Holocaust Martyrs 'and Heroes' Remembrance Day will take place on Thursday, April 28, 2007.
The survivors who light beacons tell about the Holocaust and heroism.
Deer Age "The German hit, and I had to say goodbye to Grandpa"
Zvi Gil, Photo: Israel Hadari
Zvi Glazer (later Gil) was born in 1928 in Poland, the eldest son of Israel and Esther and a brother of Aryeh Leib and Shmuel.
In the spring of 1940, the Zdonska Wola ghetto in Poland was established, and all the Jews of the city were ordered to move to it.
With the liquidation of the ghetto in August 1942, a census was conducted in the town square.
"I stood next to my grandfather David," said Zvi, "my father and my brothers were sent to the gas trucks in Chelmno. I did not leave my grandfather's hand, but a German gave him a blow and we had to say goodbye."
Zvi and his mother, who was a nurse by profession, were transferred to the Lodz ghetto.
In Aktions, his mother hid him behind a coffin: "I knew I was going to die. The question was not if, but when."
Before the arrival of the Red Army, the Germans managed to eliminate the Lodz ghetto.
The remains of the ghetto's Jews, including Zvi and his mother, were sent to Auschwitz, where Zvi was separated from his mother and transferred to various camps.
During forced labor in a snowstorm he collapsed.
"An elderly German guard saved my life. I saw Elijah the prophet in the form of a German guard," he said.
After being put on a train, alarms were sounded warning of Allied planes, and guards ordered the prisoners to get off the carriages.
In one of the alarms, Zvi escaped, arrived at the house of a German farmer, introduced himself as a Pole, and worked on the family farm for food and accommodation until his release.
Zvi, who immigrated to Israel by ship from Italy in 1945, fought in the War of Independence.
He was a writer, a senior journalist with the Israel Broadcasting Authority and one of the founders of Israeli television.
The late Zvi and his wife Judith have three daughters, ten grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Rebecca Elitzur "I knew we would not return from the train"
Rivka Elitzur, Photo: Yossi Ben David
Rebecca-Branca Lissauer (later Elitzur) was born in 1934 in Amsterdam.
Her father was a textile merchant and had one brother, older than her, named Joop-Joshua.
In the summer of 1942, the entire family was arrested by the Germans.
The family members were first taken to the Amersport camp and from there were taken to the Westerbork camp, which was a transit camp.
From the summer of 1942, trains departed from it every week, transporting Jews to the extermination camps in Eastern Europe.
"We stood by the trains that left and waved goodbye. The adults around me cried because they understood that those who travel on this train will not return."
The Jews imprisoned in Westerbork lived in constant fear of being included on the list of deportees.
A few months later, the Lissauer family was also included in the list, but thanks to the British passport that the father of the family had, they were destined for an exchange of prisoners in exchange for Germans.
They were sent to the Bergen-Belsen camp, where the exchanges were concentrated.
"We drove like animals, there was no place to breathe. People who needed toilets did to each other. From the windows we saw people at the stations, ordinary people, well dressed. It did not make sense." In the camp, Rebecca and her mother were separated from their father and big brother.
"We suffered from a terrible hunger, we longed for food. Because of the extreme cold we danced to keep warm."
After the liberation, the family returned to Amsterdam.
Later, when she was studying social work, Rivka chose to specialize in Israel.
In 1959, Rivka immigrated to Israel and worked as an escort and supporter for immigrants from the Netherlands.
Rebecca and her husband Dov have two daughters, nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Arie Shilansky Survived the death march
Arie Shilansky, Photo: Israel Hadari
Arie Shilansky was born in 1928 in the Lithuanian city of Shauli to a Zionist family, the youngest of four children.
In June 1941, the Germans invaded and occupied Lithuania.
A ghetto was then established in Shawli, and all the Jews were ordered to move to it.
"In our ghetto we lived a life of hunger and humiliation," Arieh recalled.
On November 5, 1943, a children's aktion began in the ghetto.
"We escaped from the ghetto, and the Jewish foreman of the factory put us in a warehouse and hid the door behind an iron cabinet." When people returned to the ghetto from work and found that their children had been abducted, we heard terrible cries of horror.
Women tore their hair and banged their heads against the wall.
The cry echoes in me to this day. "
In July 1944, as the Red Army approached Shauli, the remnants of the city's Jews were sent west.
Among the deportees was Arie, who arrived at the Stutthof concentration camp.
"Within a minute I was separated from my family and left alone."
"Only suitable people were taken to work, not boys like me. But we all wanted to live, so we tried to join the ranks of the adults. We understood that whoever went to work, would be saved."
He finally managed to join a group of workers, who were transported to one of the Dachau sub-camps.
As the Allies approached, the prisoners, including Arieh, were taken on a death march, which he survived.
