Sophie Engelsman
Born in 1926, in Rotterdam, Holland. In 1946, the population of the hospital she worked in as a nurse was evacuated to Westerbork. Working as a slave laborer, she survived serious illness in Sobibor, Lublin, Trawniki, Katowice, Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and Raguhn. Liberated from Theresienstadt on the brink of death with typhus, Sofia was reunited with surviving family members, and emigrated to Israel in 1949. She and her husband have 4 sons, 21 grandchildren and 2 great-granddaughters.

Mordechai (Motke) Zeidel
Born in 1925, in Swenciany, near Vilna (then Poland). From 1941, Mordechai worked as a slave laborer until his escape to the Vilna ghetto. After the ghetto was liquidated, he was caught by the Gestapo and taken to Ponary, where he worked, in shackles, in the pits containing the victims’ corpses. There he also witnessed the mass murder of friends and family from Vilna and surrounding areas. Following a well-organized escape, he joined the partisans, taking part in the liberation of Vilna. Mordechai arrived undetected in Israel in 1945, and fought in the War of Independence. He has 3 children and 6 grandchildren.

Malka Rosental
Born in 1934, in Stanislawow, Poland. After her younger brother’s murder, she and her mother escaped. They and her father hid in a barn, but when her mother was murdered before her eyes, Malka and her father ran away. After months of wandering in the forest, she was taken in and hidden by the Kot family. Although later reunited with her father, Malka decided to emigrate to Israel with her friends. Malka has 2 daughters and 6 grandchildren.

Yerakhmiyel Felzenshteyn
Born in 1923, in Kharkov, Ukraine. Recruited to the Red Army in 1941, Yerakhmiyel was wounded in Eltigen, in the Crimean Peninsula, a bullet splitting his jaw and tongue. For his role in the assault, he was awarded the title of “Hero of the Soviet Union.” After his recuperation, he rejoined the war, fighting in the long battle for Sevastopol, where he was wounded in his leg. In 1974, Yerakhmiyel emigrated to Israel with his family. He has 2 children and 5 grandchildren.

Chaya Avraham
Born in 1926 in Vascauti, Bukovina. Chaya was deported with her family in 1942 to Mogilev and then to the death camp at Peciora. She escaped with her sister, together enduring a long journey of survival before reuniting with their family. After their father’s death, they were taken to an orphanage in Bucharest, from where they emigrated to Israel with a religious youth group. Chaya has 3 children and 6 grandchildren.

Dr. Robert M. Finaly
Born in 1941 in Grenoble, France. In March 1944 his parents were deported to Auschwitz, and Robert and his younger brother Gad (Gerald) were placed in the city’s Catholic children’s home. The manager of the institution cared for them but refused to return them to their family after the war, instead baptizing them to Christianity. After a five-year legal battle by the boys’ aunts—during which they were hidden in various Catholic institutions in Italy and Spain—the boys were returned to their families, and emigrated to Israel to live with their aunt. Today, Robert has 2 sons and a grandson.