Haifa Home for Holocaust Survivors / Holocaust Survivors / ICEJ Reports
Haifa Home Happenings

By: Yudit Setz, ICEJ Deputy Aid Director

The ICEJ’s Home for Holocaust Survivors in Haifa remains an interesting place to live and work, as we recently saw when welcoming our newest resident, Galina Voloshin.

Galina was born in 1936 in Ushomir, a small Jewish village near Kyiv. When the war broke out in Ukraine in June 1941, Galina’s father was mobilized. The family received only one letter from him, in which he urged Galina’s mother to take care of herself and their children.

Galina’s mother was a secretary of the local Communist party and knew all the communists in the area, so the family had to be evacuated. Galina, her sister, and their grandmother had to sit in an open cart, waiting for Galina’s mother to return, while harrowing sounds of sirens bellowed and dogs howled, leaving Galina with a lifelong fear of dogs.

The family escaped to the Stalingrad region, in the heat of the summer, where they lived for several months, during which time Galina’s grandmother and little sister died.

Everyone believed the Germans would not reach Stalingrad, but in 1942, the enemy laid siege to the city. Galina and her mother escaped again, this time by train. During the journey, several air raids sounded, forcing the train to stop and everyone to hide in the woods. They finally arrived in Ural at the end of August, but the weather had turned bitterly cold. Galina’s mother secured work at a school and planted a vegetable garden with her pupils that saved their lives. Galina would sit in bed wrapped in a blanket trying to keep warm until her mother returned from work.

After the war, the two returned to Ukraine, where Galina started school. She eventually studied at university to become an engineer and worked in this field until retirement.

In 1997, at the age of 61, Galina and her 80-year-old mother made Aliyah to Israel, where Galina continued to care for her aging mother and volunteered to help other Soviet Jewish immigrants. She has received many certificates of recognition for her contributions.

Galina moved into the Haifa Home for Holocaust Survivors in June and is quite happy to live here. “When I came to the dining room for the first time, I was warmly welcomed and greeted by residents and staff alike. Everyone was so friendly, and I immediately felt at home,” she shared.

An Incredible Reunion with a Tearful Closure

An unexpected visit to the Haifa Home recently brought a long-awaited closure to 95-year-old resident Sarah Zamir. Born as Ilse Böhm, Sarah grew up in a religious Jewish family near Breslau, in Silesia. In 1939 the family fled the Nazi regime for Belgium hoping for a safer life; however, deportations of Belgium’s Jews soon began. Sarah’s family was sent to concentration camps, never to return. But a kind Catholic couple from Antwerp took in 14-year-old Sarah. “They were not just good people,” Sarah recalled. “They were like angels.”

Sarah’s tearful reunion came about due to the work of Charlie Knight, a British historian of German Jewish refugees from the 1930s and 40s. Through his research, Charlie found letters dated from 1939 to 1940 hidden in an archive, letters sent back and forth between Sarah’s father, Ernst Böhm, and his cousin. Among them, Charlie found a postcard written by Ernst’s daughter, Ilse, whose fate was not initially clear. Further research revealed that she had survived, immigrated to Israel, and was now named Sarah Zamir.

After seeing Sarah featured in an ICEJ Germany video posted on social media, Charlie contacted the Christian Embassy, and soon enough, the two met at the Home in Haifa, where Sarah told Charlie in detail about her rescuers. The information Sarah provided prompted Charlie to continue his research that eventually led to identifying the Catholic couple who saved Sarah’s life and locating their family.

The couple’s great-grandson, Vince, had heard about Ilse from his grandfather, who was her age and lived alongside her in his parents’ home. As he grew older, the grandfather expressed hope that Ilse had lived a long, healthy life. When he learned about Sarah, Vince decided to come to Israel to meet her!

Sarah could hardly believe it was happening! Her own granddaughter was there for the reunion and said: “It was touching beyond words and an honor to meet the family that saved my grandma.” Vince agreed: “We were overcome by emotion—the first thing we did when we met was just cry. But then it became natural, and we talked as if we had known each other forever.”

