Avraham Harshalom lit one of six torches at the State Opening Ceremony of Holocaust Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem ⁣in 2015 Avraham Harshalom (né Avraham Fridberg) was born in 1925 in the town of Pruzhany in Poland (today Belarus) but Avraham and his brother Sioma studied at Hebrew-language schools the deportation of the Jews of Pruzhany to Auschwitz began I said that I was born in 1924 – one year older than I was," recalls Avraham "I thought it best to pretend I was no longer a boy." His parents and grandmother Ester were led from the ramp at Birkenau to their deaths Avraham and Sioma went into the camp together; a few weeks later Sioma fell sick and was murdered in the gas chambers Avraham escaped Auschwitz with two partners by replacing their prisoners’ garb with civilian clothes and hiding in a pit covered with tin and tobacco so the SS dogs couldn’t sniff them out Avraham and one of his fellow escapees were caught They were severely whipped and Avraham was forced to wear the round some 10,000 inmates were evacuated from Auschwitz Avraham and his friend took the red patches off their inmates’ clothing and managed to blend in with them He was sent to a number of camps and eventually was marched to Buchenwald and was sent by train to the Leitmeritz and Flossenbürg camps Seeing a young man and woman at the train station The man brought them clothes and arranged for them to take refuge at the house of his mother Sobotková was later recognized as Righteous Among the Nations Avraham hid in the storeroom of a flower shop until the Red Army arrived the shop owner recruited Avraham into the Underground He underwent weapons training and aided the fight against the retreating Germans After the Red Army liberated Prague in May 1945 Avraham was awarded honorary Czech citizenship and decorated as a hero With the passage of the UN Partition Plan on 29 November 1947 Avraham was recruited by Haganah envoys into a flight course with the Czech Air Force and served in the Israel Air Force during the War of Independence Avraham married Rachel and has three children and six grandchildren The Yad Vashem website had recently undergone a major upgrade The page you are looking for has apparently been moved We are therefore redirecting you to what we hope will be a useful landing page For any questions/clarifications/problems, please contact: webmaster@yadvashem.org.il Simcha Applebaum lit one of six torches at the State Opening Ceremony of Holocaust Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem in 2011 Holocaust Survivor Testimony: Simcha Applebaum Simcha Applebaum was born in 1927 in the village of Malcz Simcha joined the Jewish partisans and Soviet soldiers in the nearby forests In November he returned to the ghetto with a group of friends to get some clothing and food Simcha managed to reach his parents’ house With the liquidation of the ghetto at the beginning of 1943 Simcha and his family were sent to Birkenau but Simcha pretended to be older than he was He worked in the construction of crematoria IV and V and the Gypsy camp Simcha was sent on a death march to Gleiwitz He hid for five weeks with the help of local farmers he was sent on another death march in the direction of the Baltic Sea Simcha vowed that if he survived he would move to Eretz Israel and establish a settlement in the memory of his parents and relatives He also pledged to help establish a Jewish state he was liberated by the US Army near Schwerin Simcha joined “Kibbutz Buchenwald” in Germany and in March 1946 came to Eretz Israel on the Tel-Hai he went with 16 Kibbutz Buchenwald members to a settlement near Be’er Yaakov There they laid the foundation for the kibbutz He served in senior positions at the kibbutz as well as in the Manufacturers Association of Israel Simcha fought in all of Israel’s wars up to the Yom Kippur War He was among the planners and founders of the Latrun Armored Corps memorial Simcha dedicated himself to teaching about the Shoah and continues to serve as a witness with youth trips to Poland and to tell his story in schools and to soldiers in the IDF Simcha and his wife Naomi have three children and nine grandchildren Home » Farming » Foley on File » On a mission in Belarus | 3rd Dec 2019 | Farming, Foley on File Michael ‘Noddy’ Jacob pictured at a civic reception in Belarus last year in recognition of their efforts Also included are Mick O’Hara and Clodagh Maher Volunteers pictured with hospital residents and staff