Six Holocaust survivors lit torches at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem on Monday evening, April 13, at the Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony in memory of the six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. Here are their stories:
- Saadia Bahat was born in 1928 in Alytus, Lithuania. The Germans invaded in June 1941 and the family was expelled to the Vilna ghetto. In September 1943, the Germans demanded volunteers to work in camps in Estonia and Saadia volunteered. In Estonia, Saadia passed through six camps, chopping trees and laying railway tracks. The work was sometimes carried out in freezing temperatures without adequate clothing, and under starvation conditions that led to the deaths of many. Liberated by the Soviets, he reached Mandatory Palestine in 1946. Saadia enlisted in the Haganah, volunteered in the Palmach, and was wounded in action. He later worked in the Rafael armament development authority for 37 years, receiving the Israel Defense Prize.
- Miriam (Daisy) Bar Lev was born in 1936 in Tel Aviv. When riots broke out in Mandatory Palestine, the family moved to Amsterdam. In 1940, Nazi Germany occupied the Netherlands, and in 1942, the Germans ordered the Jews to wear the Yellow Star on their clothing. Six-year-old Daisy and her parents hid when the deportation of Jews to the extermination camps began, before they were ultimately caught and deported to Bergen-Belsen. In April 1945, Daisy and her mother, who had been traveling for weeks in a cattle car, were liberated by the Red Army in Germany. They reached Israel in 1946, where Daisy, now Miriam, served in the IDF, studied nursing, and worked in the national health service.
- Ilana Fallach was born in 1937 in Benghazi, Libya. In late 1940, the British bombed Benghazi and many family members were killed. In 1942, the Italian regime loaded the extended family onto a cattle truck and after five days reached the Giado concentration camp. At the camp, food was sparse, moldy, and worm-ridden, and many inmates succumbed to starvation and disease. The camp was liberated by the British army in 1943. In the wake of anti-Jewish riots in Benghazi, the family fled to Tripoli, and immigrated to Israel in 1949. Ilana talks about the Holocaust of Libyan Jewry to educational groups.
- Moshe Harari was born in 1934 in Paprotnia, Poland. In 1941, the family was transferred to the Mordy ghetto. In August 1942, German soldiers and Polish policemen rounded up the Jews in the market square with the intent to murder them, but his family managed to escape to the forest. After roaming from one hiding place to another for six months, they reached a Polish farmer called Lipinski in the village of Widze who hid them in return for payment. The Red Army liberated the area in 1944. The family headed to Eretz Israel in 1947 and were intercepted by the British and sent to a detention camp in Cyprus. Eventually reaching Israel, Moshe worked in the military industry for decades.
- Avigdor Neumann was born in 1931 in Sevlus, Czechoslovakia (today Vynohradiv, Ukraine). In 1939, the town came under Hungarian rule. In March 1944, the Germans invaded Hungary and the family was sent to Birkenau, the largest camp in Auschwitz. Avigdor told Dr. Mengele that he was a mechanic and passed the selection. The next day, he was informed that his mother, sisters, and brothers had been murdered. On Jan. 18, 1945, Avigdor was forced on a death march before he was liberated by the U.S. army. He eventually reached Israel and fought in all of Israel's wars until the Yom Kippur War, when he was wounded.
- Michael Sidko was born in 1936 in Kyiv, Ukraine. In September 1941, the Jews of Kyiv were taken to the Babi Yar ravine, where Michael and his older brother Grisha witnessed the murder of their mother and siblings. The two started hiding in the cellar of the building they had lived in. Sofia Krivorot-Baklanova and her daughter Galina also lived in the building. Sofia was a teacher at the school Grisha had attended, and she knew that the boys were Jewish. Every time policemen and German soldiers came to check the building, Sofia told them that Michael and Grisha were her sons, and Galina said they were her brothers. Sofia and Galina were recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations in 2004. Michael immigrated to Israel with his family in 2000.
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