Michael Bar-On will be one of six survivors lighting torches at the State Ceremony opening Holocaust Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem.
Born Michael Brownfeld in 1932 in Kraków, Poland, Michael was the youngest of his Hasidic family's 8 children.
In 1941 the family was incarcerated in the Kraków ghetto before they were transferred to Międzyrzec Podlaski, where they lived in a stable. When a typhus epidemic broke out there due to overcrowding, contamination and hunger, almost all of the Brownfelds contracted the disease. After Michael’s parents succumbed to typhus, his cousin Bronka came to Międzyrzec Podlaski posing as a Christian, and smuggled Michael and his siblings to her hometown of Brzesko. Michael, his brother Elimeleh and their sister Aliza survived the Holocaust by fleeing to various locations, including the Bochnia ghetto, Pivnička and Košice (Slovakia), Budapest, Nagyvárad and Bucharest. The three youngsters succeeded in boarding a boat that sailed from Romania to Istanbul, where they boarded a train and reached Eretz Israel (Mandatory Palestine) via Syria and Lebanon in July 1944.
Michael studied at the Agudat Yisrael educational institution in Magdiel, became a counsellor for young Holocaust survivors and enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces. After 25 years in the IDF, he retired with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
Michael and his wife Haya have 3 children, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
For more details: www.yadvashem....