Holocaust survivor tells CNN tension with family in Israel: “Heart goes out to them”

After surviving the Holocaust, Jewish Leon Menache, now 80 years old and living in Brazil, follows with concern the war between the radical Islamic group Hamas and Israel.

His son lives in Israel with his wife and children — the youngest of them, at 20 years old, serves in the Israeli Army. Menache was visiting his family when the conflict began, on October 7th.

“We woke up to sirens. We ran to the bunker,” Menache told CNN . “I have the feeling that we can’t even be afraid, you just run. We spent two days like this. On Monday it was my flight, my departure, and the airline kept my flight. I returned to Brazil calmly, happily.”

His son in the Tel Aviv region, in an area “a little further away from the intense scene of the war”.

Heart in Israel

Despite the relief of being away from the conflict, Menache says that “he left his heart in Israel with his son and his family”. “We are managing to keep in touch, he calls me and says everything is fine”, he says.

According to him, “all Israelis are trying to maintain their normal lives.” “Many are working from home. They try to maintain a certain calm, they pay attention to the instructions given by the government”.

But imagine you have a daughter in the Army, as well as her boyfriend, her friends, this generates constant apprehension. And everyone knows everyone, the country is small. If a soldier falls on the corner, if you don’t know him, someone you know knows who he is

Leon Menache

Spanish took him to Brazil

Menache was born in Athens in 1943, a period when the country was occupied by the Germans. When Germany’s fighters withdrew from the territory, his father was in a work camp while Menache and his mother lived in hiding — and hiding their Jewish origins to avoid persecution. In the context of Greece’s destruction, the family decided to leave the country.

“My whole family speaks Spanish. Knowledge of the language comes from Spain at the time of the Inquisition. One day, in a bar, my parents heard a familiar language, they were Brazilian sailors. My parents and the sailors started talking, they talked about Brazil and, some time later, in September 1954, we embarked for Brazil. We leave bad memories behind. We face the new, we adapt very well. So, my sister and I built our families in Brazil”, he recalls.

For him, seeing the conflict between Hamas and Israel “for the Jewish soul is something terrible”. Menache said he believed that, with the creation of the State of Israel, “the Jews would have a moment of tranquility, that things would settle down.” “I hope peace returns for Israelis and Palestinians. My son and his family live very well in Israel. now they have to face this difficulty.”

Source: CNN Brasil

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