Brother
and sister from Romania
separated by Holocaust reunite after 65
years
September
19, 2006
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
(With
files from the Associated Press)
An
Ottawa man was reunited in Israel this week with the
younger sister he thought had perished in the Holocaust
65 years ago.
|
|
|
|
Simon
Glasberg, 81, of Ottawa and his sister Hilda
Shlick, 75, from Ashdod, Israel, meet at the Yad
Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, Monday,
Sept. 18, 2006. (Emilio Morenatti/Associated
Press) Simon Glasberg, 81, of Ottawa and his
sister Hilda Shlick, 75, from Ashdod, Israel,
meet at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in
Jerusalem, Sept. 18,
2006.
(Emilio
Morenatti/Associated Press)
|
Simon
Glasberg, now 81, last saw his sister Hilda Shlick when
she was only 10 years old.
For
more than six decades, he thought she had met the same
sad fate as six million other Jews who were killed by the
Nazis during the Second World War.
Meanwhile,
half a world away in Israel, Shlick, now 75, thought her
big brother Simon was among the dead.
Recently,
the brother and sister were overjoyed to learn they were
both wrong -- thanks to another brother, Karol, who
submitted a note to preserve his sister's memory at the
Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.
This
week, Simon Glasberg laid eyes on Hilda for the first
time in over six decades.
In
spite of her grey hair, he said he recognized her at
once, and he cried as he embraced her for the first time
since she was a little girl.
|
|
'The
world was swirling around, and I looked at
her.
I just kissed her ...
I couldn't stop kissing her.'
-Simon Glasberg
|
"The world was swirling around, and I looked at her,"
recalled Glasberg of the moment. "I just kissed her
… I couldn't stop kissing her."
Grandsons found Shlick's name in Holocaust victims
database
Unfortunately,
the brother in Montreal who brought Glasberg and Shlick
together did not live to see his sister again.
But in
1999, the year he died, Karol Glasberg filed a note with
the Yad Vashem memorial, adding Hilda's name to the
memorial's Hall of Names.
There,
black binders lining the walls are filled with the names
of millions of Holocaust victims. Biographical data of
victims, entered by family members, is also kept at the
museum.
To
date, 3.2 million of those records have been computerized
and 10 million people have visited the database since it
went online in 2004.
This
past summer, Shlick's grandsons, Benny and David, learned
that their grandmother's maiden name was Glasberg. They
searched Yad Vashem's database and found her mistakenly
listed among the dead.
That
was how they learned that members of Hilda's family had
not all died as Shlick believed, but some had fled to
Canada.
Further
internet sleuthing helped Shlick's grandsons track down
Karol's son, who put them in touch with their long-lost
relatives.
Family torn apart in 1941
Simon
Glasberg last saw his sister in 1941 when he was a
teenager in their hometown of Chernowitz,
Romania.
That
was when Shlick's older sister Bertha fled with her to
Uzbekistan while the rest of the family hid in a
basement.
Later,
Glasberg and Shlick's parents, Henia and Benzion, moved
to Canada with their sons, Simon, Karol, Mark and
Eddie.
Mark
and Simon fought in Israel's war of independence, then
joined their parents overseas.
No one
knows what happened to one other sister, Pepi, but her
relatives still believe she was killed by the
Nazis.
Shlick
and her sister later moved to Estonia, and Bertha died
there in 1970. Henia and Benzion died in Montreal in the
1980s, and Eddie died in 2004.
Mark
Glasberg, who lives in Ottawa, was too sick to travel
when he learned his sister was alive.
But
Simon Glasberg took advantage of his opportunity to fly
to Israel and spend the Jewish New Year with his sister
this weekend.
|
|
"My
poor parents, they always said,
'We wish we would find all our kids'
.... It is such a tragedy, but now I am so
happy."'
-Simon Glasberg
|
"My poor parents, they always said, 'We wish we would
find all our kids' " Glasberg told Associated Press. "It
is such a tragedy, but now I am so happy."
In
Israel, where Shlick immigrated in 1998, brother and
sister caught up on decades of each other's
lives.
Together,
they visited Yad Vashem, the museum that brought them
together.
During
his visit to Israel, Glasberg asked Hilda to return to
Canada with him.
After
years in Israel, Hilda is reluctant to leave her home,
her children and her grandchildren for Canada.
But
she has promised Simon she will come for a month to visit
relatives such as her brother Mark, and the graves of her
parents.
Avner
Shaley, director of Yad Vashem, said he hopes the story
of the happy reunion will encourage Jews worldwide to
search the database and submit information about their
lost relatives.
