The Ringwald family did not talk much about the Holocaust, but this year Riki's grandson (91), Eilam, found out about his grandfather's childhood love • Col. Oron Simcha, the girl's granddaughter (98), says that the motivation to contribute to the country runs in the family • Rachel (88) And Zvi (94) Shahar expect to tell their grandparents the story of the family
"The fact that I have a grandson in the army is my highlight"
The girl is happy, Kibbutz Netzer Sirani
The happy girl was born in 1923 in Germany.
During the war, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen survived until April 15, 1945 - the day the British liberated them.
Her mother and father perished in the Holocaust, and she last heard from them in 1942.
As a child, the girl witnessed Kristallnacht.
"I stood with my mother in front of our store and we watched what was happening. We were lucky - all the shops around were thrown stones and looted, and our shutter was down, and the woman who rented it put a note 'for rent' and so the store was saved from destruction."
After the war, she immigrated to Israel, started a family and was one of the founders of Kibbutz Netzer Sirani.
The happy girl and her husband, whom she knew in Bergen-Belsen, settled in Kibbutz Netzer Sirani, which was established by a group of Holocaust survivors.
The horrors that went on then in Europe they did not tell to future generations for years, until they felt that if they did not tell, it would be too late.
"I knew they were Holocaust survivors from a very young age. They both had a number on hand, and I quickly realized why," said the girl's granddaughter, Col. Oron Simcha, commander of the Golan Heights formation in the Bashan division. He added that from all of his grandmother's difficult stories , He tries to connect to the beautiful moments. "She had good friends with whom she went through this terrible period, and they encouraged each other.
What kept her alive was the spirit, the faith and the hope that together they would survive and cope. "
According to him, the family background influenced him at many intersections in personal and military life.
"It affected my choice to stay in the military, the understanding of the importance of meaningful service in the beginning. Whenever I had to decide whether to stay or be discharged, I chose to stay in the military on the understanding that what happened then should not happen today. "The mission. I realized how important it is for us to have a strong army, because we have no other place to go."
"The fact that I have a grandson in the army is not self-evident, it is my record," the girl shared, adding: "There are a lot of similarities between me and Oron. I look at the things he does and know he will have the strength to go through and survive everything."
According to Oron, "The Holocaust taught us that we can only trust ourselves. Another lesson we must learn is the power of unity, friendship and evil between people. Whenever I think of the Holocaust, I think of what we have been able to do here in a short time, what achievements we have reached. If we have gone through such a terrible historical chapter, we can overcome greater difficulties.
"My grandparents fought to establish a kibbutz and a state, my father fought with the Golani Brigade, and I have been doing significant service since 1998. My son Dan, 10, will also have to continue this dynasty and in turn maintain what we got here," he concluded.
"The third generation is active and interested"
Rachel and Zvi Shachar, Kibbutz Amir
Zvi Shachar (94) from Kibbutz Amir is a Holocaust survivor from Poland and his wife Rachel (88) is a Holocaust survivor from Bulgaria.
Since they immigrated to Israel in the late 1940s, they have been around for four generations.
"The second generation did not hear us that much. Although Zvi likes to tell his story during the Holocaust, this story permeated the third generation more," says Rachel.
"The grandchildren are more active, more interested, more asking."
"Our generation listens more to the stories of grandparents, but I guess my parents' generation lives it more with them," says Dikla Chen, Rachel and Zvi's granddaughter.
"Today I am a mother myself so I think maybe they talked less to protect them, and maybe it was also too close to events."
Zvi was born in 1927.
Until the outbreak of World War II, his family lived in a town on the outskirts of Warsaw, and already on the first day of the war, the Nazis invaded Poland and burned the town.
His father decided to flee with his family, who marched towards a river and crossed the border into Russia.
They lived in one of the towns for about two years and from there were sent to a camp in Siberia.
When the war ended, they discovered the magnitude of the tragedy: 27 family members perished in the extermination camps after the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto.
Rachel was born in 1933 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Although she lived in Bulgaria until the late 1940s, she never thought she was a Holocaust survivor.
This is because Bulgaria was the only country in Europe that was under Nazi rule, but the 48,000 Jews who lived there survived the extermination.
However, the Jews in Bulgaria suffered persecution and starvation.
"On March 13, 1943, the Nazis put us on trains and dispersed us to the periphery of Bulgaria. For two years we lived on the streets, in the fields and in the forests," Rachel said.
"I do not remember living in a house at that time. We were neglected, we had no shoes and clothes. My mother made us shoes out of cardboard. Many times when we were hungry we would go to the cemeteries because the Gentiles performed funeral rites in which they distributed wheat with cinnamon and sugar."
Rachel and Zvi have three children, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, three of whom live on the kibbutz.
But on the question of how the fourth generation absorbs the transmission of their experiences in the Holocaust, it seems still too early to answer.
"My eldest is 7 years old, the middle is 4 years old and the youngest is 5 months old, so it's too early for the grandparents," Dikla concludes.
"I found Grandpa's girlfriend from Slovakia"
Riki Ringwald, Kibbutz Sde Nehemia
Riki Ringwald (91) from Kibbutz Sde Nehemia is a Holocaust survivor from the town of Sard in Slovakia.
Since he immigrated to Israel in the late 1940s and to this day he has endured three generations.
The second and third generation, Shimon his son and grandson Eilam, testify that the Holocaust - and the personal story of their father and grandfather - did not occupy a central place in their daily lives.
But it was precisely the corona plague that brought with it a turning point.
"From first grade to fourth grade I had a girlfriend, we were just like a couple. But then, in 1940, the Slovaks, who collaborated with the Nazis, came into our class and threw us out. I had not seen her since and I was sure she perished," Ringwald said. In a strangled throat.
"81 years have passed since then. It's amazing what Corona did. Because of the restrictions on my grandson it was boring because he didn't have a job, so he was with me. He started searching the internet until he found some woman in Slovakia. I got chills, this was my first grade girlfriend "Since then, I talk to her every week."
Since being expelled with his friends from his class and throughout the war years, Reichi and his family have miraculously survived time and time again.
In 1942 he was taken with his family to a concentration camp.
His friends were murdered, but his family managed to escape after his father paid a bribe to one of the Slovak guards.
In 1944, the extermination of the Jews of neighboring Hungary began, and the Jews of Slovakia feared that the Nazis would resume their deportation to the extermination camps in their country as well.
Riki's father paid the Slovaks money in exchange for a hideout he gave to his family in the basement of his house.
For seven months he hid in the basement of his parents, three brothers and grandfather, until the war ended.
"When I would meet my grandfather I was interested in his experiences of the Holocaust out of curiosity, but we did not talk about it much. This story for which I located his girlfriend Herta, very moved me. We saw that they set up a museum there that did not exist when we did a roots trip there about 15 years ago, "recalls Eilam, Richi's grandson.
"After a few months I remembered it again and sent an email to the museum director. He posted a picture with my grandfather's name and then his girlfriend Herta responded to the picture, and from there it rolled. Since then every time I come to him, we arrange a Skype call for them."