On Thursday (7:45 p.m., Sport 4), Hapoel BS will meet Austria Vienna as part of the group stage of the Conference League. Some BS fans happened to encounter city resident Stefan Zweig, the famous Holocaust survivor from the Buchenwald ghetto.
Stefan Zweig volunteered to help fans who lost their way in Vienna and was then asked who has the best chance of winning tomorrow's game.
Stefan revealed to the fans that he is not interested in football and therefore cannot have an opinion on the game tomorrow.
At the same time, Zweig spoke excitedly about the State of Israel: "I have never left the State of Israel, my heart has always remained in Israel."
For the surprised fans, who did not know Zweig's history, he had something to add: "I played in the youth team of Maccabi Tel Aviv in basketball, and then for six years I played in the senior team of the club.
The longing for the players of the past comes back to me a lot and not long ago I made contact with one of the prominent basketball players of that time, Shevi Ben Best."
Zweig was born in the Krakow ghetto and after his birth his mother and sister were taken to the Auschwitz extermination camp, and he has no memory of them.
His father became in the eyes of the Nazis a required professional and survived thanks to his knowledge in the mechanical and financial field of camp management.
For about three years he lived in a straw basket that his father rode on his back and was then transported with his father to the Buchenwald ghetto.
Zweig (seated second from the right), photo: private album
About three times he was on the list of those destined for extermination in Auschwitz, but his father found original ways to save him at the last moment from being sent to death.
In 1945, American forces arrived at the Buchenwald ghetto and freed it and quite a few other Jews from the Nazis.
Zweig starred in the biggest newspapers in the world when he was seen on the shoulders of an American officer and after hardships in Europe immigrated to Israel with his father.
Since they were just father and son, Zweig and his father did not receive the benefits meant for an entire family, and for that there is bitterness in his heart to this day.
Today, the 82-year-old Stefan lives his life as mentioned in Vienna and dreams of going to the Lot Hotel in the Dead Sea to undergo treatments against psoriasis.
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