Article by Marion Stone

It is now a tradition that Hadassah-Israel Levonah Chapter of Modi’in and Modi’in’s ESRA branch hold a joint Shoah Memorial event, and this year around 160 attended a very meaningful evening.

Co-chair of ESRA in Modi’in, Doreen Morris, opened the evening by telling us that the first Shoah commemoration was held in 1951 to coincide with the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Our presence was to remember the Holocaust and the tragic events of October 7 2023. She introduced Deputy Mayor of Modi’in, Shlomo Passy, who began by quoting from Elie Wiesel and said that descendants of survivors grew up hearing about what happened and we must make sure now that stories continue to be shared. Antisemitism is not a thing of the past.

It has risen again as terrorists are using the same methods that were used by the Nazis, and worse, and it reminds us of the dark times in Jewish History, especially in Israel. Today we are facing very serious challenges and having a country of our own is even more important.

Rabbi Jeffrey Shron recited Psalm 23, offering the thought that Jews probably said this psalm as they were being marched off by the Nazis to their deaths. The candle lighting ceremony was introduced by Ruchama Berkovitch.

First to light was Manny Auerbacher, born in Freiberg, Germany in 1931. Growing up in Kippenheim, Germany, his father told him that his family had lived in that area for 200 years. The family had lived a good life until Hitler came to power and hoped that the era would pass but it didn’t. Their synagogue was not destroyed. Anti semitism has been around for a long time, even before the Nazis. He lit the first candle in memory of all family and friends who perished, and dedicated it to his 6 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren

David Flug’s parents were from Poland and met in a Displaced Persons’ camp after most of their families had been murdered, and lived in the Munich area until 1951, when they sailed to the USA and settled in Brooklyn. They were surrounded by many survivors, which became some sort of therapeutic group. His mother and Uncle were the only family survivors and there are at least 120 descendants in the fourth generation. It was often heard in his family that the new generations are the greatest victory over the Nazi’s final solution.

Shosh Kloot’s mother, Bluma Bruckstein, was born in Sighet, Hungary in 1924. One of 5 children, only 3 survived Auschwitz. Her father Solomon Willinger was born 1917, one of 12 children. And only 4 sons survived Auschwitz. Over years they moved from Romania to Israel and on to Australia where they were finally able to succeed and live their Jewish lives in peace. They were blessed with many grandchildren who followed in their Jewish footsteps. Their first grandson made aliyah to Israel, She saluted their resilience, tenacity, faith and ability to retain their sense of humour. She added that she also honours many lost members of both families who are not recorded in Yad Vashem because no-one was left to remember them, but Hashem does.

Larry Lockerman ’s parents met after the war in Krakow. His father, Mayer had served in the Russian army and suffered a head wound. He returned to his village Dymitrov , near Radziechow, to find his family and was told not to go to what was the family home because he would be killed. Larry read from his father ’s memoirs, describing his return to Radziechow to find all Jewish buildings destroyed along with the cemetery, and feeling depressed. It was painful to see his hometown Judenrein and former gentile neighbours and friends didn’t care. A subconscious voice told him to get out and not return. Larry’s father went to Krakow and met his mother, who had lost most of her family. She had escaped from a train going to Treblinka and survived on false papers, working as a maid for a Nazi family. She rescued and hid Jewish children in the Nazi family’s home. It was Larry’s parents’ dream to live in Israel and he and some of his family are now fulfilling the dream. There are 6 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren

Annie Landa Rosen’s mother, Miriam Katz Landa, wrote a book of her memoirs when she was 90 years old. It is titled “Not just a survivor” with a subtitle “From the Holocaust and Communist Europe to Freedom “. Annie’s son, Liad went to Poland this year with his school trip Since 70 members of her family perished in Auschwitz, she says it is very meaningful for her family’s younger generation to visit proudly wearing their Israeli flags and singing, praying and remembering the lost souls of her mother and father ’s family. Her candle honours and remembers all her family members who perished.

