The Chilling Story of Tommy Schwarz, the child behind the barbed wire

President Isaac Herzog delivered remarks this evening (Wednesday) at the central Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and called for unity among the people. He recounted two heroic stories of Holocaust survivors – Tommy Schwarz and Yosef Lavi – and also addressed the hostages in Gaza. 'Kikar HaShabbat' with his full speech.

"In recent years, I've made it a regular practice to host Holocaust survivors at the President's Residence," Herzog said in his speech. "Almost every week I have the privilege of meeting them. They come up to Jerusalem in their finest clothes. Some are approaching their nineties, some are nearly a hundred. Sometimes they struggle to walk, sometimes to breathe. In most cases, they're accompanied by their family members. Children. Grandchildren. Great-grandchildren. Even great-great-grandchildren."

"I converse with them and am exposed to unimaginable life stories. And suddenly I find myself saying – sometimes quietly, to myself, sometimes aloud to them: Look – you've won. Look – we've won."

"They sit with me, in the office of the President of the State, these most precious people, those who witnessed the most horrific atrocities; some have also experienced bereavement in Israel's various conflicts. Surprisingly, or perhaps not surprisingly, they all convey faith, optimism, strength of spirit, and all of them, all of them – in droves – have one request, one demand. 'We remember the darkest of days,' they tell me, 'the most terrible of deeds, our loved ones who were slaughtered, burned, died in terrible torture. We remember a sense of loneliness that cannot be described in words. Without a personal home. Without a national home. And yet – we were privileged, and we have a wonderful country that was built with blood, sweat, and so many tears.' And then, with a heart-piercing cry, they conclude by saying to me: 'Mr. President, please, we beg, we demand: The division among us is terrible. Make there be unity among the people.'"

"My sisters and brothers, citizens of Israel, as the bearer of the message of those heroic Holocaust survivors, and of such a large public – who are terrified by the horrifying polarization and division among us, I call to you from the depths of my heart: Let us unite together, all the house of Israel. Let us turn these days – ten days of holiness – from now until Independence Day, into a formative, historic hour of goodwill, on the path to an era of complete responsibility. National responsibility. Let us lower the flames. Let us heal hearts. Let us not allow the poison of social networks, and the experts of incitement and polarization, to take control of the nation's soul and destroy us from within. Let us mourn together and long together; let us hurt together, and yes – even today – let us stand tall – together. Let us unite in crying out and in prayer: for the urgent and immediate return of all the female and male hostages from the hands of the Hamas murderers. The living and the fallen alike. Let us commit together to act with all our might. Not to rest or be quiet until they all return. All of them. Until the very last one."

Herzog continued: "I address our hostage brothers and sisters, some of whom may be hearing us, and say: An entire nation is with you. An entire nation is missing you, worrying about you, crying out your cry. An entire nation is in pain and anguish, its soul literally scorched, and knows that it will have no comfort or relief – until all of you return home."

"I ask that we pray together – for the success and well-being of the soldiers of the IDF, and of all the security and internal security forces and their commanders; and for the healing of all the wounded – in body and spirit. That we embrace together – the beloved bereaved families, who cry out to us again and again: This is the moment to be worthy of them. Together."

Herzog also said: "Eighty years after the victory of the Allies, we gather again tonight. Remembering the victims – while also marking the victory. The victory of light over darkness, the victory of morality over the most terrible evil, the victory of the human spirit, the Jewish spirit – over monstrous hatred. But this day, Holocaust Remembrance Day, is not a day where our gaze is directed only backward."

"I deliver my words here, not just eighty years after the Holocaust; but also when we are a year and a half after the greatest massacre our people have experienced since the Holocaust; when we are still scarred and bleeding, seized by upheaval and concern. And so, I wish to celebrate this sacred day, also as a day on which our nation looks to the future, while internalizing and understanding the most important lesson and commandment, in my view: Like back then, eighty years ago – we will overcome this time too. It is embedded in us; in our deepest DNA as a people. For the eternity of Israel will not deceive, forever and ever."

At this point the President recounted: "On the inside of Tommy Schwarz's left arm, they tattooed the number: B-14295. Tommy was born in Nitra, Slovakia, and was only six years old, a first-grade student, when the war broke out. His parents, who sensed an antisemitic and murderous ring of fire beginning to tighten around them, tried to escape with Tommy and his two brothers, to hide, but in vain. Tommy and his family witnessed the horror – at every stage: the orders that stripped Jews of human and civil rights, the violence against Jews, the systematic deportation to camps, and the mass murder of their friends, their dear ones, their loved ones. The long arm of the Nazi extermination machine eventually reached the Schwarz family too, and they were sent to the Sered concentration camp in Slovakia."

"From there, the family members were taken to Auschwitz, in cattle freight cars, without food and water, amid the filth and terror, alongside the bodies of those who had not survived the monstrous journey. At Auschwitz, little Tommy was separated from his family. He found himself alone, just nine years old – there in the heart of the terrible death camp – tasked with watching over ten other children, starving, hurting, and terrified. Within just three months, nine out of ten children – Tommy's children – himself just a child – perished."

"On January 27, 1945, the 13th of Shevat 5705, Red Army forces arrived at Auschwitz. When they entered the camp, they found the last remnants of entire families, the final trace of magnificent communities that had turned to dust and ashes. Among them was Tommy. Just ten and a half years old. In this famous picture – taken by the liberators, he appears by the fence – last on the left. 'I chose life,' Tommy recounted, about what he felt at that moment; the moment of liberation from the Nazi monster."

