111,000 Shoah (Holocaust) survivors live in Israel.
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Maciej Hunia, the Polish ambassador to Israel, invited my father, Dr. Herbert Hillel Goldberg, founder of LEMA’AN ZION, to speak to members of the Polish diplomatic staff and a group of Israeli high school students about his experiences during the Shoah (Holocaust).
My father recounted the murder of his father and two sisters; his brother’s survival; his own survival; and their reunification 20 years after the war.
Above all, he thanks God, but at key intervals, individuals, some wearing German and even SS uniforms, willfully provided opportunity to escape. It is a unique story.
Shoah survivors have a special place in my father’s heart. For decades he has led LEMA’AN ZION’s efforts to help survivors in need, 111,000 of whom live in Israel. Most are 90 or older and their number is dwindling rapidly. One third live in poverty. They require help to pay for medicine and medical treatment, groceries, utilities, rent and more.
For years we have sponsored a residence for 120 Holocaust survivors in Haifa, for example, which also has a soup kitchen to feed hundreds more who live on their own. Our efforts are not just about aid, but also about restoring dignity in their last years to those who experienced indescribable brutality during their childhood.
It is one thing to remember history; that is one aspect of my father’s life’s testimony. But it is another thing to act decisively. After WWII, my father initiated relief transports (buses and railroad cars filled with clothing and other goods) from Sweden to refugees living in Germany–among the same people that decimated his family. He never sought revenge. He saw the need and suffering. Thousands of German refugees were helped in every major community of northern Germany.
In recent decades, however, he focused on Israel and now asks his partners to join him in helping the needy.