Holocaust Survivor and Her IDF-Soldier Granddaughter activate this Year’s Yom HaShoah Siren
The national siren to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day was activated today (Tuesday) by Holocaust survivor Miriam Tapolcarrier and her granddaughter, Sergeant Roee Avital, a soldier in the Home Front Command.
Miriam Elizabeth Hanina Tapolcarrier was born in Amsterdam, Holland, in 1945. Miriam is named after the Christian gynecologist who delivered her and provided her family with a hiding place from the Nazis.
Miriam’s father, Max, was a painter by profession and during the war forged identity cards and passports for Jews, as part of his activities in the Dutch underground.
Miriam, a passionate Zionist, decided to make aliya at the age of 22. Today, Miriam lives in Ibn Shmuel together with her husband Chaim, who made aliya to Israel from Yemen in 1949.
Miriam and Chaim have five children, thirteen grandchildren and one great-grandson. Miriam and her granddaughter Roee arrived this morning at the Warning Center of the Home Front Command, and together the two pressed the button that sounded the memorial siren all over the country.
“As a Holocaust survivor, it is my duty to all my family members who were murdered in World War II to tell the story of their heroism and the horrors they went through in the war; to convey the feelings of constant fear and persecution day and night and to cherish the feeling of freedom and security to live here, in our Land, the Land of Israel.”
Granddaughter Roee added: “I am proud of my grandmother’s path, it is a great privilege for me to stand in an IDF uniform and activate the siren on Memorial Day with my grandmother.”
Am Yisrael Chai, B”H.
