Frehia Moskowitz, Beit Shalom Senior Home

An excerpt from a letter that Frehia Moskowitz, a Holocaust survivor residing at Beit Shalom, wrote to her granddaughter

Hadas, my beloved granddaughter, today you will be visiting Auschwitz. I arrived there in 1944 amid World War II. Back then it looked different from what you will likely see today. When I first arrived, I felt fear and chills. There were no trees, birds, grass, or flowers in sight.

The camps were surrounded by electric fences, at least 2 meters high. The smell of burning flesh rose from the crematorium. The huge chimney spread the smoke far and wide. Soldiers in SS uniforms walked around with dogs and guns, leading Jews away brutally. The background noise was screams of pain and suffering.

I arrived there with my mother, three brothers, and other family members whom you never met and maybe never even heard of. There in the ground are the ashes of your family, your uncles.

My two younger brothers went straight to the crematorium with our mother. I don’t know where my older brother’s life ended, but I believe it was also in the Auschwitz crematorium. My youngest brother was just eight years old – a beautiful boy with light curls and blue eyes. His name was Samson. The middle brother was ten years old and his name was Joseph. My oldest brother’s name was Micky.

If you have a moment, think about them there. Tell them that I haven’t forgotten them. I miss them and in my mind, they are still beautiful children with golden curls…

Frehia Moskowitz was born Eva Hoffman in a small town in Hungary in 1930. When she was 14, the Nazis entered her town and within a short time began to impose harsh decrees. A few weeks later, her family was deported to the Hungarian ghetto and then to Auschwitz. There, she saw her mother and two younger brothers led away to their deaths. She and her older brother endured terrible atrocities in the Birkenau extermination camp. When the war ended, she returned home where she met her father and several other family members who had survived hell.  Frehia immigrated to Israel in 1948 where she married. She has two daughters, five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.  Frehia is blessed with many talents. She used to make a living by sewing and at the age of 70, picked up painting as a hobby. Some of Frehia’s paintings are displayed at the Beit Shalom senior home.