Wish Ambulance’s special mission
Magen David Adom’s Wish Ambulance team came together for a special and very emotional mission: To assist Aharon Shechter, a 92-year-old Holocaust Survivor from Petach Tikva, who had been invited to the Knesset by Knesset Chairperson MK Amir Ohana – and then to Yad Vashem.
Picking up Aharon
After leaving his home in Petach Tikva, Aharon and MDA’s Wish Ambulance team began their journey to Jerusalem. On the way there, Aharon told the ambulance team, MDA Paramedic Meir Valder, and MDA Senior EMT Tomer Bar Levy, about his life during the Holocaust, about the family that was killed, about making Aliya to Israel, his army service, the family that he built and his work as a farmer in the Land of Israel. Aharon also told the team of his excitement at going to the Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem for the first time.
On arriving at the Knesset, Mr Shechter met Knesset Chairperson MK Amir Ohana for a meeting, during which he told of the horrors he experienced in Romania, Transnistria and Ukraine, and of his own private victory – when he made Aliya to Israel, served in the IDF’s first enrollment, and raised a family.
Memorial time
Knesset Chairperson MK Amir Ohana said: “To imagine Aharon, who experienced everything that he did in his childhood but could only dream of a Jewish state, being welcomed here in the office of the Knesset Chairperson, a symbol of the sovereignty of the Jewish State, is a huge privilege for me. In the speech given by Zeev Jabotinsky in Warsaw on the 9th of Av 1938 he said that ‘those who will be able to escape with their souls from the catastrophe will merit the celebratory moment of a huge Jewish celebration, the rebirth and rebuilding of the Jewish State. I don’t know if I will merit this – my son will. I believe this just as I am certain that the sun will rise once more tomorrow.’ The sun that indeed rose again the following day, is you Aharon.”
At the conclusion of the meeting with the Knesset Chairperson, Aharon and the Wish Ambulance team headed for the Jerusalem Forest – where they had lunch provided by Uzi Binyan, the owner of Yafa’le restaurant. Afterwards, Aharon Shechter and the Wish Ambulance travelled to visit Yad Vashem, where tour-guide Sharon Elmakayes was waiting for them, and then gave Mr. Shechter a guided tour of the Holocaust Museum. It was emotional to see the museum’s visitors watching Aharon, with a thirst to hear every word he said.
Following the excursion, Aharon Shechter said: “I thank MDA’s Wish Ambulance team, Meir Valder, Tomer Bar Levy and Yanki Rozenfeld from the bottom of my heart, for the initiative, the tenderness and the never-ending dedication, as well as to Yonat Daskal Dagan, who is in charge of the project – and who ensured every detail in order to help me on Holocaust Remembrance Day which is a particularly difficult day for me. The memory and remembrance of the Holocaust must continue into the next generations and for eternity. During the visit today in the Knesset and in “Yad Vashem”, I witnessed the will to care for and to confer the memory of the Holocaust, and this gives a great deal of hope, because the horrors, the torment and the suffering that we experienced during the Holocaust in the Ghettos and Death Camps in Romania, Poland, Hungary and all the other places will never be forgotten. I thank the Knesset Chairperson MK Amir Ohana and “Yad Vashem” for the warm welcome, and for being prepared to hear my testimony and act to memorialise those killed.”
MDA Paramedic Meir Valder and MDA Senior EMT Tomer Bar Levy: “We were very excited to assist Mr. Aharon Shechter to travel to Jerusalem, and to accompany him throughout the day. We heard about his childhood that ended abruptly at age 10 when the Jews were deported from his village in Romania, about the horrors of the past, and the inhuman conditions that he survived, and we were very emotional when he told us he was proud to have fought in Israel’s wars, built his lifetime’s work in farming, and of course a large family. It isn’t every day that we have the privilege to actively participate in remembering and preservation. Mr. Aharon Shechter’s visit to the Knesset and “Yad Vashem” today is precisely this privilege.”
MDA Director General Eli Bin: “Through Magen David Adom’s Wish Ambulance project, we in MDA are able to provide a small but important gesture of charity and kindness to those in need. Yesterday, Holocaust Remembrance Day – MDA’s Wish Ambulance team came together to assist Mr. Aharon Shechter, a 92-year-old Holocaust Survivor, in fulfilling his wish – to travel to the Knesset and to “Yad Vashem” to memorialize, remember and never forget the horrors that he experienced during the Holocaust. It is our duty, the next generations to do exactly that – to memorialize, remember, and to never forget.”
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Aharon Shechter’s Life Story:
Aharon Shechter was born in 1931 in the village of Ițcani in Romania. When he was told, the deportation of Jews from his village began, followed by rioting, abusing and confiscation of the Jewish community’s businesses and possessions. During the rioting, the Nazis found Aharon’s father, Rabbi Baruch Shechter Z’’L who was the village rabbi, and tore off his beard and side-curls. Aharon and his family of seven people along with all the other Jews who lived in the village – were deported to Otaci, and his father, Rabbi Baruch Shechter Z’’L led the deportees while carrying the Torah scroll in his arms. From there, in the middle of the night, they were placed on rafts to Transnistria, while a number of the deportees were drowned in the frozen river. Aharon and his family were deported to the village of Lucincik – where several thousands of Jews were housed in a building, and due to the crowding, the difficult conditions as well as typhoid and dysentery diseases that they contracted – many did not survive. Among those who died were Aharon’s grandfather, his parents, his sister and his brothers.
Aharon and his sister managed to escape to a town called Vendychany – where his sister asked him to go to an orphanage in Mogilev, in order to save himself. Aharon walked some 70 kilometers until he reached Mogilev, where he met the Peretz family who were from the village where he grew up – they told him that his brother Nachman comes every day to ask for food. And indeed, one day, Nachman arrived, dressed in rags. When he recognized Aharon he started to cry and ran away. That was the last time that he saw his brother Nachman, and Aharon was the last who remained from his nuclear family.
When Aharon managed to get to the orphanage in Mogilev, the conditions were extremely difficult. With no clothes, some of the children slept on metal beds and some on the floor, they suffered from hunger and terrible skin diseases – and most didn’t survive. In 1944, 1,500 children were released from Transnistria in south-west Ukraine, including Aharon, who arrive in the town of Buhuși – where he met a friend of his father and stayed with him for a number of months. He then spent about a year in the orphanage in Bucharest, and in 1945 made Aliya to Israel on the ship ‘Transylvania’.
In 1948 Aharon joined the army, and was a soldier in the IDF’s first draft. He served two years in the army, participating in the War of Independence and all the following wars, including the Yom Kippur War. Later, he became a farmer in the State of Israel and raised a family – 4 children, eight grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
