Article By: Marion Stone
This year, the State of Israel being in a cease-fire with Iran, the usual live audience of around 200 was prohibited, so the event organisers decided to present the event on zoom to almost 100 participants. It was a challenge well overcome, and the programme ran smoothly.
Following the regular format, Zenia Cohen, former President of the Levonah Chapter of Hadassah-Israel welcomed everyone and introduced the present President, Robin Weiss, who spoke of our darkest memories and her father-in-law’s work in a slave labour camp, and how he was helped to escape by gypsies. In later life he spoke at Yad Vashem, carrying the story forward by explaining the endurance of the human spirit and responsibility to ensure that the next generation doesn’t forget. His words link to what the brave IDF fighters are doing today for our state and our people.
Rabbi Jeffrey Shron recited Psalm 121 with a translation into English.
Deputy Mayor of Modi’in, Shlomo Passy, told us that we have the choice to stand as a nation and tell the truth of what happened. He wished for a safe return of all our soldiers.
Ruchama Berkowitz continued the proceedings with the traditional candlelighting. Each candle was lit in the home of the person chosen to light the candles.
Zvi Berkowitz
Ruchama’s husband, Zvi, lit the first candle after describing 2 miracles. Kind people had helped both his parents, Chaim and Sarah, nee Spiegel ז"ל to survive in Auschwitz Birkenau. Miracle 1 was when Chaim’s cousin saved him from death when he saw him waiting in line to be gassed as a punishment, by telling the overseer who managed to get him freed and returned to his work.
The second miracle happened to Sarah. If seen to be too weak and ill to stand during a visit by Mengele, she would have been put to death, but her friends propped her up at each side and this saved her life.
Mark Blechner
He is named after his grandfather, Markus, who was murdered in Buchenwald. He told about Salo Siegfried Blechner, his father’s life and work in inhuman conditions as a slave labourer.
His grandmother, Mina, had written 300 letters that she wrote between 1939 and 1941 to her brother in Zurich, before she was shot dead in Munich by the Nazis in 1941. She had left a historical record of the difficult times and anguish that the family suffered. These were exhibited in Munich in 2000.
Hedy Shron
Her mother was Czech and her father was Polish. He survived with false papers as a Christian. Her father’s family were tailors and since the Nazis were short of tailoring workers for uniforms, his sister advised him to say he could sew, even though he was a barber. He begged the family to escape eastward into Russia, but they refused, believing that if they followed the rules, they would be safe. But they were not safe and were murdered. Her father had gone east with his niece and they became prisoners of the Russians sent on cattle carriages to freezing Siberia. He noticed that the Russian guards were cutting each other’s hair and offered to do this job for them with the tools he had with him. His skills saved him, and for the rest of the war he was able to eat better food. After the war he returned to the family home and found it devastated, no family left alive and all their possessions taken by the Nazis. He went to Traunstein Displaced Persons’ camp where he met and married her mother, and where her brother was born.
Her father’s surviving brother, Gershon, had fled Poland before the war, before being inducted into the Polish army, had moved to Hadera in 1936. Hedy’s parents and brother managed to reach Israel and settled in Netanya, where she was born. Her father opened one of the first Barber’s shops in Netanya. Twelve years later they left Israel for America.
Anne Katz
Lit her candle in memory of her parents, both born in Poland, Arnold and Helen Rosenberg. They had survived the ghetto, camps and a death March but almost all of their families had been murdered. She, Chana Rachel, was born in a DP camp and is named after her two murdered grandmothers . “My parents are my heroes. They would be so proud to see how their family has grown. From their three children to their seven grandchildren, to seventeen great grandchildren to one great great grandson”.
Carol Lipman
Carol grew up knowing only one relative apart from her parents – her father’s first cousin. Much later it became possible to make contact with her father’s brother who had returned to Brno which was then behind the iron curtain.
Her grandson Aharon – sitting with her as she spoke - was able to locate her grandfather’s name when he visited Prague last year and found his name among the records of murdered individuals and lost communities.
