A Torah scroll hidden in the attic of a synagogue in Poland that was burned down on Kristallnacht was to be placed in the Holy Ark at Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust remembrance center on Thursday as part of an event marking the General Kaddish Day held by the Council of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel on the 10th of Tevet, in which the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust without a clear date of death will be honored by reciting the Jewish prayer of the dead.
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The event was set to take place with the attendance of Israel's Chief Rabbis Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, Rabbi David Lau, the Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan, and the family of Holocaust survivor Chaim Tuvia Grabowiec, who brought the Torah scroll to Israel. His children later donated the scroll for future generations. During the ceremony, a special prayer will also be said for the safe return of captives and the well-being of IDF soldiers fighting in the Gaza war.
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"We thank the Grabowiec family for donating the Torah scroll to Yad Vashem's synagogue, where it will be preserved for future generations and serve congregants," says Dayan. "Every item entrusted to us not only tells the personal story of the donor, their family, or community but also completes another piece in the vast puzzle of the history of the Jewish people during the Holocaust."
Grabowiec was born in the town of Kolno, Białystok district in Poland. After the Russian invasion of the town, Grabowiec was taken along with other youths from the town for forced labor in Siberia, which is how he was the only one from his family to have survived. At the end of the war, he was released, and on his way back to his town in Poland he heard about the tragedy that had occurred and the dire fate of his parents and eight sisters. When he arrived in town he discovered that his family home had been taken over by Poles, and an acquaintance warned him it would be best for him to leave so as not to be murdered.
With no choice, Grabowiec left the town and wandered in search of other Jews and a livelihood. In a small village where he settled, he met Shprintze (Shoshana) Steinortzel, and the two married. The couple had three children: Mordechai, Moshe, and Hinda-Rachel. At this point, the couple wanted to immigrate to Israel but were denied approval due to Poland becoming communist.
In 1947 the family moved to the city of Wałbrzych in Poland, which before the war was part of Germany. After the renovation of a synagogue in the city that had been burned by the Germans on Kristallnacht, the few remaining Jews returned to pray there, including Grabowiec and his sons. One day while the children were playing in the attic, Grabowiec's son Mordechai noticed a niche in the wall. Out of curiosity he crawled inside and found parts of Torah scrolls, prayer books, prayer shawls, and phylacteries (tefillin).
He called his brother Moshe and they immediately ran to their father and told him what they found. Grabowiec went up to the attic and was stunned. He took off his prayer shawl, wrapped the Torah scroll and scattered pages in it, and swore on that day to bring the Torah scroll to Israel. In 1956 the family was allowed to leave Poland and immigrate to Israel, bringing the Torah scroll with them. In Israel, Grabowiec ordered two Torah mantles according to the Ashkenazi custom, and on them were embroidered the names of his murdered family members – his sisters and parents.
"The Torah scroll accompanied my father in every synagogue he attended," relates Rachel Chasidov, Mr. Grabowiec's daughter. "For us today, this means closure – that same Torah scroll that my brothers found in a synagogue in Poland, which itself survived the Holocaust, will be placed in the Holy Ark in Yad Vashem's synagogue," says Chasidov, adding, "After my father passed away and before my brother passed away, we decided Yad Vashem was the right place for the Torah scroll, where it will serve the public and also preserve my father's story and the memory of his family who was murdered in the Holocaust."
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