Rafael and Ella live near the Old City of Jerusalem, and just around the corner the mountains of Judea come into view. On a clear day, Jordan and the Dead Sea are visible. They feel safe and at home in Israel, but when the siren sounds on Holocaust Memorial Day, painful memories surface as the nation stands in silence, and this dear couple remember lost family.
Near the time of Yom HaShoah, ICEJ Homecare was due for their weekly visit. Our team had been coming for a few months now, ever since Ella’s health began to decline and she could not shower without assistance. Responding to Homecare’s gentle questions, Ella and Rafael started sharing memories.
Rafael was born in Kazakhstan in 1933, the eldest of three children. At eight years old, Rafael saw his father go to the front in Stalingrad, and his mother was left to take care of the family. With their own house and a cow to provide milk, they were better off than most during the dark days of World War II, but still…
“We had hunger, we had great fear, and I missed my father every day,” said Rafael.
After school, he and other boys his age helped care for wounded soldiers in the hospital. Rafael also remembers standing in line near a shop for entire nights alone so that when it opened, he could get bread for his family. That was illegal. If caught by the police, it meant a night in the army base peeling potatoes
Rafael paused his story, thinking of the time he ran from the police and hid in a school yard. The memory of that scary night and the burden of responsibility he carried as a child still brings tears to his eyes.
“But,” he added, “I experienced a miracle from heaven that night. I prayed for protection, and the police searched but somehow did not see me.”
Ella, though born just after the war, grew up with a sense of loss knowing many in her family fell victim to the Holocaust.
Ella’s great-grandfather owned a bakery and assisted the rabbi in the local synagogue. As the Nazis approached their town, he could not believe they were as bad as the rumours which preceded them, so he did not flee like many other Jews. His oldest daughter and her four-year-old daughter stayed with him, too. One day, they were forced to the city square with other Jews, taken away, murdered, and buried in a mass grave. Neighbours had informed the Nazis they were Jewish. His son, Ella’s grandfather, had been evacuated and thus escaped the fate of his father.
While Ella was a young girl, her grandparents moved into her home due to declining health. One day, Ella walked into their room without knocking and was startled to see something unknown to her. Grandfather was praying wrapped in a prayer shawl with tefillin on his head and arm. Her father took her aside and warned her never to speak of this to anyone. Ella remembers the fear and constant pressure of secrecy under the Communist regime. It was only when she saw men praying in Israel that she understood what she had seen.
Following their marriage, the joy of Ella and Rafael’s life was their daughter. She became a pianist, and as she grew up and learned of her mother’s Jewish heritage, she started yearning to move to Israel. She made Aliyah alone and worked in a kibbutz. She studied Hebrew in the mornings and worked in the fields in the afternoons. Her evenings often found her in Jerusalem attending classes in a music academy. A few months later, Ella and Rafael followed their daughter to Israel.
“When I arrived in Israel, it felt as if I was coming home,” Ella said with great relief.
However, life in Israel had its challenges, and as they aged there were new health challenges. But they are finally in stable, subsidised housing, and both feel safe.
“Israel gives us life!” they declared together.
Their joy of living in Israel includes being near their daughter and granddaughter, who holds a key role in the army and was recently married.
As the Homecare team prepared to leave, Rafael and Ella were grateful they could tell their memories of survival during the dark days of the war, and their joy and hope of belonging in Israel in their latter years.
Please consider supporting the vital work of ICEJ Homecare, as they comfort these and other precious elderly Jewish immigrants in Israel.
