{"id":112707,"date":"2024-05-06T17:00:17","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T15:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=112707"},"modified":"2024-05-06T07:10:44","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T05:10:44","slug":"12-00-92","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=112707","title":{"rendered":"Hamas Killing Spree Haunts Holocaust Survivors in \u2018March of the Living\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Hamas Killing Spree Haunts Holocaust Survivors in \u2018March of the Living\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Reuters<\/strong> and<\/em> <\/span>Algemeiner Staff<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Participants attend the annual \u201cMarch of the Living\u201d to commemorate the Holocaust at the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, in Brzezinka near Oswiecim, Poland, May 2, 2019. Reuters\/Kacper Pempel\/File Photo<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s\u00a0Holocaust\u00a0<\/span>commemorations this year have a searing significance for six elderly\u00a0survivors\u00a0<\/span>now deeply scarred by the\u00a0Hamas\u00a0<\/span>attacks of Oct. 7 that sparked the ongoing Gaza war.<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0killing\u00a0<\/span>and kidnapping\u00a0spree\u00a0<\/span>by Palestinian terrorists on a Jewish holiday morning shook the sense of security of Israelis \u2013 not least, those who had witnessed the state emerge as a safe haven after the Nazi genocide.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Bellha Haim, 86, the upheaval is especially profound.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her grandson Yotam \u2013 like her, a resident of a village near the Gaza border \u2013 was taken hostage by\u00a0Hamas\u00a0<\/span>and managed to escape, only to be accidentally shot dead by Israeli soldiers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The trauma drove Haim to return to her native Poland, which she had fled with her family as a child during World War Two, and where she will on Monday take part in the \u201cMarch of the Living\u201d at the site of the Auschwitz death camp.<\/span><\/p>\n

The annual ceremony is timed to coincide with Israel\u2019s\u00a0Holocaust\u00a0<\/span>memorial day.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI never went back, and I wasn\u2019t convinced to go back,\u201d she said during a meeting with other\u00a0survivors\u00a0<\/span>ahead of the trip.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut this time, when they told me that they were connecting the\u00a0Holocaust\u00a0<\/span>and what I call the \u2018Holocaust\u00a0<\/span>of October 7\u2032 \u2013 because then in the\u00a0Holocaust\u00a0<\/span>we (Jews) were not a united people, we didn\u2019t have a country, and suddenly this pride of mine that has been broken, my pride in my people and my country that was shattered in front of my eyes \u2013 I said, \u2018This time I will break my oath and I will go out.’\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As a teenager, Yotam had taken part in the annual Auschwitz vigil and Haim said she saw the event as a chance for communion with him and other victims of the\u00a0Hamas\u00a0<\/span>attack.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI will go out in the name of Yotam, who marched there when he was in high school, and I will go out there to shout out the cry of the slain, of the babies, of all my good friends that I will never meet again,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

ARABIC YELLING AND GUNFIRE<\/span><\/p>\n

Among those joining her will be 90-year-old Daniel Louz, whose hometown Kibbutz Beeri lost a tenth of its residents to the Palestinian attackers.<\/span><\/p>\n

In some ways, he said, that ordeal was worse for him than the European war, when he escaped Nazi round-ups in his native France although half his family perished in Poland.<\/span><\/p>\n

After he awoke to the sound of Arabic yelling and gunfire, \u201cI was constantly busy with surviving and figuring out what to do,\u201d Louz said. \u201cIn France, as a child, I suffered all kinds of post-traumas that I\u2019ve learned to cope with. But in Beeri, it was the first time that I felt the fear of death.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A neighboring house was riddled with bullets. Louz\u2019s was untouched. He says he imagined the souls of the six million\u00a0Holocaust\u00a0<\/span>victims steering\u00a0Hamas\u00a0<\/span>away from him. \u201cThey probably wanted me to be here to tell this story,\u201d he said, weeping.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other\u00a0Holocaust\u00a0<\/span>survivors\u00a0<\/span>participating in the March of the Living include Smil Bercu Sacagiu, 87, whose home was hit by a rocket from Gaza, and Jacqueline Gliksman, 81, whose home was torched by a Palestinian infiltrator.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was left, and luckily the terrorist didn\u2019t see it, is my grandchildren,\u201d she said, referring to gold figurines on a necklace she was wearing. \u201cThat\u2019s the only thing I have left.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Before he was seized, Haim\u2019s grandson left a text message: \u201cThey\u2019re burning down my house. I smell gas. I\u2019m scared.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She said that reminded her of a\u00a0Holocaust<\/span>-era song in Yiddish, invoking centuries of pogroms, with the refrain \u201cfire, Jews, fire\u201d. A veteran campaigner for peace with the Palestinians, Haim said she would no longer pursue that activism.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not able to,\u201d she said. \u201cNow what interests me is only my people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Hamas Killing Spree Haunts Holocaust Survivors in \u2018March of the Living\u2019 Reuters and Algemeiner Staff Participants attend the annual \u201cMarch of the Living\u201d to commemorate the Holocaust at the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, in Brzezinka near Oswiecim, Poland, May 2, 2019. Reuters\/Kacper Pempel\/File Photo Israel\u2019s\u00a0Holocaust\u00a0commemorations this year have a searing significance for six elderly\u00a0survivors\u00a0now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112707"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112707"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112723,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112707\/revisions\/112723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}