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A32 FEATURE
Saturday 4 May 2019
Israel preserves Holocaust survivors' memorabilia for future

By ARON HELLER the ground and mailed it
Associated Press to Zeiger and her younger
RAMAT GAN, Israel (AP) — brother, Moshe, in occu-
Under a fluorescent light, pied France, where they
an archivist from Israel's Yad had fled from their home
Vashem Holocaust memo- in Belgium after the Nazis
rial snaps photos and scans invaded. After the father
into her mobile database was deported, the rest —
the last remnant that a pair mother, grandmother and
of elderly siblings have of the two children — survived
their long-lost father — a by assuming false, Christian
1943 postcard Samuel Ak- identities.
erman tossed in despera- Zeiger recalls several close
tion out of the deportation encounters when their cov-
train hurtling him toward his er was nearly lost. Once,
demise in the Majdanek the Gestapo arrived in
death camp. the early morning hours to
"It's what we have left from seize a Jewish family hiding
him," said Rachel Zeiger, his in the ground floor of their
now 91-year-old daughter. building. When the Nazis
"But this is not for the fam- knocked on their third-floor
ily. It is for the next genera- door, a teenage Zeiger
tions." In this Tuesday, April 23, 2019 photo, Israeli Holocaust survivors Rachel Zeiger 91, and her brother presented their fake pa-
With the world's community Moshe Akerman 84, give an interview to The Associated Press at their home in Ramat Gan, Israel. pers in her fluent French to
of aging Holocaust survi- Associated Press convince them they had
vors rapidly shrinking, and nothing to look for there.
their live testimonies soon Wednesday, Yad Vashem nihilate the Jewish people, er people, am headed to- "I've never felt that way in
to be a thing of the past, will be laying the corner- but also to obliterate their ward an unknown destina- my life," she recalled from
efforts such as these have stone of its new campus for identity, memory, culture tion," he scribbled in shaky her quaint house in Ramat
become the forefront of the Shoah Heritage Collec- and heritage," said Yad handwriting to his two chil- Gan, just outside Tel Aviv. "I
preparing for a world with- tions Center — the future Vashem Chairman Avner dren on Feb. 27, 1943, from had to vomit after they left.
out them. permanent home for its 210 Shalev. "By preserving these inside the packed trans- My whole body clenched."
Through its "Gathering the million documents, 500,000 precious items ... and re- port. "I may not be able to After the war, they re-
Fragments" program, Yad photographs, 131,000 sur- vealing them to the public write you again ... pray to turned to Antwerp to find
Vashem has collected vivor testimonies, 32,400 they will act as the voice God that we will joyfully see their home ravaged. They
some 250,000 items from artifacts and 11,500 works of the victims and the sur- each other again. Don't waited there several years,
survivors and their families of art related to the Ho- vivors and serve as an ever- give up hope and I am sure in the faint hope that their
in recent years to be stored locaust. On Thursday, it lasting memory." God will help us." father would somehow re-
for posterity and displayed will offer the public a rare Samuel Akerman's jarring Akerman, a diamond mer- turn, before giving up and
online in hopes of preserv- behind-the-scenes look of letter to his family will soon chant who dreamed of moving to Israel.
ing the memory of the 6 its preservation work, with join the collected assort- moving to pre-state Isra- The postcard remained
million Jews killed by the tours of its collection, ar- ment. el, was never heard from stashed away as a vestige
Nazis, even after the last chive and digitizing labs. "My heart is bitter. I unfortu- again. of their painful past for more
of the survivors has passed "The German Nazis were nately have to inform you A bystander likely found than 75 years, until Moshe
away. determined not only to an- that I, together with 950 oth- the discarded postcard on Akerman heard of the Yad
Copious video testimonies Vashem campaign seeking
have been filmed and personal effects of aging
even holograms have been survivors.
produced to try to recre- "My kids are glad I did it so
ate the powerful impact that this testimony will ex-
of a survivor's recollection, ist, because otherwise you
which has been the staple don't talk about it," said Ak-
of Holocaust commemora- erman, 84. "It's a small tes-
tion for decades. This year, timony to what happened,
an Instagram account was another drop in this sea of
created based on the real- testimony. It doesn't uncov-
life journal of a teenage er anything new. The facts
Jewish victim to make her are known. What hap-
story more accessible to a pened happened, and this
younger generation. is another small proof of it."
With the passing of time, Besides rounding up Jews
any physical links to the Ho- and shipping them to death
locaust and its victims have camps, the Nazis and their
become valuable means collaborators confiscated
of remembrance and evi- their possessions and stole
dence against the grow- their valuables, leaving
ing tide of denial and mini- little behind. Those who sur-
mization of the genocide vived often had just a small
around the world. In this Tuesday, April 23, 2019 photo, Israeli Yad Vashem officials Orit Noima, left, and Simmy Allen, item or two they managed
As Israel starts marking its watch archivist Lena Shternberg reproduce holocaust era photographs and documents at their to keep. Many have clung
annual Holocaust Remem- home at the city of Ramat Gan. to the sentimental objects
brance Day at sundown Associated Press ever since.q