The Survivor From Block 19 by Arie Blumenfeld

Author:Arie Blumenfeld [Blumenfeld, Arie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-09-09T16:00:00+00:00

“I don’t have any tefillin. I handed them

over to the Nazi beasts in the

Auschwitz-Birkenau hell.”

Fifty years would pass between putting his tefillin in the Nazi loot-sack in Auschwitz, and his trip with the Ramot School’s delegation to Poland. Another 25 would pass until members of that delegation would invite him and me to the Memories in the Living Room evening hosted by Assaf and his wife. It took me 25 years to reach the point where I could find a solution for what had been bothering me for so long.

When the very emotional evening draws to a close, I ask to say a few words of summary, thank our hosts, thank Shelley (who was in the delegation and helped prepare content), thank the members of the 1993 delegation present at this event, colleagues, teachers currently accompanying delegations and were part of that trip so long ago, and other guests who’ve joined us. Then I turn to speak to my father. “Abba, I truly love you.” But thinking about it, I see that I always loved him and it was so obvious to me that I never said so. I felt relief.

And then I bring a package out of a bag I’d prepared in advance. These are my own personal tefillin, purchased by my wife as a gift to me for our wedding day. “Abba, you were forced to hand your tefillin over in that hell, and today I’m handing mine over to you, so that you can fulfill the commandment each Jewish man should fulfill, and simultaneously fulfill your mother’s last wish in Proszowice, Poland.”

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