May 6, 2024 – On Sunday afternoon, Rambam Health Care Campus (Rambam) in Haifa, Israel, in cooperation with “Lemannam,” the Physicians for Holocaust Survivors, hosted a moving, annual event, “Remembrance in the Living Room.” Remembrance in the Living Room is a Jewish-Israeli social initiative where holocaust survivors share their personal stories with others in an intimate atmosphere.

Rambam staff members attended in the annual event held in the Cheryl Spencer Auditorium at Rambam. The event was particularly significant considering the national circumstances and devastation of October 7. Naftali Fürst (91), who was imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps, shared his moving story of survival.  After two imprisonments, Fürst was transported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp where he was separated from his family. From there, he was taken on a three-day death march in the snow, at the end of which he was transported in an open coal wagon in extreme temperatures to Buchenwald.

Fürst was among 1,000 orphans brought to the Buchenwald where he was saved by a Czech political prisoner, Antonín Kalina. Kalina received the “Patron of the World” prize posthumously. At the end of the war, Fürst was reunited with his brother and parents who survived, each in different camps. However, his story does not end there. Eighty years and two generations later, his granddaughter, her husband and his great-grandson narrowly survived the Hamas attack on October 7 in Kfar Aza, giving profound meaning to the ongoing survival of his family.

The “Remembrance in the Living Room” event was a coordinated effort between Rambam’s Department of Welfare and, Lemannam, of which Fürst is among the Holocaust survivors receiving specialized medical services. Approximately 1,200 volunteer physicians support the organization’s staff, providing full and comprehensive medical service for these precious survivors of the Holocaust throughout Israel.

Merav Ganot, director of the Department of Welfare at Rambam commented, “After I returned from a trip to the extermination camps in Poland a year ago, I took it upon myself to honor the events of the Holocaust, the survivors, and the victims in any way I could. Today’s event is my connection and my duty to support an important event, with the inclusion of Mr. Fürst, for future generations.”

Raz Avitan Katz, Lemannam’s CEO said, “Ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day, we initiated ‘Remembrance in the Living Room’ gatherings in some hospitals across the country where survivors could tell their story to hospital staff.” Besides free medical services, Lemannam facilitates an ongoing relationship between the survivors and medical staff who provide them with regular services.

On Sunday evening, Israel’s official Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony was held at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. During the ceremony, the President of the State of Israel, Chaim Herzog, paid special tribute to Fürst, noting the harrowing story of his family.

Photo: Naftali Fürst (identified by the yellow circle), in barrack 56 at Buchenwald. This photo was taken four days after the liberation of the camp.

Photography: From the National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland, US Holocaust Memorial Museum  

In the photo: Naftali Fürst addresses to the audience at Rambam and answers questions

Photography: Rambam HCC