"Tommy immigrated to Israel, established a family, and became a revered educator. We are fortunate that he is here with us. When in January of this year, the world marked 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, Tommy was invited to the ceremony at the death camp; but announced he could not attend. Tommy chose to mark the victory over the Nazi beast, specifically aboard a Navy ship, with the symbolic name: 'INS Victory.' By his side – his granddaughter, Captain A. – the deputy commander. Exactly eighty years after he was liberated – a lonely child, hungry and freezing cold, who had gone through the worst hell of all – Tommy Schwarz-Shaham had the privilege of telling his personal victory story, on a battleship of the State of Israel. 'Eighty years since the liberation of Auschwitz, and I stand here giving you testimony,' Tommy said emotionally to the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, and declared: 'There is no greater victory than this!!'"

Tommy Schwarz-Shaham exactly eighty years after he was liberated – a lonely child, hungry and freezing cold, who had gone through the worst hell of all, alongside his granddaughter Captain A., and after telling his personal victory story, on the battleship 'INS Victory' of the Israel Defense Forces.

"Nearly 2,000 kilometers in a straight line separate Nitra in Slovakia from Benghazi in Libya, but there too, in North Africa, the cursed Holocaust claimed its victims. Yosef Lavi was a young boy, who was deported with his family from their home in Benghazi, to the notorious Giado concentration camp. From Giado he was deported to Italy and from there taken to the Bergen-Belsen death camp on German soil. In Bergen-Belsen, one of the prisoners learned that Yosef had not had the chance to celebrate his bar mitzvah. He gave him a tallit, and so – with death hovering over them – Yosef experienced the moving ceremony. After the war, Yosef immigrated to Israel and joined the Palmach. In the War of Independence, he fought in the difficult battles to break through to besieged Jerusalem. Yosef kept the tallit he received in Bergen-Belsen until his last day; as a symbol of faith. Of hope. Of victory. When asked how he survived – he answered: 'The tallit reminded me who I am. Where I came from. And that the future was still waiting for me.'"

"With the liberation of the Giado camp, one of the great sages of Djerba – Rabbi Shaul Sheli Makiks – wrote a poem referencing the verse from the Book of Psalms: 'And a people yet to be created shall praise the Lord'; but with a small change. Instead of 'And a people yet to be created shall praise the Lord', he wrote: 'Hallelujah! A people created.' Even within the ruined world – Rabbi Sheli identified the rebirth, the victory. The future. And called 'Hallelujah.' Hallelujah – for the people who went from death to life, from destruction to revival. Hallelujah – for the people who even in the midst of suffering and loss, held and will always hold: to hope, to redemption, to faith that victory will surely come."

Herzog added: "My sisters and brothers; tomorrow I will lead on behalf of the entire State of Israel the March of the Living at Auschwitz – for the memory of the perished, for the survivors, for the generations that followed. 80 years after the victory of the Allies and the liberation of the camp, I will walk as the President of the Jewish and democratic State of Israel through the gates of the terrible hell – from whose chimneys our slaughtered brothers ascended in a storm to heaven; with Holocaust survivors, families of hostages and former captives, and bereaved families by my side. I will walk with the memory of millions of our people who perished in the Holocaust engraved on the tablet of my heart; and while still – like all of us – under the impression of the bitter cup that was our lot on that accursed day about a year and a half ago."

"For although we know, know well, that there is nothing that can be compared to the scope and systematicity of the Holocaust, it was impossible to be exposed to the horrifying testimonies, from the heart of the inferno on October 7th; and to the stories and images of the hostages – those who emerged from the valley of the shadow of death in the tunnels of the murderers in Gaza, and those whose shocking documentation has reached us even in these very days, and not be shocked by the echoes of that historic catastrophe. The voice of our brothers' blood cries out to us from beneath the earth. We must bring them back urgently."

"But it is not only the impression of the horrors then and now that will be before my eyes; but also the hope and deep faith – which we inherited from you – our beloved Holocaust survivors and heroes of the revival. Faith and hope that are intertwined into one word: Hallelujah. Hallelujah like the great victory of Yosef and the tallit; Hallelujah like the great victory of Tommy – with his granddaughter the officer – on 'INS Victory'; Hallelujah like the revival of the people of Israel in their homeland."

Yosef Lavi documented first from the right, after he immigrated to Israel at the end of the war and joined the Palmach. In the War of Independence, he fought in the difficult battles to break through to besieged Jerusalem. Yosef kept the tallit he received in Bergen-Belsen until his last day – as a symbol of faith. Of hope. Of victory.

"I say here – at this moment – a moment of holy of holies, without any reservation: If we managed to rise from the darkest abyss in human history – we will always succeed. Always. I know, the journey will not be simple, but it will happen. There is one condition. Only one: to do it together."

"We are in days of intense and turbulent disagreement. And the vast majority of the people cry out with all their might: Enough! Enough polarization. Enough hatred. History will not forgive those who act irresponsibly and dismantle us from within. History will not forgive those who pull the ground out from under our wonderful country – beloved, unique, Jewish and democratic; that arose from the ashes of the terrible Holocaust."

"Our shared building, after the great break, is a tremendous, historic mission, that is not placed on one person, on one community or on one camp – but on all of us: as a nation, as a society and as individuals. I tell you, to the people in Israel and to our brothers in the diaspora: We will overcome, this time too. We can – together – face any challenge and any enemy. We will prove – together – will prove again and again: The eternity of Israel will not deceive."