Jane Stern told the story of what happened to her family and how they survived the hardships and challenges of the Shoah. Her father , Mendel Wachsman, could never speak about the atrocities he witnessed. Her mother, Ida Geiger, learned how to trade in the black market in order to survive and took advice from her grandfather . Her faith in Hashem was unwavering. Ida said that she survived because it was Hashem’s will. She was no better than anyone else. She was lucky to be helped by good people. She taught the principles of love and kindness, never to hate. Her parents were married in Samarkand in March 1945 and returned to Poland to search for survivors but were shocked to find nothing left of their vibrant Jewish world – “Our Shtetl life was gone forever” They went to a Displaced Person’s camp in Germany in order to leave Europe. She continued “I feel privileged and honoured to be able to light this memorial candle – to be able to remember, reflect and respect our forebears. I dedicate the light of this candle to the memory of my parents, their lost family and my husband Gary’s parents and their lost family– also to the six million precious souls that we lost, and to every heroic survivor of the Shoah as well as the righteous gentiles, known and unknown, who saved Jews despite the danger to themselves and their families.

Lastly I light this candle for the present and the future of Medinat Israel – Am Yisrael Chai veKayam!

Rabbi Jeffrey Shron recited the El Malei Rachamim.

Gerry Wine interviewed Terry Friedman about her experience of “Hiding in Plain Sight: A Hidden Child in the Holocaust”. With a doctorate from Harvard University in Educational Psychology and as a first endowed Professor at Haifa University, Terry is well equipped to analyse what happened to her as an 11 month old baby when her parents gave her away for safekeeping. In later years she understood that they were giving her life insurance. She was 9 years old in 1945 at the end of the war. Her mother had managed to get false papers and do menial work. She didn’t speak German but could understand and managed to keep up to date with what was happening. As the war ended, the Jewish Agency put up a bulletin board as an aid to locating and finding family and friends, and this is how her father ’s cousin found them. Her Polish mother was willing to return her to her birth mother, but wanted her to keep the Polish name that she had been given – Teresa. 

Terry’s grandmother had six children, and only one of them, her mother, survived. They had no immediate family. A short archive film was shown that showed preparations for Pesach in 1939, and the seder that was held in Vienna that year, which included a shot of Terry at the seder.

President of Hadassah-Israel, our own Rivkah Cooper read the poem ‘To Seek a Human’ by the brave Hannah Senecz (Senesh) who was executed in Budapest on November 7th 1944 aged 23 years old. She was a writer from an early age until her final moments. Her family archive is held at the National Library of Israel.

Then Carole Lipman’s granddaughter, Noa Lipman gave an insight into her reaction to what she saw when she visited Auschwitz Birkenau with her school earlier this year. More than 80 years after the Shoah, physical evidence remains at Auschwitz Birkenau, and it was hard to believe that such terrible things happened there. Her great grandfather ’s family had been murdered there and she admitted that she didn’t know how she would react. It had sounded so terrible it felt almost unreal.

Now here she was, not knowing how she would react or feel, and she was afraid of not feeling anything, or not relating to the terrible things that happened there. Once they entered through the gates, the whole atmosphere changed, and you felt it all around. Collections of the many possessions taken from the Jewish victims are displayed. Some of the victims had travelled their journey with hope of a new, better home, not realizing that they were travelling to their deaths. Her group toured, and saw where Mengele operated, the shorn hair, the suitcases and shoes left behind. Yes, she related to her lost family. - was she looking at hair that belonged to a murdered relative? Emotionally, she and her friends left with their Israeli flags wrapped around them, and to quote: “I felt an enormous sense of pride in the resilience of the Jewish people and an enormous sense of responsibility to continue the legacy of the Jewish people.”

Carol thanked everyone for coming and supporting ESRA’s projects and Hadassah’s new Gandel Rehabilitation building . She then read the names of those who donated a dedication.

Zenia Cohen, President of Levonah- Hadassah-Israel expressed a collective ‘Thank You’ to the tireless helpers and concluded by saying that we all have an obligation never to forget. ‘Never Again’ has never been so important.

To end, Rabbi Jeffrey Shron led singing of the Hatikva.