025 - Auschwitz, Poland: Israel Shaked. "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." (Ziv Koren/Polaris) (FOTO:DUKAS/POLARIS)
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