Holocaust Survivor’s testimonies

Scare

In the film, we wanted to reflect on the story of one Jewish family, around the experiences of Shabbat during the Holocaust when the situation around it is deteriorating, but the gathering around the Shabbat table, which is seemingly familiar just stays. This creates the sequence of memories that are kept in the hero's heart, even after he returns from the horrors of war. Directing; Liat Wimpheimer Photo: Odia Steinhardt Editing: Yuval Tiferet Production: Moria Cohen Media Trend, AMIT Noga, Beit Shemesh. Guided by teacher: Kinneret Gemara

 

Dance to survive

Judith Arnon was born in 1926 to the Shisha-Halevy family, an Orthodox religious house in Camerano, Czechoslovakia (now in Slovakia), the youngest of three children. In 1938, Judith's area of residence in Hungary was annexed. Judith worked for wool weaving company to help support the family and began operating within the "Hashomer Hatzair" youth movment. In 1944, she was deported to Auschwitz with her parents, who were murdered in the gas chambers upon their arrival. Judith was sent to work, and precisely there – where she was at risk of death at any moment – she discovered for the first time the strength and hope that dance could give her. Judith was deported on a death march west and arrived at the Gross-Rosen camp, where she was employed in a factory manufacturing spare parts for aircraft. She tried to sabotage the job as much as she could. From there she was transferred to the Gebersdorf camps in the Czech Republic and Freudenberg in Austria. On May 8, 1945, when all the marchers were placed in threes on the verge of a huge pit before their execution, the Red Army arrived and Judith was liberated. Only Judith survived out of all her family members. She returned to Kumarno via Prague, where she found jewelry hidden by her father before deportation. She came to Budapest, where she worked as part of Hashomer Hatzair. In 1946, she married her friend Arnon-Edward, whom she met at the Hashomer Hatzair branch. She ran an orphanage for child-survivors and moved it to Italy. In 1948, she immigrated to Israel on a Tati ship with the "One May" nucleus of Hashomer Hatzair, and settled in Kibbutz Ga'aton. From its first day in Israel, there has been a Jewish deal with dance. In 1969, the regional dance troupe at Kibbutz Lohamei Haghetaot performed the show "Elegy" by Yehudit. In the show, Yehudit tried to connect past and present. The show included heavy rocks around which the dancers moved as a reminder of the hard labor in which the inmates worked in the concentration camps. With the help of the dance, Yehudit tried to convey to her children and to the post-Holocaust generation the feelings of loss and pain. She later recounted her time in the concentration camps: as a girl, she stood barefoot in the snow for hours because she refused to dance in front of the Germans in the labor camp. She then swore that if she escaped the inferno, she would never stop dancing. Based on the memories of Judith from Auschwitz and her experiences during the Holocaust, Rami Beer, a choreographer and successor in the kibbutz dance troupe, created the work "Memory of Things." The dancer does not touch the ground. She dances against a background of huge wooden boards. For Yehudit, this dance symbolizes her private memory: how she danced, as a child, between the bunks of battered prisoners and the hunger in the labor camp.

In 1995, Yehudit lit a beacon at Yad Vashem, on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day. https://images.app.goo.gl/N1PBS8PSxXoPb3mF6

Judith have three daughters and eight grandchildren. Judith Arnon passed away in 2013

Katzir High School, Rehovot

 

Danny hero

Testimony: The video incorporated two evidence that we were influenced by and took them as a source of inspiration The first is based on the book of Yitzhak Maras, a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to Israel from Lithuania, "A Stand with Death," A book that was first translated into Hebrew in 1970, the book describes the history of a Jewish family in the ghetto and the love story of a boy and a girl within its walls. Thus he wrote: "In our ghetto, there are no flowers anywhere. Flowers are forbidden. Bringing them here is also forbidden. Why is flowers forbidden? I've been mulling this for a while, but I can't understand in any way. Even if I were the greatest villain in the world, I would allow people to grow flowers after all. Even if I were the greatest villain, and I banned the people from growing flowers, I would still allow them to bring flowers from the fields and pastures on their way back from the labor camp."

The second is the children's song "Danny Hero" written by the poet Miriam Yellen-Staklis. To see first look there is no real understanding of the integration of the Holocaust with a children's song. But, looking at the words by adding personal interpretation, the combination kicks in. The song in a personal interpretation tells of the boy who fears that if he cries from the harsh separations he went through, he will come out not a man. He's scared. The great loss of his mother and lover Nurit affects him. "But why Mom why, crying the tears of themselves?" the song added, showing emotional development and life situations from childhood to old age. In the first house that opens with the word "mother," which represents a guaranteed source of love and acceptance. The boy Danny understands from his mother that he needs to control himself when he feels strong emotions. Presenters: Nadav Peres, Shira Ben Tal, Noya Tuval, Anna Shaiman from De Shalit High School, Rehovot

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Until the last drop

The video tells of the testimony of Jacob Rothbard (taken from his personal book.) The film brings one scene from the days of the Holocaust in which Jacob is led with his family in the middle of the night to labor camps. Jacob tried at one of the train stops to get water for his grandmother who's on the trailer, he meets a German and hands him the precious watch he received for his Bar Mitzvah for a little water. This watch was precious to Jacob's heart, but he decided to give it up to save his grandmother. With the rest of his powers, Jacob returns to the train, where he sadly discovers that his grandmother has been left dead. His great-granddaughter Alma Kaplan directed the film.

AMIT Moddin High School

 

The Escape

Asia Agronovich testimony, One sunny day, a man with a cart carrying groceries entered the ghetto. The man's cart was full of straw. Asia had planned her escape for a long time and she realized the moment had come. Asia displayed resourcefulness and snuck into the man’s cart, realizing the risk she was taking. A German army shepherd dog noticed her sneaking and immediately started barking and thus caught the attention of the Nazi soldier who was in the area. Anxious Asia held herself quietly under the straw even as the dog began to scratch it as he tried to find her in the straw pile. As Asia prays for a miracle the German soldier arrived to the cart, moved the straw, and exposed Asia. At the last moment, the soldier decided to cover Asia and ordered the cart to leave the ghetto. Thus with the help of the resourcefulness and compassion of the soldier, Asia managed to escape from the ghetto.

Asia's Full Testimony Page https://en.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/956213

Yarkon High School, HaSharon South

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