Memoirs of a Holocaust Survivor
Written by Ichac Weizman (Wajcman) in 1995
Annex A 1997
Annex B August 2003
Translated from Hebrew by Dikla Weizman née Yeffet
The Plate of Silver
I have already posted many testimonies of Holocaust survivors in my ZCHOR web site. Each one breaks your heart and each one stimulates reflections, mainly as how it happened and why. This one is very special in my eyes. It tells about mental survival, about a miracle. It shows the incredible hero that the Holocaust survivor has been! Heroism in its highest significance. In spite of all the sufferings and horrors, losing all the family, enduring 6 years of terrible atrocities the human mind cannot grasp, in various forced labour, concentration and death camps erected by the Germans, so called a civilized people... And yet after all that, the road to freedom in the old homeland of Eretz Israel was not easy, and he finds in himself the strength to overcome detainees camps in Cyprus and Atlit and later enlist to the Palmach and fight for the Independence of the new State of Israel even with a wounded leg (!), and later in nearly all the wars of Israel. From where did he get this inner power, this magnanimity...? May be there was something in the idealism of Hashomer Hatzair, the Socialist Zionist youth movement in which he was educated since childhood, which gave him the strength to survive and afterwards fight for Israel Independence with such enthusiasm? Also building a family of his own, prosperous and flourishing with children and grandchildren is another victory he won over the Nazi monster with its machinery of death.
I regard Ichac Weizman one of these rare young men, who were ready to sacrifice their young life after nearly losing it in the German camps, for Israel. They are the "Plate of Silver", upon which the State of Israel was re-erected, lest we forget... And I sincerely thank him for giving me the honor of posting his memoirs in my web site.
Ada Holtzman 24.10.2005
ICHAC WEIZMAN:
MY LIFE STORY
Last updated October 26th, 2005