VOLUME 13 NO 2
MAY 2024
Dear Child survivors of the Holocaust, We trust you and your loved ones are well. Time has passed since our last edition of Connections and the daily news from Israel remains of great concern as do the actions of protesters at our universities and on our streets. has become a very important t t Resilience R il word for me, and there are many examples of pride and strength from not only Israel but our own Child Survivors who share their thoughts on the situation when we speak. CSH Time capsule event: September 15, 2024 will be a very special occasion for our child survivors and their families. In 2014 we held a ceremony to close the Child Survivor Time Capsule. We asked you to write your story and add an item of memorabilia to the special storage box, to be locked away and not opened till 2054!! That event was an incredible success and here we are ten years later ready to celebrate our first milestone anniversary, having reached the ten-year mark.
An invitation will be sent to you in August, inviting you to bring along your children and grandchildren; the time capsule complete with all its stories will be present. This occasion will also celebrate the resilience of Child survivors of the Holocaust. In this edition you will find an article on CSH H statistics sharing how many survivors are alive today and where they are living. CSH, Claude Sanicki writes about recently discovering his mother’s testimony and Margarita Rialkennen’s introduction for her mother Roza at the recent Yom Hashoah commemoration where Roza was one of six candle lighters, is a heartfelt tribute from a second-generation much-loved daughter. Sending you and yours a special warm hug over these cold winter months, we look forward to seeing you all in September.
Viv Parry & Lena Fiszman Co-Presidents
Lena’s Desk: The amazing true story of a baby illegally born and smuggled out of Kovno ghetto
Elida (renamed Gita Ruhin) on far left with her school friends in Vilna (Vilnius) after the war. (Courtesy of Zipora Klein Jakob)
Elida Freidman Goldberg Katzman changed names, families, countries and continents numerous times as she grappled until her premature death with being a Holocaust orphan from birth.
Zipora Klein Jakob’s first impression of her cousin Elida was that she dressed and acted differently and spoke only Yiddish with the adults in the family. Elida was a young teenager who had arrived in Israel from Vilnius, Lithuania in 1957 with Elida’s parents Dr. Jonah and Tzila Freidman before a couple who were she was born in secret in apparently her parents. At the Kovno (Kaunus) ghetto in 1943. (Courtesy of Zipora only 12 years old, Jakob Klein Jakob) didn’t connect with this slightly older girl who the adults said was “from over there.” Jakob’s parents had immigrated to pre-state Israel in 1935 and did not speak to her about the Holocaust and