The next journey begins Poland and Rwanda 2019

The next journey begins  Poland and Rwanda 2019
2019 adventures

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

"Shiphrah"

July 24, I spent a lovely morning at the beach- a 15 minute walk from my cousin in Ashdod. The water was about 75 degrees! Yesterday We went to visit "Shiphrah" she has the same name as my mother. Her mother and my grandmother were cousins. Shiphrah is 88 years old and was born in the Ukraine. In 1941 all the Jews in her town were placed in a ghetto. Her father was sent to a labor camp and survived the war. She was in the ghetto with her 35 yr old mother and her 7 yr old brother. She recalled how she wore the yellow star and no longer went to school. One day several of her girlfriends from school (non Jews) came to see her and asked why she has not been in school.They insisted on taking her with them and removed her Yellow Star. She had blue eyes and blonde hair and did not look like a stereotypical Jewish girl. These girls may have known from their parents that a pogrom was to take place in the ghetto the following night. As a result, when Shiphrah returned home her mother and brother had been shot. She hid in the attic and heard a woman screaming as she was being killed. Shiphrah was 12. She was frightened, hungry and alone and thought the only way out was suicide. She tried but did not succeed. Her neighbor came to the house and found her alive after a dog found her and actually helped led her to the neighbor. The Nazis saw the neighbor and  the neighbor said that all the inhabitants of the house, including Shiphrah(who they were looking for) were killed and this little girl was his relative.The Nazi's believed him and said they would send her to a farm to work( They often sent Russians to work in Germany) where she would be safe. She was sent to Germany and lived as a Christian until the end of the war. The neighbor, who helped her told her never to say she was Jewish and gave her a ham to bring with her to the family that took her in. She survived the war.

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