* Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
On the eve of the official Holocaust Remembrance Day, I received a photo of Holocaust survivor Dov Landau, age 97, dancing at his great-grandson’s wedding.
That alone conveys a powerful message, but Ora Angel, the bride’s sister, sent me a few more astonishing details:
This is the eighth great-grandchild (!) at whose wedding Grandpa Dov Has merited to dance. He is fully healthy, and active, and under the chuppah he also blessed the couple.
During the dancing, as is his custom, he uncovered his arm, on which a number from the camps is tattooed. Dov was born in Poland, survived Auschwitz and five additional camps, and endured two death marches. He was ultimately liberated from Buchenwald.
At age 17, he immigrated to Israel by himself. He is the sole survivor of his family. During the Holocaust, he lost his parents, grandparents, and more than 50 members of his extended family. He did not despair. On the day the State of Israel was established, during the battles in Gush Etzion, he was taken captive by the Jordanian army as a fighter in the Haganah.
He was released, built a family, and for years accompanied trips of visitors to Auschwitz and delivered hundreds of lectures about his story. “I have no idea where I get my strength,” he would say. “It’s not natural strength — it’s an inner strength that pushes me to tell the world what the Germans did to us.”
His lectures end with his father’s last will, just before they parted. His father blessed him with Birkat kohanim (the Priestly Blessing), word for word:
“May the Lord bless you and guard you;
May the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
May the Lord lift up His face to you and grant you peace.”
And then he added: “I have only one more request, my son — that you remain a Jew.”
“Remain Jews,” he says at the end of his lectures — but often he ends with songs, rather than words. The audience rises, then sings and even dances with him.
It is no surprise that at the wedding, Dov insisted on dancing with all the young people, showing his great-grandson, the groom, his number from Auschwitz — demonstrating that his father’s final request was fulfilled.
May we merit to learn from the survivors about hope, revival, and redemption.
