RelatioNet ZI ES 35 LU PO

RelatioNet ZI ES 35 LU PO

Full Name: Esther Zeitman (Lempel)

Interviewer:
Full Name/s: Ravid Mudrik and Shai Niezni
Address: Israel Kfar Sava

Survivor:
Code: RelatioNet ZI ES 35 LU PO
First Name: Esther
Family Name: Zeitman
Birth Date: 07/09/1935
Town In Holocaust: Lvov
Country In Holocaust: Poland/Russia




Esther was born on 7.9.1935, in Lvov Poland and this is her story: “In the year of 1939 when Germany invaded Poland, when I was only 4 years old, my family and I escaped to a forest nearby. With me were my sister, mother and father. We went through the woods with uncertainty and under terrible conditions. Eventually after a long journey we arrived in Russia, there we lived in a house rented from a Russian family. My mother got sick with typhus and I remember visiting her every day. A few months later, on 1940 she passed away.
The situation got even worse when the Russian government restricted the Jewish residence. We were forced to move from our “home” and work for the government. At about the age of 6 my father left us, so that I lived alone with my little sister who was 4 years old. A few weeks later Henrietta Zold’s organization located us and transferred us to a camp in Teheran, in order to prepare us for immigration to Israel. We lived in tents and were looked after by counselors. The conditions in the camp were bad, so many children including myself got sick. In the year of 1943 when I was 8 years old we finally immigrated to Israel. On the ship with me were another 1000 children. We anchored in Egypt and traveled by train to Atlit in Haifa. We moved to Bnei- Brak, there we studied in a religious institution “Ora”. At the institution I learned Hebrew and took care of myself. At the age of 14 I was sent to kibbutz Shloohot for two years. Then I moved to Ramat- Gan and worked in an orphanage house. I worked there for almost two years and when I was 18 I left and joined the army. Later on in 1955 I got married. During the “Yom Hakipoorim” war I volunteered in Tel Hashomer hospital and continued volunteering for 30 years. Today I live in Kfar- Saba with my husband and we have three children, nine grandsons, and four great-grandsons.



Lvov had the third largest Jewish community in Poland, between the two World Wars. Just before the outbreak of World War 2, there were 110,000 Jews in Lvov, comprising about a third of the population.
According to the Ribbentrop-Molotov agreement a few areas were annexed by the Soviets, including Lvov. Tens of thousands of refugees, mostly Jews, filled the occupieded areas, doubling the Jewish population in Lvov.
The arrival of the Soviets surprised the inhabitants of Lvov. The Poles greeted the Soviets with silent hatred. The Ukrainians had a deep hatred for the Soviets regime, but as long as the Soviets were in control they were collaborators. However, the Jews received the Soviets with relief. Instead of the danger of Nazi conquest, the Red Army had arrived. The Soviets allowed the Jews to participate in different institutions, and even in security forces. Their communal life, however, was shut down. The Jewish organizations were disbanded, and the leaders of the Jewish community were jailed and exiled. These led to conflict among the Jews, between their loyalty to the Soviets to their loyalty to the Zionism.
Lvov was occupied by Germany from 1941 to 1944. In 1944 Lvov was again under Soviet rule. On August 24, 1991 Lvov began a new era as the Ukraine adopted a declaration of independence. Today Lvov is a major economic and cultural center on the Western region of the Ukrainian state.

posted by ZI ES 35 LU PO @ 10:21 AM