photo #8185130

Monika Barzel will be one of six Holocaust survivors lighting torches at Opening Ceremony of #YomHashoah at Yad Vashem this Wednesday. Monika was born in 1937 in Berlin. Her mother, Edith, was a nurse who worked at Berlin's Jewish hospital. In September 1942 Monika's grandmother, Gertrud, was deported to Theresienstadt and murdered. Monika lived with her mother at the hospital, along with the children of other doctors. In May 1943, the Gestapo ordered the director of the hospital to downsize his staff. He was forced to choose 300 people, who were deported to Auschwitz. Monika boarded the train, but was later told to get off. Monika contracted diseases, but recuperated despite the lack of treatment. She passed an entire winter in her room because she didn’t have shoes. From 1944, she spent many nights in shelters due to the bombing of Berlin. Monika stayed in the hospital until the end of the war, when the Red Army liberated the facility. Edith and Monika left for Sweden and then traveled to London. Monika completed her dentistry studies in London and immigrated to Israel in 1963. She settled in Kibbutz Kfar Hanassi on the Syrian border with her husband, Alan. Monika worked as a dentist in the Upper Galilee and then around the country, until she reached the age of 70. Monika and Alan z”l have two children, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.