Yaffa Shaindy with two of her grandchildren.
Yaffa Shaindy with two of her grandchildren.Credit: Courtesy of the family

When the two grandchildren of Holocaust survivor Yaffa Shaindy Gutman traveled to the Auschwitz death camp as part of the program "Witness in uniforms" they called her together with all their friends from the very block she used to sleep in. Her excited response is hard to forget: "The glory of the State of Israel."

Gutman (nee Shapira) was born in Bragas, in the Carpathian Mountains of Hungary. She arrived at Auschwitz at the age of 17, along with her mother and some of her siblings. Many members of her community and her family perished on the death trains and later in Auschwitz.

When they reached Mengele, he directed her mother to the right. Yaffa Shaindy, who knew that her mother was sick and saw that all the sick people were directed to the left, said to Mengele: "She's sick." Mengele looked at her and said, "If you ask ... fine."

They slept in Block 9 in Auschwitz. Toward the end of the war, the Nazis marched them on a death march. A few minutes before the final liberation, when the exchange of fire between the Allied forces and the Germans was still taking place over their heads, her Aunt Klari was hit by a bullet in her head and perished.

Yaffa Sheindi survived, immigrated to Israel and established a wonderful family together with Baruch Gutman.

In the year 2016, two of her grandchildren went on a delegation of "Witnesses in uniform" of IDF officers to the death camps. They reached the ruins of Block 9 where she slept and called her from there. Yaffa Shaindy read a letter she had prepared over the phone and all the members of the unit called out "Am Yisrael Chai."

In the recorded conversation, Yaffa Sheindi asks, "Are there still Germans there? Are there guards? "

Her grandson, Yehuda Leibowitz, who took part in the journey as a reserve soldier, said later: "At that moment I didn't understand what Savta (Grandmother) asked. I only understood later. Today I'm shocked by my grandmother's question about the Nazi guards. Today I have to make an effort to remember how the gate of the camp's entrance looked. But Savta could never forget."


Yaffa Sheindi died last year, surrounded by a loving family, with more than 100 great-grandchildren. She always repeated to her family, "You are my revenge