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(JTA) — Eighty-four years after Dov Golebowicz fled Poland along with his household days earlier than Germany invaded, the Holocaust survivor discovered himself dealing with an invasion as soon as once more when Hamas terrorists stormed his kibbutz of Nirim on Oct. 7.
For 12 hours, Golebowicz was trapped along with his son, Gideon, in his secure room. His son common a primary picket contraption to safe the door, which doesn’t have a lock. 5 individuals from the kibbutz had been murdered and 5 had been kidnapped, of whom two stay hostages in Gaza. Zvi Solow is one other Holocaust survivor to outlive the assault on Nirim.
Within the weeks after Oct. 7, Golebowicz was the topic of a number of information studies, together with CNN, which invariably linked his Oct. 7 survival to his experiences within the Holocaust. Others who skilled horrors on that day — when 1,200 Israelis had been killed and about 250 taken hostage — made comparable comparisons.
But Golebowicz has important reservations about making such a connection, saying it diminishes the reminiscence of the Holocaust as a singular occasion in historical past.
“I’ve all the time felt we shouldn’t combine the 2,” he instructed the Jewish Telegraphic Company. “Whereas after all it was vicious, barbaric and horrendous, [Oct.7] was a one-day terrorist assault.”
Dov Golebowicz, pictured right here along with his daughter, survived the Budapest Ghetto and the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on his kibbutz, Nirim. (Courtesy Golebowicz)
Golebowicz is one in all a number of Holocaust survivors to be caught up within the carnage on Oct. 7. All aged — the youngest survivors are of their late 70’s — they are saying they’ve an necessary perspective to share, although they don’t all imagine the identical issues.
Haim Raanan, who as a baby survived the Budapest Ghetto, has no reservations about calling the Oct. 7 bloodbath “a second Holocaust.”
A founding father of Kibbutz Be’eri, one of many Gaza envelope communities that was struck hardest on Oct. 7, Raanan mentioned it was “pure luck” that he and his relations survived. Greater than 100 Be’eri residents died that day.
“I by no means thought that as a Holocaust survivor, I would wish to cover for my life once more,” Raanan mentioned at an occasion on Tuesday on the residence of EU Ambassador to Israel Dimiter Tzantchev to mark Worldwide Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“I used to be shocked to see that eight many years after the Holocaust, the Star of David image has been painted as soon as once more on Jewish houses all throughout Europe and the US to focus on and frighten them amid the devastating Oct. 7 bloodbath,” he mentioned, referring to graffiti present in some cities that in some instances authorities have attributed to Russian agitators.
“It echoes the antisemitic persecution I suffered as a baby,” Raanan mentioned. “I by no means imagined that one thing like this might ever occur once more.”
(L-R, sitting) Aharon Pacirkovsky, Haim Raanan and Menachem Haberman, all Holocaust survivors, pose with Erez Kaganovitz, photographer of the People of the Holocaust undertaking, in Tel Aviv, Jan. 23, 2024. (Efi Yosefi)
Raanan known as on the European diplomats in attendance to do extra to fight antisemitism. The occasion additionally launched a brand new set up of the People of the Holocaust photograph exhibition, during which Raanan options.
Erez Kaganovitz, the photographer behind the undertaking, mentioned attendees on the occasion had been “awestruck” as Raanan recounted his tales of survival.
“How a lot struggling can one individual go although in a single in lifetime?” Kaganovitz instructed JTA. “Listening to him made me understand that after we say by no means once more, it has to imply one thing.”
Holocaust survivor Gidon Lev, 88, shot to fame throughout COVID-19 when he grew to become a star on TikTok. He launched his account, which racked up over 460,000 followers and thousands and thousands of likes, collectively along with his life accomplice Julie Grey in an effort to fight Holocaust disinformation and to advertise his e-book. Three years later Lev closed the account, citing antisemitic harassment within the wake of Oct. 7 and the social media large’s reluctance to take motion.
“Earlier than the conflict, we acquired antisemitic hate from garden-variety Nazis. Oh, how I lengthy for these days. That was simple to refute and dispute,” Grey instructed JTA. However after Oct. 7, the “turning of the tide was abrupt and highly effective,” she mentioned.
“The identical younger individuals who had been following Gidon and cheering on his Holocaust training and messages of tolerance and important considering began calling him a supporter of genocide and even a ‘child killer,’” Grey mentioned.
