ISRAEL: Cafe revives pre-war era for Holocaust survivors

Record ID: 396466

  • Title: ISRAEL: Cafe revives pre-war era for Holocaust survivors
  • Date: 2nd March 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARTY DOTAN A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR FROM HOLLAND SAYING: "I don't know yet if it's important to me, its nice to meet people who know you have the same background, you can speak to them without having some barrier before you and its, perhaps its easier to find people on the same level as you with the same background."
  • Embargoed: 17th March 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: History
  • Reuters ID: LVA8OVPW6MQ7CAYH8QPVHE1PDUHZ
  • Story Text: The sound of Polka music mixed with the aroma of coffee and apple strudel at a unique cafe in Israel where more than 100 Holocaust survivors gathered to trade memories and old photographs.
    Cafe Europa, modelled after a coffee shop in Sweden where survivors of the Nazi attempt to liquidate Europe's Jews gathered after World War Two, recently opened its doors in a senior citizens centre in the central Israeli city of Ramat Hasharon.
    White-haired couples danced cheek-to-cheek as an Israeli singer sang traditional Jewish songs at the cafe, set up by the municipality and volunteer groups to give the city's dwindling population of 500 Holocaust survivors a place to meet.
    Conversations in several languages, including Hebrew and German, were heard at the crowded tables.
    As several people around him clapped to the music, Samuel Zalewski, a native of Poland, pulled out a black-and-white photocopied picture of children in prisoner uniforms.
    He was freed from Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp by the Russian Red Army in 1945. Aged 11 at the time, he and his brother Arye arrived in what is now Israel in 1948.
    "30 people from Ghetto Lodz (Ghetto were Jews were brought in prior to transfer to concentration camp), among them we were a couple of children and fortunately we didn't go through the selection because if we had gone through the selection, we wouldn't be alive today," Zalewski told Reuters.
    The retired investment consultant met his wife in Israel. They have three sons and eight grandchildren.
    Marty Dotan, a 77-year-old Dutch native who survived two Nazi concentration camps, and her husband Bob, an 81-year-old survivor whose family originated from Russia, helped plan the cafe.
    Marty and Bob where dancing to the music of their generation, Marty told Reuters she enjoys being with people who have the same background but does not know how important it is for her to be in this atmosphere.
    "My father died there, if you can call this dying, and my mother nearly died too and my sister and I we came together back in Holland in 45 (1945). In 47 (1947) I came to Israel," Marty explained. "I don't know yet if its important to me, its nice to meet people who know you have the same background, you can speak to them without having some barrier before you and it's, perhaps it's, easier to find people on the same level as you with the same background," she added when asked how important this group was for her.
    Israel is currently home to some 260,000 survivors of the Nazi Holocaust that killed six million Jews. Most of those alive today were children or teenagers during the war.
    The number of the survivors is dwindling. Dozens of those at Cafe Europe had to leave their spouses, who also lived through the Holocaust, at home due to chronic age-related illnesses.
    Thousands around the world are still trying to locate lost relatives and friends.
    Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum has registered more than three million people searching for loved ones in its online database. Israel Radio has for decades broadcast a call-in show and newspapers have run advertisements for the same purpose.
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