While the major news outlets cover high-profile items like Sharon’s whereabouts on Holocaust Memorial Day, some very difficult and moving personal statements were made available by Yad Vashem — here are this year’s torchlighters at the official ceremony. A sampling:
Malka Rosental: ‘My mother turned herself over to the Germans in an effort to save my life. My father left me alone with a poor rural Polish family, the Kots. A Jewish child was found at a neighbor’s home and the boy was murdered on the spot.
‘The Kots dug a pit in the cowshed and placed a large barrel in it. There was straw, 2 blankets, and a doll belonging to their daughter. I lived for a year and a half in the barrel.
‘The place was so peaceful, nothing happened to anyone there. They were only after me. ‘