Her mother’s mother had been able to escape and a friend helped her find employment as a domestic – one of the few ways to be permitted to enter the UK at that time. Her mother’s father – they did not know for years what had happened to him, was Sephardi, originally from Turkey and though they knew he had reached Chile, they did not learn until many months later that he had died of a heart attack in 1940. Before she made aliyah, Carol travelled to Chile and found her grandfather’s grave. For her it was a tangible connection with a man she never knew.
When she started school, Carol was asked to draw her family tree, but could only include her parents, brother and grandmother. Her teacher tried to encourage her to add uncles, aunts, cousins, but there was no-one she knew of. In England, her parents did not hide their origins and described themselves as ‘continental’ and felt that the best way to protect their children while growing up, was to not refer to or discuss the trauma they themselves went through.
She ended with: “It is an honour to ask my grandson Aharon to now light a memorial candle for all those whom we may have never known personally – but who continue to mean so much”.
Rivkah Cooper, President of Hadassah- Israel
Her dedication cannot be shortened and is quoted in full, below:
“As we gather this evening, Yom HaShoah, we light this candle in sacred memory of the millions who were murdered Al Kiddush Hashem—for the sanctification of G-d’s name—during the Holocaust.
We remember not only individuals, but entire families, entire communities, entire villages—lives and legacies that were erased, with no one left to say their names.
This flame becomes their voice.
This light becomes their memory.
We stand here today as their witnesses. We carry their stories, their faith, and their dignity forward. In remembering them, we ensure that they are never lost to history, and never forgotten.
May their memories be a blessing, and may this light remind us of our responsibility—to remember, to honor, and to live with purpose and compassion in their name.”
Cantor Yaakov Basch recited the Kel Maleh Rachamim prayer.
Strength and Resilience During the Holocaust
Lori Gerson, Director of Jewish Educational Programs at Yad Vashem was the main speaker and stressed the importance of training teachers to educate about the Shoah because every person deserves to be remembered, whether then or now. However difficult what we are going through now may be for us, what the victims suffered then was much worse.
The Jewish way to learn is traditionally from father to son, teacher to student. In a Havura we learn Talmud or Gemarra through generations. Her presentation described several examples of the lessons that people learned and some artifacts that survived, while their owners did not.
She told the story of the announcement in Kovno in November 1943. The Rudenratt ordered Jews to hang posters telling them to go to the main square. The Jews of Kovno understood that they were being called to a ‘selection’, and did not know what they should do – should they hang the posters against their consciences? They consulted with Chief Rabbi, Avraham Dov Ber Shapiro, who told them to think differently, and must hang the posters, giving them the information, and give everyone the opportunity to be saved.
Kidnapped hostage Keith Seigal was kept prisoner in Gaza for 484 days. He was given a minimum of food during that time and realized that he should be thankful for any nourishment. A secular Israeli, he began to say the Mezzonot blessing every time he was given food.
Zelig Kalmonovitch was a teacher in the Vilna Ghetto and one of his students preferred to be called Yaakov, not Esau, because Yaakov’s name was changed to Israel after he had struggled and prevailed. The name of our Jewish State became Israel.
Six year old Romy Suissa was being taken in a car on October 7th, and they were being followed or chased by strangers. She called out to the other car “Atem shel Israel? - Are you Israeli?”
An Artist named Karol Deutch and his wife were both murdered in Auschwitz. Their daughter, Ingrid, and mother survived. A wooden box carved with 19 quotes from the Tanach is the only item that survived the destruction of their home.
Rabbi Jeffrey Shron sang with great reverence the prayer for our IDF soldiers. “mi she berach Avotenu hu yivarech hayalai Tzva Hagana l’Israel …..“
Closing remarks were made by co-chair of ESRA, Doreen Morris, who also linked the atrocities of the Shoah to what is happening today. She thanked all the speakers plus Susan Leibtag and Marion Stone for publicizing the event, and expressed gratitude to everyone who donated dedications. A list of dedications will be published separately.
She ended with the hope for the coming year to be peaceful and Am Israel Chai.
All participants were asked to stand for the Hatikva, which was sung by each one in their own home.