Arieh pretended to be a Catholic child, Rachel hid in a monastery: The Holocaust survivors who lit torches at Yad Vashem

Holocaust survivors Monika Barzel, Arie Durst, Rachel Katz, Felix Soren, Gad Fartouk, and Arie Reiter lit torches this evening (Wednesday) at the official ceremony marking the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day held at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

The Stories of the Torchbearers:

Monika Barzel
Monika Barzel was born in 1937 in Berlin. Her mother Edith had to work long hours at the Jewish hospital in Berlin to support the family. In September 1942, Barzel's grandmother Gertrude, with whom she was raised, was deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto, where she was murdered. She had to move in with her mother at the hospital. Most of Barzel’s memories revolve around food.

At the end of February 1943, the factory roundup in Berlin took place: Jewish forced laborers were rounded up and sent to Auschwitz in an effort to rid Berlin of Jews. The director of the Jewish hospital had to choose 300 people to be sent to Auschwitz. Barzel was on the deportation train and waited there, but after some time was ordered to get off. She remained at the hospital until the end of the war.

After the liberation, Monika and her mother left Berlin, first moving to Sweden and later settling in London. There, she completed her dental studies before immigrating to Israel in 1962. Barzel and her partner, Ilan, made their home in Kibbutz Kfar HaNassi in the Upper Galilee. Barzel worked as a dentist until the age of 70. Ilan passed away from cancer at the age of 59. Despite the emotional hardship, Monika continued both her professional work and volunteer activities. The couple had two children and six grandchildren.

Arieh Durst
Arieh Durst was born in 1933 in Lviv, Ukraine (then part of Poland). In June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union and occupied Lviv. His father, Friedrich, was drafted into the Red Army to serve as a doctor. During the Aktionen (roundups), Ariyeh and his mother hid in the basement of his former nanny, a non-Jewish woman.

During one of these roundups, Durst's six-year-old brother, Marian, was murdered. His mother, Salomea, obtained forged papers and planned their escape to Warsaw. There, she rented a room in the home of a French widow. Posing as Polish Catholics, they concealed their identity, and Arieh was raised as a Christian.

One day, the police arrived at the building, and Aryeh and his mother narrowly escaped. A month later, however, they were captured and deported by train toward the Pruszków labor camp. They managed to escape again, this time to the town of Leszna Góra, where Arieh worked as a peddler until liberation.

After the war, his father was located, who had arrived in Tel Aviv. In 1945, the family reunited in Israel thanks to immigration certificates he had obtained for them. Arieh studied medicine in the army's academic reserve program, served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as a doctor in the Golani Brigade, and received a commendation from the commanding officer for performing surgery under fire.

He founded Israel's first transplant unit, headed the surgical division at Hadassah Hospital, and introduced innovations in surgery and the treatment of cancer patients and the wounded. Arieh and Ramona have three children and eight grandchildren.

Rachel Katz
Rachel Katz (née Laupman) was born in 1937 in Antwerp, Belgium, to an immigrant family. In May 1940, the Germans occupied Belgium. In June 1942, her father Benjamin was arrested and sent to a labor camp in France. From there, he was transferred to the Mechelen transit camp in Belgium and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he was murdered in November 1942. Her mother, Feige, bore the burden of providing and surviving while caring for four young children. The family moved between hiding places.

One neighbor, Maria Louben, provided them with forged documents and helped with shopping. When the German searches intensified, Louben took Rachel and her brother into her own home and later found them refuge in a monastery near Antwerp. Louben was later recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. After several months, Rachel and her brother were removed from the monastery due to the threat of a Gestapo raid. They returned to Antwerp and lived with their mother in a hideout under a false identity, supported by members of the Belgian underground, until Belgium was liberated in September 1944.

In 1957, Rachel immigrated to Israel, married, and started a family. In 2000, she joined the organization "Yesh – Children and Orphans of Holocaust Survivors" and today serves as its chairwoman. She is also active in the "Amcha" organization, which supports Holocaust survivors and their descendants. Rachel and Shmuel have two children and three grandchildren.

