The siren heard across the country this morning was activated by a Holocaust survivor, Miriam Tepolkreier, and her granddaughter, Sergeant Roi Avital, who serves in the Home Front Command.
Miriam Elizabeth Hanna Tepolkreier was born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in 1945. She was named after the Christian doctor who delivered her and who hid her family from the Nazis. Miriam's father, Max, was a painter and during the war he forged identity papers and passports for Jews as part of his activities for the Dutch Underground.
Miriam decided to move to Israel when she was 22 out of Zionist motivations. Today, she lives in Even Shmuel with her husband, Chaim, who moved to Israel from Yemen in 1949. Miriam and Chaim have five children, thirteen grandchildren, and one great-grandson.
Miriam and her granddaughter Roi arrived at the Home Front Command war room this morning and together they pressed the button that sounded the siren marking Holocaust Memorial Day.