70 years – the tefilin and the siddur survived the concentration camps and they arrived at Yad Vashem. During the war years, Srulchik – who perished in the Holocaust HY”D and the family was unaware of the tefilin and siddur that he used and carried with him. Of late, they were presented to Yad Vashem as part of the campaign to “Collect the Pieces”, the artifacts that remain from the survivors and those items left behind by the victims. Samuel and Melvina Avraham, survivors living in Netanya today, presented these items which belonged to Samuel’s sister’s fiancé.

The sister, Elizabeth Avraham, was born in 1914 and was engaged during the war time to Srulchik (Yisrael), who family name is not even known today. He had the siddur which he managed to keep with him until the end of the war in the camps.

Samuel, today 94, speaks of his sister’s engagement telling she is six years his elder. She got engaged during forced labor in the Hungarian army. Elizabeth and Srulchik sent Samuel a photo of them together, arriving the camp in which he was imprisoned. This was their official engagement photo. This occurred at the time when Hungary was conquered by the Germans.

Months later Elizabeth was sent to sent to the ghetto and from there to Auschwitz. From there she took part in the Death March to Leipzig. Srulchik was inducted to forced labor in a camp too. Samuel was deported in September 1944 to a work camp and from there to Mauthausen in Germany. After the liberation Samuel and Srulchik met in the refugee camp for the liberated prisoners, located near Mauthausen. They were both weak and quite ill. Srulchik did not believe he would make it, telling Samuel “I am giving you these tefilin and siddur. Take care of them.” Srulchik did not recover and he died due to his weakened condition.

Samuel did recover and he returned to his home village. There he met Elizabeth his sister, telling her of Srulchik’s plight. She did not want to take the tefilin. “She was simply destroyed from her experience and now, the news of the petira of her fiancé” Samuel told Yad Vashem officials this week.

Elizabeth, Samuel and two siblings, Chaim and Chaya survived. Their parents, Aaron Ze’ev and Tirtza Tova HY”D were murdered. Elizabeth was married in 1948 to Freichel Mordechai, who was from the same city, Bistrica. They have a son and six grandchildren. They lived all the years in Yerushalayim. Their son is a physicist and a lecturer in a university.

Samuel married Malvina, also a survivor from Bistrica. They are cousins through their grandparents. They have two daughters and eight grandchildren.

For 70 years he held on to the siddur and tefilin and when he heard about the Yad Vashem campaign he decided to present them to the Holocaust museum along with photos and additional documents. Samuel explains the tefilin and siddur are no longer in usable condition and since he purchased new tefilin for all of his grandsons, it was time to give them to the museum.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)