Program Stories

World War II began just one month after Zoya turned six years old. “My mother did not take me to kindergarten,” Zoya recalls, “and I was very happy about that, but then the terrible days began.”

“I felt that finally I was home, and nobody would ever treat me badly simply because I’m Jewish.”

Mira’s life was miraculously saved twice. The first time was when she was just a one-year-old during World War II, when her mother managed to escape with baby Mira from the death march to Babi Yar in Ukraine.

“We didn’t know where we were running to. We only knew that we were running from death.” That’s Maya, a Holocaust survivor, who vividly remembers the beginning of World War II.

Yolanda is a Holocaust survivor who survived the Libyan Jewish Holocaust.

Ninety-three-year-old Holocaust survivor Mina had a difficult childhood growing up in Ukraine during World War II and escaping the Nazis with her mother and stepfather.

Yosef and Ruth live in the Holy Land and have been married for 60 years. And for Yosef, an 84-year-old Holocaust survivor, this is the second time he’s faced war firsthand.

“God heard my prayers and saved us. Every time they tried to break down the door, I chanted the ‘Shema Yisrael’ (Hear, O Israel) prayer, and God heard me.”

Can you believe Faina’s neighbour physically carries her to take cover when terrorist rockets fall? “I can’t walk by myself, so my neighbour carries me out on his back every time during the siren,” Faina says.

Emma lives in Ashdod, in one of the heavily bombarded areas of southern Israel. She’s lived there for 23 years since her family made aliyah (immigrated to Israel) from Siberia.

92-year-old Dalia cannot walk on her own and needs 24/7 care. She also has difficulty speaking but managed to let us know that she made aliyah (immigrated to Israel) to her biblical homeland years ago from Iraq.

“What I most want to say, so that the whole world will know, is that our small nation is going through very hard times. And what happened to us this time has never happened before.”