海法大屠殺生還者之家 / 大屠殺生還者 / ICEJ 報告
海法活動

作者：Yudit Setz，ICEJ 援助副主任

ICEJ 位於海法的大屠殺生還者之家仍然是一個有趣的生活和工作場所，正如我們最近在歡迎新居民加琳娜·沃洛辛 (Galina Voloshin) 時所看到的那樣。

加林娜 1936 年出生於基輔附近的一個猶太小村莊烏什米爾。 1941 年 6 月烏克蘭戰爭爆發，加林娜的父親被動員起來。家人只收到了他的一封信，他在信中敦促加琳娜的母親照顧好自己和孩子。

加琳娜的母親是當地共產主義組織的書記，認識該地區所有的共些主義組織成員，所以一家人不得不撤離。加琳娜、她的妹妹和祖母不得不坐在一輛敞篷車裡，等待加琳娜的母親回來，伴隨著令人痛苦的警報聲和狗的嚎叫聲，讓加琳娜對狗產生了終生的恐懼。

炎熱的夏天，一家人逃到斯大林格勒地區，在那裡住了幾個月，期間加琳娜的祖母和妹妹去世了。

每個人都認為德國人無法到達斯大林格勒，但 1942 年，敵人圍攻了這座城市。 加琳娜和她的母親再次逃跑，這次是乘火車。 途中，幾聲空襲響起，迫使火車停下來，大家躲進樹林裡。 八月底，他們終於抵達烏拉爾，但天氣卻變得嚴寒。 加琳娜的母親在一所學校找到了工作，並和她的學生一起種植了一個菜園，這挽救了他們的生命。 加琳娜會裹著毯子坐在床上取暖，直到她母親下班回來。

戰爭結束後，兩人回到烏克蘭，加琳娜在那裡上學。 她最終在大學學習成為一名工程師，並在該領域工作直至退休。

1997年，61歲的加琳娜和她80歲的母親回歸以色列，在那裡加琳娜繼續照顧年邁的母親，並自願幫助其他蘇聯猶太移民。 她因其貢獻而獲得了許多認可證書。

加琳娜於六月搬進了海法大屠殺生還者之家，她很高興住在這裡。「當我第一次來到餐廳時，我受到了居民和工作人員的熱烈歡迎和歡迎。 每個人都非常友好，我立刻就有賓至如歸的感覺，」她分享道。

令人難以置信的重聚，以含淚結束

最近，95 歲的居民莎拉·扎米爾 (Sarah Zamir) 意外造訪海法之家，結束了期待已久的生活。 莎拉出生時原名伊爾斯·伯姆，在西里西亞布雷斯勞附近的一個宗教猶太家庭長大。1939年，一家人逃離納粹政權前往比利時，希望過上更安全的生活。 然而，驅逐比利時猶太人的行動很快就開始了。莎拉的家人被送往集中營，再也沒有回來。但來自安特衛普的一對善良的天主教夫婦收留了 14 歲的莎拉。「他們不僅僅是好人，」莎拉回憶道。「他們就像天使一樣。」

莎拉含淚重逢的緣由是查理·奈特（Charlie Knight）的著作，他是一位研究 20 世紀 30 年代和 40 年代德國猶太難民的英國歷史學家。 透過研究，查理髮現了檔案中隱藏的 1939 年至 1940 年的信件，這些信件是莎拉的父親恩斯特·伯姆 (Ernst Böhm) 和他的表弟之間來回發送的。 其中，查理髮現了一張恩斯特的女兒伊爾莎寫的明信片，她的命運最初並不清楚。 進一步的研究表明她倖存下來並移民到以色列，現在被命名為莎拉·扎米爾。

在看到莎拉出現在社交媒體上發布的 ICEJ 德國視頻後，查理聯繫了基督徒大使館，很快，兩人在海法的家中見面，莎拉在那裡向查理詳細講述了她的救援人員。 莎拉提供的信息促使查理繼續他的研究，最終確定了拯救莎拉生命的天主教夫婦的身份並找到了他們的家人。

這對夫婦的曾孫文斯（Vince）從祖父那裡聽說了伊爾莎（Ilse），他的祖父與她同齡，和她一起住在他父母的家裡。 隨著年齡的增長，祖父表示希望伊爾莎能夠健康長壽。 當他得知莎拉的消息後，文斯決定來以色列見見她！

莎拉簡直不敢相信這一切正在發生！ 她自己的孫女也出席了這次團聚，她說：「能夠見到拯救我祖母的家人，我感到難以言表的感動和榮幸。」文斯表示同意：「我們都被感動了——見面時我們做的第一件事就是哭。 但後來一切就變得很自然了，我們說話就好像我們已經認識很久了一樣。」