Holocaust Survivor Story

Holocaust Survivor Story The survivors of the holocaust all have their own story to tell. The people and places may have been different for each person but the pain is the same for all. This is RivkaYosselevska’s story, a survivor of the holocaust who never lost hope and didn’t give up. She made it through this horrible event in history where most people didn’t, and since she has shared his story with people all over to world to prevent this from happening again. There isn’t much about RivkaYosselevska before the holocaust and not much about her afterwards either. All we really know about her is what happened to her during the holocaust. On the evening of august 14th, 1942 the SS surrounded the ghetto in the village of Zagrodski. On Saturday morning 15 August 1942, the Germans entered the ghetto, ordering the Jews to leave their houses for a roll call. All day, the Jews were kept standing, waiting. That evening a truck arrived at the ghetto gates. The Jews were ordered on to it, and drove out of the ghetto. Those for whom there had been no room on the truck were ordered to run after it. Rivka remembers in her testimony “I had my daughter in my arms and ran after the truck. There were mothers who had two or three children and held them in their arms – running after the truck. We ran all the way. There were those who fell – we were not allowed to help them rise. They were shot – right there – wherever they fell.” Once they arrived at their destination everyone was ordered to line up and were told to take off all of their clothes. People tried to run away but they would always be caught and be shot on the spot. Rivka’s father did not want to completely undress so they Germans ripped off his clothes and then shot him. Then they grabbed her mother and shot her. Then they turned to her aunt who was holding 2 babies in her arms. They shot her even though she was holding the children. All of her family was killed. A German soldier took her baby out of her hands and when the baby cried out he shot the baby right in front of Rivka. A German soldier shot her in the head but somehow she managed to survive and crawl out of the pit of bodies. The German soldiers had left and there were many people still alive in the grave but no one was strong enough to help them. The Germans soon came back and killed everyone and filled in the grave. For some reason none of them noticed Rivka sitting there. After sitting in a field next to the grave for 3 days and 3 nights a farmer found her. He hid her and fed her until 1944 when the soviet army came in the summer. She told her story 19 years later at the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem. Even though she survived, the memory will haunt her forever. Her story is just another reminder of the horrors of the Holocaust.