MDA israel

Magen David Adom has helped two Holocaust survivors reunite after a decade where they were unable to see each other. As International Holocaust Memorial Day approaches, this was a timely reminder of the importance of MDA's involvement in the lives of those most in need. 

International Holocaust Memorial Day is marked annually on the 27^th of January, the day in 1945 that Auschwitz Concentration Camp was liberated. The day was adopted by the UN in 2005 as an international memorial day to remember the 6 million Jews killed during the Second World War.

Magen David Adom has a special department (in conjunction with the ICRC) that helps trace long lost relatives, particularly families torn apart by the Shoah, and has in the past assisted many families to reunite. Many had believed that their entire families were lost in the Holocaust, and only thanks to MDA's tracing abilities, discovered that they had unknown relatives still alive. Some even lived nearby each other, unaware of one another's existence. Today, while the number of reunions decreases as the generation of survivors ages, the Tracing Services department can still assist in finding historical paperwork and uncovering unknown details of those who either survived or died during the Holocaust years.

In a recent case, two siblings, both Holocaust survivors, were reunited physically thanks to Magen David Adom's Wish Ambulance. Yitti, 96, and Yisrael, 92, hadn't been able to meet in person for over a decade due to their frail condition, and the Covid-19 pandemic had made that task even more difficult. They kept up communication by phone, but what they both wished for was the ability to see each other once more. This is where MDA's Wish Ambulance came to the rescue.

Yitti and Yisrael's families contacted Magen David Adom to arrange the special day. The team – Paramedic Ella and EMTs Rotem and Roi – drove to Haifa in the north, picked up Yisrael and drove him to Yitti's home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, near the southern Gaza border. They spent several hours together, with Yitti saying how special it was to her to be able to hold her brother's hand again, and Yisrael remarking that it would be a day that he would remember for the rest of his life.

As the population of Holocaust survivors gets older, it is becoming increasingly important to locate any survivors, their descendants and their families, to ensure their welfare, to reunite them with any long lost family, and most of all to keep their story alive. Magen David Adom is a proud participant in making these dreams come true.

• To arrange for a wish to be fulfilled by the Wish Ambulance call – 1-800-600-101.
• MDA's Tracing Services can be reached by email at RFL-imda@mda.org.il, or by phone on +972(0)3-630-1464