Never Forget

Today was quite the day. The entire country was having national protests and shut down streets to protest for the hostages. We started our day with the usual breakfast buffet, except this morning, we could push the button for the latte! Already a great day.

We headed out to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum where we met an English speaking docent who led us through the museum and explained the exhibits. The kids learned everything about the start of antisemitism in Europe in the 1930s through Kristallnacht (the night Evan’s grandparents fled Austria) through 1944 (when my family was taken to Auschwitz from Hungary) till the creation of the state of Israel. The museum has an interesting approach leading you from soft carpet through hard tile floors and then back to soft carpet as you exit straight into a magnificent view of Israel.

  

Needless to say, I was emotional as this hits home pretty hard. One of the hardest parts is towards the end, when you enter the Children’s memorial. 1.5 million children were killed and they read aloud each and every name in a room with candles and mirrors that reflect the candles.

Side note: the other day while having lunch with my double cousin Shmuelik, I happened to ask him if he knew how my grandfather survived the war. All I was ever told was that he hid in a forest. Because two sisters married two brothers, Shmuelik knew from his father what happened and for the first time ever, I learned the story of my grandfather’s survival.

Here is Vilmos Reisner’s survival story as told to me:

In a village nearby Miskolcz, the Reisners owned a forest where Saba Vilmos worked and was the head of the coal mine.  Vilmos knew what was coming and hid in the coal mine when the Germans first came and took the rest of the family. When he came out of the mine, there were no more Jews, but occasionally the Germans would come to visit the village.  Vilmos was friends with the priest in town and the priest knew when the Germans were coming. The priest’s wife would run and get Vilmos when the Germans came, hide him in a small boat on the river and cover him until the Germans went away. The other Reisners were all taken to labor camps. 

There is also a family story told to me twice now that the Reisners hid their valuables in the forest, in a hole, under one of these trees. They knew how to count the trees to where the treasure was but when they came back, there were no trees anymore ao they could not find where they hid their belongings.  According to a similar story Nira told me, they then went to a psychic who showed them were to find their buried valuables and they dug it up.  (So the story goes – she showed me a necklace she wears from that buried box)

To learn more about my amazing grandmother survived Auschwitz, visit https://savtasstory.einstein.me/

Anyhow, after an emotional visit to Yad Vashem, we stopped for lunch and a quick visit to a mall. Theo went hunting for Hebrew Pokemon cards (they don’t exist btw) and I grabbed a quick gift for Zoey. Onto our next adventure.