Yom Hashoah
Remembering victims of the Holocaust and learning more about Ziva's heritage.
May 3 2027
"Yom Hazikaron laShoa Ve-Hagevurah is observed on 27 Nisan by Jews around the world. It is more commonly known as Yom Hashoah. The day was established by the Knesset in 1951 and enacted into law in 1953 as a day to remember the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust," Ziva explained to her family.
"Every year we remember those who suffered at the hands of the Nazis. When I was your age, my parents would recall family stories about the survivors and victims in our family. My father and his older sisters were survivors. They were sheltered by a German family who raised them until 1948, when they immigrated to Israel.
"By then, Doda Mathilde was nearly eighteen. She assumed the role of parent for her younger sister and brother. Doda Elfriede was thirteen and Eli was seven. Their other brother, Jakob, had passed away from illness during the War. He would have been ten when the others left for Israel. The family had adopted the last name of Davidsohn from the Germans who took them into their home just after Eli's birth in 1941. Shortly after, both birth parents were sent to Dachau where they are believed to have perished. Wilhelmine and Friederich Zimmermann saved their children while giving their lives to do so.
"Eli did not know he was a Jew until the family arrived in Israel, where Mathilde felt it was now safe to return to the practice of the family religion. She also shortened the family surname to David. Elfriede was a strong-willed teen and when she was sixteen, she met a Jewish-American man who had made Aliyah. She went with him when he returned to America and they had a family. She kept in touch with Mathilde and Eli when she could.
"Mathilde was twenty four, and Eli thirteen, when she was killed in a bus accident in Jerusalem. Eli lived on the streets for the next four years until he entered the IDF. He considered himself an orphan without any family, so he volunteered for assignments that were especially dangerous and risky. He quickly gained a reputation for getting tough assignments completed.
"The rest of Eli's story is something I may share with you another day. I know the family's story because Doda Mathilde was a student of Schmeil Pinkhas, a friend of both sides of my family. Unfortunately, Eli blamed Schmeil for his sister's death because she was researching for her work with Schmeil when she was killed.
"Schmeil was my Saba on my Ima's side. I did not know he was my grandfather until after he died in 2019. He also was a Holocaust survivor. He managed to live through the horrors of Auschwitz-Birkenau. I remember seeing his ID number tattooed on his arm when I was a child. There was also a small triangle beneath his number. He would not tell me anything other than it was a horrible time for the Jewish people when I asked.
"So, as we remember on Yom Hashoah, we remember not only the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust, but we also remember the victims and survivors who are our family history. Three of my grandparents were directly affected by this tragedy; one survived. My father escaped because a kind German family took him in as their own with his brother and sisters.
"Let us remember and reflect in silence." Ziva closed her eyes and felt Tony's hand in hers. He squeezed lightly, knowing that sharing this part of her heritage had not been easy for her. She opened her eyes and met his gaze. It was through his strength and love that she was able to share her family's story with their children and the others in the family. He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her into his side, thankful that her story included him.