Posted by
Moshe Phillips on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 9:33:49 AM
Yesterday I went to the
funeral and shiva (home based mourning ritual) of an 82 year old survivor of Auschwitz, the Death March and the Warsaw Ghetto.
The 89 year old brother
of the departed was at the shiva. The 89 year old brother was now the last of a
family of seven, he survived Mauthausen. The two brothers were the only members
of their immediate family to survive the Holocaust and the war.
They both chose to make
their lives and to raise their families in America.
The 89 year old spoke a
little at the shiva. It was very emotional.
Among the things he said
was just how hopeless the situation was for Polish Jews.
Towards the end of the
evening he said “if there had been an Israel
in the 1930s there would not have been a Holocaust: Thank G-d for Israel.”
The youngest grandson of
the 82 year old graduated from a yeshiva high school earlier this month. In
August he leaves for year of intensive Torah study in Jerusalem.
Among the other things
the 89 year old said last night was "We are here and Hitler is not. We
won."