Noemi Spitz / Noemi Shadmi (F / Hungary, 1931), Holocaust survivor

Noemi Spitz / Noemi Shadmi (F / Hungary, 1931), Holocaust survivor

• KEYWORDS : <Hungary> <Budapest Ghetto> -- <Israel>

The Jerusalem Post (29 April 2008)

Noemi Shadmi, nee Spitz, was born in 1931 in Debrecen, Hungary. When she was three years old, her affluent family moved to Budapest. In 1944, Shadmi's father and older brother were taken to a forced labor camp and murdered. Shadmi, her mother and younger brother, Joschka, were moved to the poor part of town, together with all the Jews in Budapest. Their severely overcrowded apartments were marked with yellow stars. One morning in 1944, troopers from the SS and Arrow Cross (the Hungarian fascist party) broke into their apartment, and Shadmi's mother was taken away at gunpoint. Looking helplessly at the children, she told her daughter, "Take good care of your little brother, I trust you." Two weeks later, the children were moved to the Budapest ghetto. When the Red Army liberated the city, Shadmi and her brother returned to their home, only to find it occupied by strangers who threw them out. After discovering that her parents and older brother had died in the Holocaust, she and Joschka headed to Israel. In October 1947, she finally arrived, settling in Kibbutz Kfar Giladi, where she helped found Kibbutz Gaon and assisted new immigrants. In 1948, Shadmi enlisted in the IDF, serving as a combat officer and receiving an award for bravery. Shadmi served in the Israel Police for 20 years, retiring with the rank of commander. Today, she gives testimony for Yad Vashem, lecturing widely around the country. Noemi and her husband Asher have two children and four grandchildren.