A few days before Pesach 1944, Dov Berger was sent to a labor camp in Budapest. He packed his bag, taking along his kitel in the hope of wearing it on Seder night. During his entire ordeal in the camps, he had managed to keep his precious kitel with him.

A year later, R’ Berger was in the march to Mauthausen during heavy snow conditions, and it was there that he returned his soul to the Creator. His brother Eliezer, who witnessed the painful event, took the kitel and brought it after the war to Shmuel, Dov’s son, who too was saved from death.

During his lifetime, Shmuel wore the kitel on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, as well as on Seder night. He was niftar 16 years ago.

Dov’s widow, Sarah Ben-Dov heard of the Yad Vashem campaign “collect the pieces” and decided to get the kitel to the Holocaust museum in Eretz Yisrael.

“The kitel is Shmuel’s only remembrance from his father who perished in the Holocaust and it therefore is most significant” Sarah told a Yisrael HaYom reporter.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)