If you haven’t read it yet, check out Globe’s David Filipov story about Newton resident Israel ‘Izzy” Arbeiter’s return to Auschwitz where Arbeiter was imprisoned, and to Treblinka, where his parents were murdered
Izzy remembers the soldiers shouting and ripping babies from the arms of mothers, tearing apart husbands and wives, dragging screaming children away from their parents. He remembers running over to the column where his mother and father were standing.
“I had never been separated from my parents,’’ he explains. “But my father realized what was happening.’’ Icchak Arbeiter sent his son back to the other column.
“He told me, ‘Children, go back over there, and if you survive, remember to carry on with Jewish life and Jewish tradition.’ And those were the last words I heard from my father before they took him – and everyone in his column – off to Treblinka.’’
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Thank you for pointing out the article.
Like so many other Holocaust stories, this was heart wrenching. But I also found comfort knowing “Izzy” survived and has been able to tell his story. If you have no read the article, do yourself a favor and do so.
Wow.
an amazing article – so glad I took the time to read his story.
Every Holocaust account I’ve read is essentially a story of pure evil versus human perseverance. This was one of the best and most moving. They never grows old or redundant. We should keep all these stories alive as well as stories about the many other persecutions, ethnic cleansing, and mass murders of whole societies that have occurred during the ages, but particularly during this past century. We might find more common ground in our own politics if we did so.