“We each felt totally defeated. We noticed that many Jewish creators on TikTok stood as much as this abuse and caught it out however for us, dwelling in Israel, coping with the shock of all of it, and the sirens and the working to our shelter, it was an excessive amount of,” she mentioned. “It wasn’t the worst factor that occurred, Oct. 7 was the worst factor that occurred, but it surely actually damage. All of the work we’d accomplished appeared to have been meaningless.”
Elon Musk speaks with Holocaust survivor Gidon Levy at Auschwitz in Poland, Jan. 22, 2024. (Courtesy Julie Grey)
On Wednesday Lev and Grey returned from a visit to Poland, the place he accompanied billionaire mogul Elon Musk and the conservative American pundit Ben Shapiro on a go to to the Auschwitz loss of life camp.
After the go to Musk claimed that had social media been round through the time of the Holocaust, it might by no means have occurred. Like TikTok, Musk’s social media platform, X, has additionally come beneath fireplace for not doing sufficient to fight antisemitism.
Musk “struck me as a harmful teenager,” Grey mentioned, “drunk with energy. He’s of the ‘burn all of it down’ ilk.” Whereas he was attentive at Auschwitz, “greet[ing] Gidon politely and hear[ing] to him — form of,” his speak afterward, during which he described himself as “aspirationally Jewish,” was a crushing disappointment and uncovered a “actual disconnect,” she mentioned, including, it was “like inviting an arsonist to a firefighting conference.”
After Oct. 7, Grey wished to depart on one of many evacuation flights for Americans. However Lev, whose son and grandson had been serving within the reserves, insisted on staying. “I cannot run once more,” Lev instructed Grey.
The primary time Mira Talalayevsky’s life was saved was on Sept. 29, 1941, when she was not but 2 years outdated. Mira’s mom escaped together with her from their dwelling within the Kyiv ghetto the night time earlier than Jews had been ordered on a loss of life march to Babyn Yar.
The second time occurred on Oct. 8, 2023, when Talalayevsky’s dwelling in Ashkelon acquired a direct hit from a Hamas rocket. Talalayevsky miraculously survived the rocket assault however sustained shrapnel cuts to her face and burns on her physique from a fireplace that broke out in the home after the influence. Her home, and all her possessions, had been utterly destroyed.
“In my outdated age I’m left with nothing and I’ve to begin over,” Talalayevsky mentioned.
Talalayevsky, 85, was too younger to recollect the night time she was spirited away from the clutches of the Nazis, however mentioned that over time her mom had revealed each element to her. When the Jews of Kyiv had been rounded as much as be transferred to the ghetto, Ukrainian guards had been ordered to gather all their valuables. Her mom, an informed lady who knew German, was instructed to report each merchandise that was taken.
Left; Photographer Erez Kaganovitz at work on his People of the Holocaust undertaking. (Courtesy of Erez Kaganovitz); Proper: Portrait of Michael Sidko, the final survivor of the Babyn Yar bloodbath, surrounded by bullets. (Erez Kaganovitz)
Her mom constructed a rapport with a guard she had witnessed secretly pocketing a few of jewellery for himself. The guard later warned her that the Germans had been coming within the morning to kill everybody within the ghetto and that night time helped Talalayevsky’s mom escape on a freight practice. “I solely bear in mind the fixed feeling of starvation and chilly from these years. My childhood was taken from me, however a minimum of I stayed alive,” Talalayevsky mentioned.
Eighty-two years later, Talalayevsky climbed into her bathtub when she heard the rocket siren. It appeared just like the most secure place to be in her condo, which was outdated and and not using a secure room. A violent explosion shattered her home and Talalayevsky misplaced consciousness. She was finally rescued from the rubble by her neighbors. The occasion has left her with lasting nightmares and with out eyebrows, she mentioned.
Three months later, Talalayevsky continues to be ready for her condo to be rebuilt. Within the meantime, the federal government has transferred her to a more moderen condo within the metropolis. Talalayevsky credit the Worldwide Fellowship of Christians and Jews with being the primary group to achieve out after the assault, offering Talalayevsky with materials and emotional assist. “As a girl of religion, it is vitally shifting to listen to that there are a lot of Christians in the US who take care of me.”
Golebowicz, too, resides in non permanent lodging — a retirement dwelling close to the coastal metropolis of Netanya, along with a number of the different evacuated residents of Nirim. He mentioned he totally intends to return and dwell in Nirim as quickly as attainable.
“I shall return to my dwelling the place I’ve lived for 70 years and assist in its restoration,” he mentioned. “All of the destroyed kibbutzim can be rebuilt and can flourish once more, as a result of the willpower and spirit in Israel is robust.”
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