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Israel & Christians Today
Biblical understanding about Israel
I’m not afraid. I have no fear left. When I was young I managed to flee from the Nazis but now I’m old and sick and don’t have the strength to flee. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m going to die. I hope it won’t be from a missile.
Up to now my main concern has been my son. He lives in a kibbutz near the Gaza Strip, and his family was saved by a miracle when a rocket landed near their home.
But the day before yesterday a Grad missile exploded here too, in Ashkelon, 500 meters from my home. I was alone, without my caregiver. I went down to the bus stop and then heard the explosion not far from me. Then I heard the siren. There is nobody around who can be with me. Even my neighbors have left their apartment. I’m totally alone.
I was born in Hungary between the two world wars. After the German invasion I lived in the ghetto in Budapest. The Nazis murdered my entire family in concentration camps, but I managed to escape and survived.
After the war I decided to start a new life and came to Israel, where I had two children. I have six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. I brought them up to love Israel. But what’s happening now reminds me of what I went through in the Holocaust, this feeling of helplessness that doesn’t end because nothing can be done to stop the rockets.
When I was young I wasn’t able to grow up like a normal teenager because I had to fight for my survival. In that war I feared for my life and fled from one place to another. But I’m no longer young and now I have nowhere else to escape to.
The Nazi’s deprived me of my youth. Now the terrorists are depriving me of my old age.
I don’t have any strength left.
Pircha Wiesel (80) is a Holocaust survivor who lives in Ashkelon and receives assistance from the Holocaust Survivor’s fund.