Shinshinim 2024-2025

Good morning and Shabbat Shalom,

It’s good to be back. We had an amazing time with our families but we missed you all so much. 

Tomorrow evening marks the start of a very important day for me - Holocaust remembrance day. Every year on the 27th of Nisan, we all collectively decide to remember, mourn and honor the six million jews murdered by the Nazis and their helpers. 

Choosing the date of this remembrance day was not trivial. In the end - it was chosen to symbolize the date of the Rebellion of the Warsaw Ghetto. While it doesn’t mark the exact date of the rebellion - as it occurred on passover eve and that was deemed inappropriate, it still holds deep meaning. 

In Israel, post WW2, the view of the holocaust and its survivors was very different then it is today. Then, the jews of Europe were viewed as weak. As if they were accepting their fates like lambs to the slaughter. Obviously, today, we all know that isn’t true. We all know of the many heroic stories, as well as we know that no one has the right to judge the people undergoing such unimaginable horrors. But back then, the Holocaust did not fit in the narrative of the “new jew”, the “fighting jew” Israelis needed so desperately to survive. 

This general atmosphere caused many holocaust survivors to not open up. They were pushed aside, and their stories were not listened to. This is one of the reasons that today listening, documenting and remembering stories is so incredibly important.

One of these survivors is my grandfather - Arie Durst. Or in his Born name - Leopold Arie Durst.

My grandfather was born in Lvov, Poland (today’s Lviv, Ukraine). When he was six, on September 1st 1939, Germany broke the Ribbentrop-Molotov treaty, and took over Lvov, as well as other parts of Poland. The Russians retreated from Poland, taking Arie’s dad with them - as he was a doctor and was needed in the Red Army. Later on my great grandfather - Friedrich, joined the Anders Army, fighting against the Germans.

Under German ruling, My grandfather, his brother, his mother and his grandparents were joined by their family. 

My grandfather's uncle had an ‘essential worker’ permit from the Germans, as he worked with trains. 

Every Time there were rumors of an ‘Action’ - a search for Jews, my grandfather and his mom would hide in the basement of his former nanny - while his brother joined his uncle and children, posing as one of them and protected under the permit. This would take between hours and weeks.

One time, after an action, my grandfather was sent by his mother to go check in on his little brother, Marian. 

He went back to their house, finding only his uncle there in a psychotic state. He understood from his uncle that they took his entire family, and left only the uncle, because only he was essential. 

My grandfather and his mom went on to hide in Warsaw in an apartment under a false identity. I will not go in to detail, but the years they hid are incredibly interesting. After the war, they reconnected with my great grandfather through the Jewish agency, and were able meet with him in Israel, as he was already living there.

After six years of hell, my grandfather started school, sixth grade, without speaking the language or spending a day in school before.

Later on, my grandfather became a doctor, served in the army and even got an award for performing a life saving surgery with a pocket knife and a rubber tube. 

He later on became chief of surgery in two hospitals in Jerusalem - and whenever I introduce myself in Israel, I always get asked if I am related to professor Durst.

I can’t share with you his entire fascinating life story, but I am happy I had the chance to share a glimpse.

If anyone is interested in hearing more, my grandfather wrote a book and it was translated to English. In my personal unbiased opinion it truly is a fascinating book, and It’s a short read.

To spare you the trouble I checked, and ‘A Childhood in the Shadow of the Holocaust’ by Arie Durst is sold on amazon for 4 dollars on kindle and 8 dollars paperback link to purchase

Thank you for letting me share my grandfather’s story with you, and please - if you can - take the time to listen to a story, read a book or attend a ceremony. Always, and this week especially.

Shabbat Shalom.