My Holocaust Story —Reflections on Hosting Zikaron BaSalon and on My Grandma’s Survival
Hi everyone! I’m Michal, a lawyer and financial advisor at KPMG Israel, a 2016 Birthright Israel Excel Fellow, and a member of the Israeli Excel Fellows community.
Two days ago, I was privileged to host Excel friends for a Zikaron BaSalon event at my home in Tel Aviv.
Zikaron BaSalon is an amazing project where people come together on Holocaust Remembrance Day, in an intimate setting such as someone’s home, to hear from a Holocaust survivor and have a meaningful discussion about the Holocaust.
This year we were fortunate enough to host an event with Ms. Vera Meisels, a Holocaust survivor with an unusual story. The encounter with Vera was incredible and very informal. Vera told us her story through the eyes of the little girl that she was at the time. And, despite the incredible trauma she experienced and witnessed during the war, her story is full of humor. For us, that was unexpected, yet extremely powerful.
Vera explained that it was Passover when the Nazis began to concentrate the Jews in her area. And like every Passover holiday, Vera and her sister were visiting their grandparents. After they came back home, they ended up on a train which they soon realized was surely not intended for human beings. It was a freight train. This is when, according to Vera, “miracles and coincidences” happened. Out of nowhere, while Vera and her family were being transported to an unknown place, the people in charge of the transport called out for Vera’s father and uncle. As it turns out, because Vera’s father and uncle were horseshoe craftsmen for the entire country, they were given special status in order to “protect the homeland economy” and walked Vera’s family off the train.
When things got bad, Vera’s family packed up a big bag and filled it with all the food they could fit. Vera explained that the adults were solely focused on survival, and sadly didn’t think about bringing any items of comfort — like a teddy bear — to help Vera feel like a child. When the family decided to flee, they went into the woods and dug trenches in the ground. For two months they laid underground and hid, all while the snow covered them. It’s unimaginable to think about having to stay still in a trench for months while Nazis and hunting dogs are all around you, searching for you.
When the food ran out, the family decided to leave and continue fleeing. Like the rest of the Jews in the area, they were captured and assembled in a church, where they waited to be transported to Auschwitz. On their way to Auschwitz, this was towards the end of the war, Vera recalls being so sick that all she wished for was to get to arrive at the camp so she could melt snowflakes and drink water. When they finally reached Auschwitz, the Nazi commander shouted at the person in charge of the transport, “Idiot! Who told you to bring them? I cannot have them here! I no longer have gas chambers for them! You should send them to Theresienstadt ghetto.” So, in December 1944, Vera and her family arrived to the ghetto, where they stayed until the end of the war. Vera describes the enjoyable experiences in the ghetto’s children’s home. She told us about her acting skills as an actress in the ghetto’s production of the play “Firefly” and about the only painting she had left as a remembrance of her childhood during the war.
If you are interested in reading Vera’s books, please see:
“Threshold of Pain” Vera Meisels, Speaking Words Publishing (May 8, 2017)
https://www.amazon.com/Threshold-Pain-Vera-Meisels-ebook/dp/B071992ZDW
It seems that over the years, as the generations change, the stories and memories of the Holocaust are fading away and have become slightly transformed. Hosting Vera was so impactful to me, I called my grandma right away to ask about her own story and listen to it once again.
My grandmother’s parents lived in Lodz, Poland. Her father Srulik Yanovsky came from a wealthy family, worked in their textile factory and was 21 years old when war started. Her mother Brenda Gutenberg was only 19 years old, a student from a modest family who owned a chain of pharmacies.
Srulik was a Communist and in 1939 he was already involved with a partisan group that started to move towards Russia. On their way, he started to understand what the future would bear, so Srulik went back to Lodz and asked Brenda’s father approval so Brenda can run away with him to Russia. Even though they were not married, he confirmed.
Besides few family members, most of the family refused to listen to Srulik. Brenda’s father insisted that in 1914 the Germans were good to the Jews and therefore could not believe they would be so cruel. Eventually, everyone who remained was concentrated into the Lodz ghetto. One day the Nazis gathered all the little children and took them away. Brenda’s little sister, Francis, who was only 10 years old, was thrown by the Nazis to her death from the fourth floor, and the Nazis delivered her clothes to her parents as a kind reminder. All those who stayed in Lodz eventually reached Auschwitz. Only three survived.
Meanwhile, Brenda and Srulik were making their journey to Russia — sleeping during the day and fleeing at night. On their way, Brenda became pregnant and on Erev Yom Kippur, (October 11, 1940), on a freight train in Ternopil at 40 Celsius degrees below zero, Grandmother Pnina (Pesia) Yanovsky was born.
When they reached the city of Orsk in Russia they were put in a camp until 1943. Everyone worked at pressing jobs, Brenda plastered ceilings and Srulik worked as a porter. Each family received a portion of black bread, water and onions. Grandma Pnina had nothing to nurse, so Srulik would get her some corn from the villages. Grandma Pnina relates that as a baby she slept on a wooden bed and a mattress of straw, which when once taken out to dry, was eaten by a pig.
In September 1943, Pnina’s brother Mishka was born and in the end of that year Srulik joined a military force of Russians and Poles while Brenda and the two children remained in the camp.
My grandmother says that as a child she remembers herself being hungry. One day Brenda was chosen to be the “excellent worker” and got a bun with blueberries. Pnina’s cousin wanted it badly, and Grandma Pnina, a 3 year old girl, beat him terribly shouting “Mom will sell it so we can all have enough food.” And so it was.
The family stayed at the Russian camp until 1945. When the war ended and Srulik was released from the army, they all returned to Poland via freight train and met the distant family in Niedernhausen. Up until today it is not clear how everyone knew about that meeting place. In 1946, when the Kielce pogrom broke, the family arrived to a DP camp in Germany where they stayed for several months. Only then they met the family members who survived Auschwitz for the first time.
Srulik and Brenda saved some money and settled in Wrocław. They bought a beautiful house, and another baby boy named Emmanuel was born. There was plenty of food and they had a nanny named Zosha. Srulik always invited Holocaust survivors to their home and would not let them leave until they were back on their feet. Grandma Pnina went to school, studied piano, and from the age of 7 went to every opera show in the city.
When the Polish government changed in 1957 and antisemitism rose, the family decided to make Aliyah to Israel. They arrived to a Ma’abara camp in Be’er Sheva and lived there without electricity, running water, or toilets. Srulik found it hard to adapt to Israel. He went back to Poland twice and eventually returned back to Israel. Srulik opened a business as a tailor and Brenda opened a grocery. A year later, my grandma Pnina met my Grandpa Max, a Moroccan Jew, in an accounting school, and the rest is history.
Michal Finkelstein is 27 years old, living in Tel Aviv. A 2016 Birthright Israel Excel Fellow and a former Professional Development Director at the Israeli Alumni Board.
Michal is currently working as a consultant at the Financial Advisory Services department of KPMG Israel, specializing in transaction services (Financial Due Diligence, financial modeling and business plan, business analysis and research and strategic consulting to companies during restructuring and underperforming businesses).
Michal is also a lawyer, member of the Israeli Bar Association, experienced in corporate law, M&A and securities law, and worked at GKH Law Offices in Tel Aviv (Gross, Kleinhendler, Hodak, Halevy, Greenberg, Shenhav & Co).
Michal graduated from IDC Herzliya in 2016 with Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) and Business Administration and Accounting (B.A.), both Summa cum laude, and is currently a tutor and lecturer of tax law in the Arison School of Business. In the army, she was a spokesperson at the IDF Spokesperson Unit and nowadays is in an active reserve duty.
