Marking Yom HaShoah with Holocaust Survivor Alexander Netzer

On the eve of Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Israel Daily News CEO and host Shanna Fuld sat down with Holocaust survivor Alexander Netzer in Tel Aviv, in which he shared his story to a full audience, including many internationals and people of all ages. This was one of the very few English language programs happening in the city of Tel Aviv, on the backdrop of the war with Iran. 

This is Alexander’s story:

Born in 1937, he does not remember much of his mom. He remembers the first day he was separated from his family very vividly, and it was the first day in his life where he could recall events in great detail, and he was not even five years old.

After being told that he would go on a two-day trip, his father sat him on his knee and said farewell, and gave him a blessing. From that on, Alexander was placed in the care of a non-Jewish Polish family, who he felt was like his own. 

After going to a different apartment without being told anything, he remembers looking into a mirror and seeing himself, and looking like a monster. They cut off all his hair and shaved him completely. He had ginger curly hair, and that perfectly fit the Polish stereotype of a Jew. It was his first sense of trauma he experienced. He was flowing with bitter tears.  Afterward, a different woman held him by the hand as together, they passed through the gates of the ghetto. Then, they approached the SS guards, donning their steel helmets. 

He was then placed into the hands of another woman on the Aryan side of the city. “I remember holding a loaf of bread, and that she had big breasts,” he says. He was told to recite “Our Father Who Art in Heaven,” which is the Christian prayer before eating. If he would do she would cut him a slice of bread for me. He said the prayer and ended it with “Amen,” and got the slice of bread.

That was just the beginning of what trauma became for him. “I cannot express 

For five years, Alexander was hidden in the home of the non-Jewish mayor of Warsaw, all while it was under siege by the Nazis. That “two day trip” turned into a life changed forever. After the war, his aunt came to take him, and he learned that his entire family was murdered by the Nazis. The woman who saved him is recognized by Israel as a Righteous Among the Nations.