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A32 FEATURE
Monday 4 noveMber 2019
In fading ritual, WWII rescuer reunites with Jews she saved

By ARON HELLER named Shmuel, became
Associated Press gravely ill and had to be
JERUSALEM (AP) — One by taken to a hospital, despite
one, the 40 descendants the risk of exposing his iden-
of a group of Israeli siblings tity. He died there.
leaned down and hugged Shortly after, the family was
the elderly Greek woman informed upon and Dina's
to whom they owe their sisters and their relatives
very existence, as she sat in helped them flee in various
her wheelchair and wiped directions.
away tears streaking down Yanai, the oldest, headed
her wrinkled face. for the woods, another
Clutching the hands of went to the mountains, and
those she hid, fed and pro- the mother headed out on
tected as a teenager more foot with her youngest two
than 75 years ago, 92-year- surviving children in search
old Melpomeni Dina said of another hiding spot. Dina
she could now "die quietly." and her orphaned and im-
Sunday's emotional en- poverished sisters provided
counter was the first time them with clothing before
Dina had met the offspring their departure. The fam-
of the Mordechai family ily reunited after liberation
she helped save during the and made its way to Israel,
Holocaust. Once a regular Melpomeni Dina holds the hand of an Israeli girl during a reunion at the Yad Vashem Holocaust where the children built
ritual at Israel's Yad Vash- memorial in Jerusalem, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2019. families of their own.
em Holocaust memorial, Associated Press Yossi Mor, today 77, was just
such gatherings are rap- The names of those hon- Similar reunions sponsored the Nazis. When the Na- an infant when his family
idly dwindling due to the ored for refusing to be in- by Yad Vashem of long-lost zis began rounding up was taken in, but he said he
advanced ages of both different to the genocide siblings or other relatives the Jews for deportation could still remember a few
survivors and rescuers and are engraved along an also are coming to an end. in early 1943, the family's things, such as when his
may not happen again. avenue of trees at the Je- "Either the survivor has non-Jewish friends provid- older brother died and the
The soon-to-be-extinct re- rusalem memorial. Only a passed on, the righteous ed them with fake identity kindness they encountered
union is the latest reminder few hundred are believed has passed on or in some cards and hid them in the from their rescuers — who
for Holocaust commemo- to still be alive. instances either the survivor attic of the old abandoned gave them various forms of
rators preparing for a post- "This is probably going to or the righteous gentile is Turkish mosque. They were refuge for nearly two years.
survivor world. our last reunion, because unable to travel," she said, there for almost a year, "They fed us, they gave us
"The risk they took upon of age and frailty," said choking up. "You see the hearing the screams out- medicine, they gave us
themselves to take in an Stanlee Stahl, the execu- survivors, their children, their side of other Jews being the protection, everything,
entire family knowing that tive vice president of the grandchildren, you see the rounded up. But eventually they washed our clothes,"
it put them and everyone Jewish Foundation for the future. To me it is very, very, they had to leave because he said, before gesturing
around them in danger," Righteous, which spon- very special. In a way, a their health was declining toward Dina. "She loved
said Sarah Yanai, today 86, sored the event and which door closes, one opens. in the cramped, unventi- me very much."
who was the oldest of the provides $1 million a year in The door is closing ever so lated attic. Mor and Yanai had got-
five siblings Dina and others monthly stipends to those slowly on the reunions." That's when Dina and her ten together with Dina in
sheltered. "Look at all these recognized. The Mordechai family lived two older sisters took the Greece years ago. But the
around us. We are now a She said her organization in Veria, Greece, near Thes- family of seven into their younger generation of their
very large and happy fami- has been doing such re- saloniki, where nearly the own single-room home on extended family, which in-
ly and it is all thanks to them unions every year since entire Jewish community the outskirts of the city, shar- cluded grade-school chil-
saving us." 1992, but this one was likely was annihilated within a ing with them their meager dren in pigtails and soldiers
About 6 million European the last of its kind and there- few months in one of the food rations. One of the in uniform, had never met
Jews were killed by Ger- fore particularly emotional. most brutal executions of children, a six-year-old boy her before Sunday's cer-
man Nazis and their collab- emony. The two soldiers
orators during World War II. proudly pushed Dina and
More than 27,000, includ- Yanai throughout the com-
ing some 355 from Greece, plex in their wheelchairs.
have been recognized as A special committee,
"Righteous Among the Na- chaired by a retired Su-
tions," Israel's highest honor preme Court Justice, is re-
to those non-Jews who sponsible for vetting every
risked their lives to save case of "Righteous Among
Jews during the Holocaust. the Nations" before award-
The most famous cases are ing the title. Following a
Oskar Schindler, whose ef- lengthy process, between
forts to save more than 400 and 500 are typically
1,000 Jews were docu- recognized a year and the
mented in Steven Spiel- process will continue and
berg's 1993 film "Schindler's new stories come to light
List," and Raoul Wallenberg, even for those awarded
a Swedish diplomat who is posthumously, said Joel
credited for having saved Zisenwise, the director of
at least 20,000 Jews before Melpomeni Dina, center right, poses for a group photo during a reunion at the Yad Vashem Holo- the department at Yad
mysteriously disappearing. caust memorial in Jerusalem, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2019. Associated Press Vashem.q