{"id":89055,"date":"2025-08-03T22:44:38","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T03:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=89055"},"modified":"2025-08-03T22:44:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T03:44:38","slug":"holocaust-survivors-shaken-by-harrowing-images-of-hostages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/holocaust-survivors-shaken-by-harrowing-images-of-hostages\/","title":{"rendered":"Holocaust survivors shaken by harrowing images of hostages"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By JNS STAFF<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(<em>JNS.org<\/em>) \u2013 Following the release of new images of Israeli hostages Evyatar David and Rom Breslavski in captivity in Gaza, the International March of the Living is once again calling for the immediate release of all hostages.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_89056\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Hostage_Hamas.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-89056\" class=\"wp-image-89056 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Hostage_Hamas-300x169.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Hostage_Hamas-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Hostage_Hamas-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Hostage_Hamas-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Hostage_Hamas-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Hostage_Hamas.png 2000w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/169;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-89056\" class=\"wp-image-89056 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Hostage_Hamas-300x169.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Hostage_Hamas-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Hostage_Hamas-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Hostage_Hamas-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Hostage_Hamas-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Hostage_Hamas.png 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-89056\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hostage Evyatar David as seen in a photo released by the terrorist group Hamas on Aug. 1, 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Holocaust survivors who participated in the March of the Living (MOTL) in April, walking alongside freed hostages and survivors of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, felt compelled to share their distress and deep identification with those still held in captivity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Holocaust survivor Naftali F\u00fcrst said: \u201cI watched with a heavy heart the painful images of our captive sons revealed in recent days. The hollow faces and frail bodies of Rom and Evyatar, held by the cruel terrorists of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, take me back decades. I survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald. I know hunger up close. In the camps, we were given rations of bread and watery soup. We were so hungry, we would even eat grass if we could find it. I remember the humiliation\u2014the complete stripping of human dignity. I know the fear, the terror.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_89057\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Furst_Harabi.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-89057\" class=\"wp-image-89057 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Furst_Harabi-300x216.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"216\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Furst_Harabi-300x216.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Furst_Harabi-1024x739.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Furst_Harabi-768x554.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Furst_Harabi.jpg 1320w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/216;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-89057\" class=\"wp-image-89057 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Furst_Harabi-300x216.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"216\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Furst_Harabi-300x216.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Furst_Harabi-1024x739.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Furst_Harabi-768x554.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Furst_Harabi.jpg 1320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-89057\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Holocaust survivor Naftali F\u00fcrst and freed hostage Eli Sharabi in Auschwitz, April 2025. (Credit: MOTL)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">F\u00fcrst recalled how he felt when he watched the release of hostage&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jns.org\/former-hostage-details-starvation-and-beatings-by-hamas-captors\/\">Eli Sharabi<\/a>&nbsp;on Feb. 8.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen Eli Sharabi was released from captivity, I was deeply shaken. I was reminded of how I looked when I was liberated from Buchenwald. When I met Eli on Holocaust Remembrance Day in Poland during the March of the Living, I couldn\u2019t hold back the tears. I embraced him and told him I was liberated after 1,033 days. We didn\u2019t need to speak. We understood each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">F\u00fcrst added, \u201cWhen we stood proudly\u201480 Holocaust survivors leading the March of the Living, 80 years after being liberated from the camps\u2014we embraced the survivors of captivity and told them: there is comfort, there is hope. We, the Holocaust survivors, are living proof that one can rebuild life after the inferno, even a happy life. But we cannot begin that process of rebuilding until they all come home\u2014the living<br \/>\nhostages and the fallen alike. Silence is a moral stain. We must cry out and do everything in our power to bring them back, quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2018A second Holocaust\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Holocaust survivor Dvora Weinstein said, \u201cFor me, Oct. 7 was a second Holocaust. When I saw the homes in Be\u2019eri on fire, I saw myself\u2014a five-year-old girl\u2014watching my home burn. I was hungry for four years. When I saw the photo of Evyatar\u2014skin and bones\u2014I could hardly breathe; it hurt so much, I felt pressure in my chest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She added, \u201cWe had no hope that anyone would come to rescue us. I survived only because my mother told me every day that I must live to reach the Land of Israel. Our hostages have hope\u2014hope that the IDF will come to save them, that we will save them. We must bring them home before it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Holocaust survivor Sarah Weinstein said, \u201cI will never forget the hunger. Three-and-a-half years\u2014a little girl in the forest, starving. The images of our hostages that were published take me back to that forest, to the little girl I once was. I survived the worst of all; my mother was murdered before my eyes and my father was killed soon after. Despite the terrible cold and the constant hunger, I survived. I lived.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_89058\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/israel-shaked.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-89058\" class=\"wp-image-89058 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/israel-shaked-300x217.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"217\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/israel-shaked-300x217.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/israel-shaked-1024x742.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/israel-shaked-768x557.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/israel-shaked.jpg 1257w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/217;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-89058\" class=\"wp-image-89058 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/israel-shaked-300x217.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/israel-shaked-300x217.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/israel-shaked-1024x742.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/israel-shaked-768x557.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/israel-shaked.jpg 1257w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-89058\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Holocaust survivor Israel Shaked. (Photo by Naama Ben Simchon)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She added, \u201cMy heart is with the hostages and their families, and I pray for the safe return of them all. We will only begin to heal from what has happened when everyone is home. I and my fellow Holocaust survivors will be there to embrace the hostages and support them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Holocaust survivor Israel Shaked, who survived the Holocaust in Hungary and was deported to the brutal Mauthausen camp in Austria, where he was eventually liberated, was also shaken by the images.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI was exposed to the horrifying sights of the hostages in Gaza. Their bodies are painfully thin\u2014nearly Muselm\u00e4nner\u2014their eyes terrified and vacant, their faces marked by despair and hopelessness,\u201d he said. \u201cThese images take me back to those dark days\u2014to the hell, the hunger,<br \/>\nthe orphanhood and the fear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Revital Yakin Krakovsky, deputy CEO of the International March of the Living, said, \u201cThe heartbreaking images of our hostages in Gaza are deeply triggering for Holocaust survivors, immediately transporting them back 80 years in their memories. The Holocaust was unique\u2014but there is no doubt that the hostages in Gaza are enduring unbearable conditions, some of which echo what Holocaust survivors experienced. Hunger is hunger. Terror is terror. And the antisemitism behind the Nazis\u2019 crimes and those of Hamas remains unchanged.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She concluded by saying, \u201cAt the March of the Living last April, Holocaust survivors walked side-by-side with survivors of captivity. The bond between them is profound\u2014they understand each other through their eyes. They don\u2019t need to explain the suffering or define it in words\u2014they simply feel it. Survivors like Naftali, Sarah, Dvora, and Israel teach us that it\u2019s possible to recover. But as long as the hostages have not returned, we cannot begin the long process of healing that awaits us\u2014individually and as a society.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Holocaust%20survivors%20shaken%20by%20harrowing%20images%20of%20hostages\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":89056,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[14760,40,8781,8790,8795,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89055"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89055"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89059,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89055\/revisions\/89059"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}