Holocaust survivor Hannah Malka (98) survived the Theresienstadt ghetto, forced labor in Germany and Auschwitz • Tonight she told her story to Yael Goldman on a live broadcast on Instagram
Holocaust survivor Hannah Malka
Photo:
Joshua Joseph
In the house of the model and TV wife Yael Goldman, they did not talk about the Holocaust.
Her grandparents, who fled the inferno but lost their entire family in the Holocaust, did not like to talk about their past.
In recent years, as Holocaust survivors dwindle from year to year, Goldman realizes how important it is to hear the stories of survivors.
This year she participated in the "Memory in the Living Room" project and met for a conversation with Holocaust survivor Hannah Malka (98).
The conversation was broadcast live on the Instagram page of "Israel Entertainment".
"I feel like it's a bit of a fix for me," Goldman, 42, says.
"My maternal grandparents came to Israel from Poland (Lvov) before the war, but all their relatives perished in Auschwitz, and they never talked about it. They did not agree to talk about it. I always felt I had a lot of unresolved questions and things, and they refused to talk. It's a part that could not be talked about. My grandfather died when I was 7 and my grandmother died when I was 28 without us talking about the Holocaust, and in the end it is impossible not to talk about it because it is part of who we are. There are few people today whose story can be heard firsthand, And that's necessary.
"Last year I participated in 'Living Room Memory' in Zoom, because of the corona.
Lots of young people participated and it made me happy that they care and that they understand the importance of it.
It is very important that a young audience is exposed to this.
The audience of "Israel Entertainment" is mostly young, and that's great for me. "
According to Goldman, a third Holocaust survivor, it definitely had a presence at home.
"I can testify that I grew up with a mother who is completely second generation to the Holocaust," she says.
"It manifests itself in all sorts of things, for example hoarding, fear of being lacking, always excessive amounts of food. My mother has two refrigerators, God knows why. My paternal grandparents refused to use German products. They did not agree to hear about anything related. In Germany, they did not agree to receive payments. "
"Overcrowding and disease"
Holocaust survivor with whom Goldman spoke was Hannah Malka, who was born in the southern Czech Republic.
"By 1938, the Nazis had taken over the area around the Czech Republic, and a few months later the president announced that the Germans were in control of the country. The lives of the Jews changed instantly," she says.
"I was not allowed to go to school or talk to my friends. Then came the yellow badge, and then I was sent with my mother to the Theresienstadt ghetto. Being there in terrible overcrowding, I was 19. The ghetto management thought children were the future and we should nurture them, so I taught them To write and read. But mortality in the ghetto was terrible. Because of the overcrowding there were a lot of diseases.
"I was there for two years, and then transports to Auschwitz began.
Every day 1,500 people.
That's how I got to Auschwitz in 1944.
In the selection I was sent to the right with another 200 people.
We were told we were destined to travel to Germany for work.
They stripped us, shaved us, put ten women on one bed and gave us one soup plate for every ten.
Without a spoon.
I'm blacked out right now.
I'm sure we ate the soup, only I do not remember how.
"My mother was sent on a transfer to Auschwitz two weeks before - and I have not heard from her since. When we asked where the other 1,500 people who came with us on the transport were told 'look at the sky, you see the smoke? This is your transport'. .
"after a few days they put us on a train and told us who travel to Germany to work.
We waited outside for the train, in the snow.
We drove to East Germany, to a place called Adren, a town that had a textile factory that became a weapons factory.
We sent some girls to work there.
We worked there hard day and night, and after six months they had already heard the cannons of the Russians.
We were not taken back to Theresienstadt.
"" I did not tell the children "
The Russian tanks arrived shortly afterwards. The war ended." The Russians agreed to take me to Prague, "says Hannah Malka. .
In 1946, the opportunity came to immigrate to Israel.
I came to Kiryat Haim, where I had an uncle, and I stayed there. "
Hannah's partner died 20 years ago. She is a mother of a son and a daughter, a grandmother of five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. In recent years she has lived in sheltered housing in Tel Aviv.
" I did not tell my children anything. She says. "I only recently started talking.
I think it's important to show them that despite the hardships we went through, people tried to be happy even in the most difficult moments and do good to each other.
It is very important that people know not to be rude and mean to each other.
With all the difficulty, we stayed alive and remained human.
We must not forget. "