October 23rd, 2019 – Fifteen Holocaust survivors from Netanya were welcomed to the March of Life Villa in Caesarea for lunch and a time of relaxing in the still warm fall weather.
A couple from England and a woman from Switzerland volunteered to serve them.They prepared the meal, the dessert and gifts and set the tables. When the survivors came in, they immediately felt the atmosphere of love and care and were willing to share their stories right from the beginning.
The eldest in this group is over 100 years old. Most of them were in the concentration camps. One of the stories told by a survivor was how he lost all his family when he was only five and how Joseph Mengele, known as the “Angel of Death” experimented on him in Auschwitz. Most of the story was told by the survivor’s wife because he was not feeling very well. He smiled several times through the afternoon, but his wife said that even though he may look happy on the outside, the loss of his family, time in the camp and all that happened made him very apathetic.
It was a great privilege for the volunteers to listen to the stories. The bonding with the survivors was amazing, and deep sharing and conversations took place around the room.
At the end of the afternoon the survivors got little gifts that will be useful in the forthcoming winter.
