Holocaust survivor Yuli Zalmanovich, 86, was invited Thursday to a Home Front Command base, where she was honored clicking the computer mouse to set off the Holocaust Memorial Day siren nationwide.
The invitation was an intiative of the soldiers who serve at the Home Front Command's National Alert HQ, which sets off Israel's national sirens on Holcoaust Memorial Day and IDF Fallen Soldiers' Remembrance Day, as well as on drills and in case of war.
Zalmanovich was born in Munkács (now Mukacheve, Ukraine). She has an older sister and two younger brothers. She and her sister survived Auschwitz and learned, after the war, that the rest of their family had been murdered. Yuli married in her home town and the new family made aliyah to Israel in the early 1970s.
Zalmanovich was obviously thrilled with the occasion and said: “Our soldiers, our base, the planes – it's stirring... This place is very dear to my heart.”