Felix Soren
Felix was born in 1932 in Mogilev, Belarus. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in summer 1941, the family fled east. Amid the chaos, Felix was separated from his parents and remained alone in Nazi-occupied territory. A stranger advised him not to reveal that he was Jewish or that his father was a communist.

Felix wandered alone for a long time and eventually arrived in Minsk, where he was imprisoned in the ghetto and witnessed the murder of Jews. He escaped but was caught and identified himself as a Russian orphan. He was sent to an orphanage. After several months, suspicion arose that he was Jewish, and he was sent back to Minsk to face a panel. One member of the panel, Vasily Orlov, supported Felix’s claim that he wasn’t Jewish. Orlov was later recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.

After the 1944 liberation, Felix discovered that his family had also survived, and they reunited in Moldova. He studied at the Odessa Polytechnic and became a lecturer and researcher. In 1992, he immigrated to Israel. He shares his story with youth, students, and educators through Yad Vashem and is active in Holocaust survivor organizations. Felix and his late wife, Ida, had two children, five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

Gad Fartouk
Gad Fartouk was born in 1931 in Nabeul, Tunisia, to a religious family of 11. In November 1942, Nazi Germany occupied Tunisia. His father was arrested for a few hours, and the family moved to the city of Hammam Lif, living under false identities. His mother became ill and died. Gad’s father remarried Marie, who became like a mother to the children. When German presence intensified, the father fled, and Marie sent Gad’s two brothers to hide in the forest. The rest of the family went to live with an uncle in Gabès, who was protected due to his work with the French Navy.

Eventually, the family ran out of money and jewelry, which they had used as bribes during German house searches. They became thin and hungry, scrounging for food. Gad was sent to the market dressed as an Arab boy to find food, even from trash bins. In May 1943, the Germans retreated from Tunisia. One day, a man with a beard and unfamiliar clothes came to the house – Gad and his brothers didn’t recognize him at first. It was their father.

The family reunited, returned to Nabeul, and celebrated Gad’s bar mitzvah. They later moved to Tunis, where Gad joined the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement. In March 1948, he made aliyah to Israel aboard an Italian fishing boat.

He joined Kibbutz Beit Zera and later served in the Palmach. Eventually, he was part of a group that founded Kibbutz Carmia and later settled in Ashkelon. Gad was an amateur photographer, which he eventually turned into a profession. Gad and the late Mona had four children and 13 grandchildren.

Arieh Reiter
Arieh Reiter was born in the town of Vaslui, Romania, in 1929, the eldest son of a Hasidic religious family. In 1939, Romania’s antisemitic regime shut down the school Arieh attended. His family was expelled from their home and moved into a wooden shack. In 1941, his father, Eliezer, was taken to a Romanian forced labor camp and was murdered in 1943. Arieh and his two younger brothers worked in shops to support the family and endured hunger.

In January 1944, Arieh was taken to a labor camp near the town of Runc in Romania, where he paved roads in the forest and helped build a wooden bridge across a river – a bridge that still stands today. In August of that same year, the Red Army arrived and liberated the camp. Arieh walked 80 kilometers (50 miles) barefoot under Soviet shelling to return to Vaslui. He weighed only 30 kilograms (66 pounds). He found his family and they lived in a relative's basement after their home was destroyed by bombings.

Arieh completed his studies at a school of commerce and economics. He became active in the Bnei Akiva youth movement, raised funds for the Jewish National Fund, and supported Youth Aliyah initiatives. In 1947, he arranged for his two brothers to immigrate to Israel aboard the ship Pan York, continuing his dedication to the cause of aliyah. In 1951, Arieh made aliyah himself, reuniting with his family in Be’er Sheva.

He later worked at the Ministry of Finance and at Bank Mizrahi.