After the liberation, Arieh met his mother Leah and his sisters.
In 1948 he immigrated to Israel and fought in the War of Independence.
Aria and his wife Ruthie have three children, six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Shaul Spielman | "The officer put a gun to my head"
Shaul Spielman, Photo: Yossi Ben David
Shaul Spielman was born in 1931 in Vienna, Austria, the only son of his son and Josefa.
"The day after the Anschluss in March 1938, the principal of the school informed me and the other two Jewish students there that because of the Nuremberg Laws we could not continue to study at the school," Spielman said. "I returned home with tears in my eyes. "One of them attached a gun to my head and told Dad that if he did not hand over all the money, gold and valuables in the house, he would have to scratch my brain off the wall. Mom collapsed. Dad gave them everything."
In September 1942, Shaul and his family were sent to the Terezin (Theresienstadt) ghetto and after about a year to Auschwitz.
"There was a terrible cold, even the blood that flowed from the people froze."
His grandmother, Johanna Hamburger, died in the camp, and his mother became ill and was transferred to the hospital hut.
"She was a skeleton and could not get out of bed. One morning she was taken out in the body cart."
Saul survived the extermination thanks to his father, who worked in the camp as a registrar and moved his name to a list of a group of adult boys.
"I saw Dad among prisoners marching. He made me move with his fist, 'Hold on.' That was the last time I saw him."
In January 1945 they were taken out on a death march.
"We walked on paths covered with corpses. At night we lay on the floor in the frost and some of us froze to death."
Shaul was released by the American army, immigrated to Israel and volunteered for the Palmach, fought and was wounded in the War of Independence and participated in all Israeli wars until the Yom Kippur War. He later worked at MDA and trained generations of lifeguards.
Ask and his wife Miriam seven children, 18 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
The late Shmuel Blumenfeld | Eichmann's Prisoner
The late Shmuel Blumenfeld, Photo: Israel Hadari
Shmuel Blumenfeld was born in 1926 in the city of Krakow, Poland, to a family of rabbis and scribes. As a child, his parents and six children moved to the town of Pruszowice.
Shmuel was beaten, imprisoned and transferred to the Plaszow labor camp near Krakow.
In June 1942, Shmuel witnessed the deportation of Jews from Krakow, evaded and traveled 40 kilometers to Pruszowice.
In August 1942, Pruszowice was besieged in preparation for the assassination of the town's Jews.
"My mother ordered me to return to the labor camp. She felt that they and all the Jews in the town were going to die. I did not imagine that this would be the last time I would see the family," he said.
Before the deportation of the Jews of Pruszowice to the extermination camp, he managed to escape to the Krakow ghetto.
In March 1943, the Krakow ghetto was liquidated and Samuel was deported to Auschwitz.
He was selected for forced labor and sent to work in a coal mine.
As the Red Army approached, Samuel was with the prisoners taken out for the death marches.
He survived and was released in May 1945. Shmuel assisted in the illegal immigration of hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors on their way to Eretz Israel.
In 1948 he arrived in Israel and enlisted in the IDF.
After his release he enlisted in the prison service, and during the trial of Eichmann he was one of the guards who guarded him.
"I showed him the number on my hand and said, 'I was in Auschwitz for two years and I stayed alive.'"
Samuel died on April 14.
One of his family members will light the beacon.
He is survived by his wife Rebecca, two children, six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Olga Kay | "Father said to me: My beloved, we will die soon"
Olga Kay, Photo: Israel Hadari
Olga Kay nee Chick was born in 1926 in the city of Uypharto in Hungary, the ninth of ten brothers and sisters.
On May 22, 1944, Olga and her family were deported in cattle cars to Auschwitz.
"When we were at the border, my father said, 'My dears, we are going to die.'
Upon their arrival in Auschwitz, most of the family members who were with Olga were taken to the gas chambers and murdered there.
The murdered were her parents Elijah and Leah, her sister Margaret and daughter Susie, and Asher, the son of her older sister Bella.
Olga and her sister Eva were assigned to work in Auschwitz.
In November 1944, Olga and Eva were transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
A month later their sister Bella was deported there, and the three met.
"Death has become a normal thing. Today you, and tomorrow next to me. One day, on April 15, 1945, a soldier came in the door and said we were free. We did not jump for joy, we were like robots. I went to get food, but I was weak. I weighed 25 kilos. I fell. And I crawled on my knees and came back without food. "
At the time of her release, Eva's condition was very serious and she died in Bergen-Belsen.
After the war Olga was taken for recovery in Sweden and from there she came to New York, where she met her future husband George and started a family.
"When my daughter was born, my first thought was: this is my victory over Hitler."
In 1985, Olga and her family immigrated to Israel following their daughter.
The late Olga and George have two daughters, five grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.
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