אל על | אטמוספירה

Michael Sidko

Menachem Haberman

Zippora Singer

Rita Berkowitz

Michael Sidko | The last survivor of the Babi Yar massacre “Over the course of two days on September 29-30, 1941, Nazi Germany’s forces and Ukrainian accomplices massacred 33,771 Jews. Among those massacred were my infant brother Volodya, my baby sister Clara and my mother. Even though I was only six years old I still remember every gruesome detail. I wish I didn’t, but the sights, sounds, and smell of gun powder still haunt me to this day”.

and wear the Tefillin on my forehead, saying: ‘Hear, O Israel, the lord our God, the lord is one’. This immortal verse charged me with power and strengthened my belief in the existence of God. It also made me feel I was still “normal”, not just a sack of bones with a number tattooed on it. Even though the Holocaust happened, I believe in God. And yet, I have friends who lost their faith in God because of it. Faith is a very personal thing. I always felt that despite the horrendous destruction, we had to continue the lineage of the Jewish People and maintain our faith. Without it, I don’t think I would have been able to survive and tell you my story now”. Zippora Singer |

lying on the floor, too weak to walk, when a German soldier came and turned me over with his boot. He looked at me and said, ‘Your time has come, Schwarze’. I clenched my fists and thought: You’re wrong. I will live. I refused to believe that evil would prevail. And indeed, that soldier was wrong. In Bergen-Belsen, in that dreadful place, I met Chaim Sheinzinger, a Polish Jew who had served in the British army. Alone and destitute, we married on my 23 rd birthday. Later, we moved to Scotland, where our beloved daughter Liora was born, and in 1961, we immigrated to Israel. Despite

Menachem Haberman | Faith made me feel normal

“While in Auschwitz, I could never tell when it was Passover, or Yom Kippur, or Rosh Hashanah. However, I knew I had to retain my bond with the Jewish faith. There was a set of Tefillin in Buchenwald camp, in block number 59, and I would take any opportunity to stand in line, even in the freezing cold, the horrors I endured, the pain that has lingered for nearly eighty years, and the haunting sights and smells of death - I now look with joy and happiness at my three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. They are my victory.” ˆ Photographer, native Tel Avivi and TEDx speaker, Erez Kaganovitz is the human behind the Humans of Tel Aviv, Humans of Israel, Humans of October 7 and Humans of the Holocaust projects. You can find his compelling work at humansoftelaviv.co.il My grandchildren and great grandchildren are my victory “In Bergen-Belsen, I remember

28 ATMOSPHERE APRIL 2025