Yad Vashem's Hall of Names
Photo: Yossi Ben-David
Peres. Hosted Righteous among the Nations
Photo: Hagai Aharon
Shoah survivor reunites with woman who saved her life
Muslim woman who concealed Jewish family in Belarus during Holocaust meets Rachel Shmilovitch at President's Residence after more than 60 years
Moving encounter. A Holocaust survivor has met the woman who saved her life more than 60 years ago on Monday. The meeting took place recently at the President's Residence in Jerusalem.
For an entire year Aisha Trofimova, 84, a Muslim of Tatar descent, and her mother Fatima Kanefetsky concealed Rachel (Davidson) Shmilovitch, 77, and her family in Belarus.
President Shimon Peres, who attended the emotional encounter, said, "On behalf of the Jewish people I wish to thank the Righteous among the Nations who saved Jews while risking their own lives."
He further added, "These noble people did what they did not for any reward, but simply because they were human beings. They proved to whole world that even under the monstrous Nazi occupation there were inspiring manifestations of humanity."
Rachel expressed her undying gratitude to her saviors. "I shall forever remain thankful to this family," she said. "This family was under a constant death threat, but Fatima and Aisha were not deterred for one minute."
Rachel told Yedioth Ahronoth that she kept in contact with the two women since the end of the war and until Stalin's Soviet Union cut the relationship. "After the fall of the Soviet Union I traveled there to search for the family, but did not find them as Aisha had married and changed her last name," Rachel related.
The meeting is one of many which took place in the President's Residence on Monday between members of the Righteous among the Nations and the Jews they saved. The encounters were initiated by the Righteous among the Nations who approached the president for assistance. "He's one of us," one of them said, explaining Peres was born in Belarus, a part of which belonged to Poland at the time.
Noah Klieger contributed to this report
