By: VIN News
For her 104th birthday, in August of 2019, Shoshana (Reizel) Ovitz had a special dream. The Auschwitz survivor, who had seen Josef Mengele send her mother to her death, wished to gather all of her over 400 descendants at the Kotel Maaravi, the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
After the Holocaust, Ovitz, who was already over 30 years old, married Dov, a survivor who had lost a wife and four daughters in the Holocaust. They settled in Haifa where she had four children and worked as a seamstress, at the same time assisting her husband in his poultry store. The family lived in Shikun Vizhnitz and were affiliated with the Saret-Vizhnitz rebbe in Haifa.
Shoshana Ovitz not only survived the Holocaust, she thrived and prospered after the war, helping to rebuild the Jewish people by starting a family whose branches have reached far and wide, according to an August 2019 report on the United With Israel web site.
Ovitz’s wish was fulfilled as the family all gathered including children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and even great-great-grandchildren. She went up to the balcony overlooking the Western Wall to survey her entire family. The children all said Tehillim together and then came to receive a blessing from their illustrious ancestor.
It is fortunate that Ovitz gathered her family for her 104th birthday in August 2019, since in 2020 such a gathering would have presented a serious challenge with the COVID-19 lockdowns.
UWI reported that Israeli journalist Sivan Rahav Meir relayed the following account on Twitter from one of Ovitz’s grandchildren on the day of the celebration, “My grandmother, Shoshana Ovitz, survived Auschwitz. In front of her eyes Dr. Mengele took her mother. After the war, she met her husband Dov, who lost his wife and children in the camps. They got married and went to Haifa. She worked as a seamstress and helped him run the store. Now, as her 104th birthday is celebrated, she asked for a gift: that all the offspring come together at the Western Wall.”
Ovitz passed away Monday at the age of 105, attributing her long life to the way in which she honored her parents before and during the Holocaust. It is appropriate that she passed away the week after the reading of “Honor Your father and mother in order that your days be lengthened.”
(VIN)
