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Photo: Hagai Shmueli
Coss Weber sets out to remember grandfather with 750 km bike ride
Photo: Hagai Shmueli

Grandson of Righteous Among the Nations now saves children in Israel

Coss Weber's grandparents saved a Jewish couple during Holocaust, a decision his grandfather paid for with his life; Koss moved to Israel 26 years ago and works as one of best physiotherapists in his field.

Coss Weber's grandfather and grandmother saved Jews during the Holocaust and were named Righteous Among the Nations. Now, at age 51, Weber lives in Israel and works to save the lives of Israeli children with severe disabilities. On top of that, in order to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, Weber will embark on a 750 kilometer bike ride, starting at the Bergen-Belson camp, to commemorate his grandfather who died during the war.

 

 

Weber, who moved to Israel 26 years ago, begins his journey to honor his grandfather on Holocaust Remembrance Day and will end it on Israel's Independence Day.

 

Coss Weber works with a patient (Photo: Hagai Shmueli)
Coss Weber works with a patient (Photo: Hagai Shmueli)

 

The journey will retrace the path that Weber's grandfather took on the "Lost Train" before he died of typhus.

 

The "Lost Train" refers three trains that departed from Bergen-Belsen on April 9, 1945. The trains were intended to take the remaining Jews to gas chambers in Theresienstadt but the trains never arrived due to bombings by the Allied Forces.

 

Instead, most of the 2,500 Jews from Holland and Hungary died of starvation and disease. One train stopped on a destroyed bridge in the German town of Troebitz in eastern Germany and was set free by the Red Army on April 23, 1945. Five hundred Jews were killed on the train that reached Troebitz. Some were buried in a mass grave near the town while others were buried at a Jewish cemetery that was established in the town.

 

"For me, the bike ride is meant to commemorate the victims of the lost train sent to Bergen-Belsen, but also to immortalize the memory of my grandfather who did what he did in order to save Jews and paid for it with his life. We are retracing the path of my grandfather, but in the opposite direction," said Weber.

 

Family History

Weber was born in a small village near Amsterdam, Holland. His parents were farmers and his grandparents Jacobus (for whom he is named) and Henrika Jonker-Vendel were leaders in the resistance against the Nazi occupation.

 

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp (Photo: Getty Images)
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp (Photo: Getty Images)

 

In 1944, the couple was approached with a request to hide two Jews – Alexander de Groot and Dea de Groot-Vlessing, a Jewish couple in their 40s.

 

Weber's grandparents agreed to keep the couple in their home, but were discovered by the Gestapo after five members of the underground were arrested, and one gave up Jacobus' name during torture.

 

Jacobus and the de Groots were arrested that same night.

 

The de Groots were deported to Auschwitz, where Alexander died during a death march. Dea was sent to a labor camp in Czechoslovakia two months after her arrival in Auschwitz, and returned to Holland after the war. Upon her return, she was hospitalized in The Hague for 11 weeks and then sent for rehabilitation in Switzerland, where she died in 1976.

 

Meanwhile, Jacobus was sent to several concentration camps throughout Europe and eventually died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen.

 

Coming to Israel

In 1989, Koss, a physiotherapist, arrived in Israel to volunteer at the Alyn Hospital Pediatric and Adolescent Rehabilitation Center in Jerusalem.

 

During his youth, Coss became very interested in the Holocaust, but his many requests to hear the history of the family were denied. "My mother was not willing to tell me anything, my grandfather's death was hard for her," says Coss.

 

He did not give up, and forced his aunt to tell him the story. He then took all the family documents in order to submit them to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.

 

In 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Coss' grandparents as Righteous Among the Gentiles. Coss decided to stay in Israel and has since worked as a physiotherapist at Alyn Hospital.

 

At the hospital in Jerusalem, Coss works to help small children suffering from severe disabilities such as cerebral palsy and muscle and nerve diseases or orthopedic deformities. He is considered one of the best in his field in Israel, and his treatments save lives.

 

On his decision to come to Israel and volunteer at Alyn Hospital, Weber says: "The story of my grandfather and grandmother became at some point my own story. I came here because I felt close to Israel and I wanted to save children and help them. At Alyn, I found the combination of the two and I was able to fulfill a dream and continue the family tradition."

 

Weber has two daughter with his Israeli wife, and they are proud of their father's family history.

 

"I feel like I belong here and do not see myself returning to Holland. For me, to be here in Israel and do what I do at Alyn Hospital is a closing of a circle that I waited to do for a long time," says Coss.

 


פרסום ראשון: 04.18.15, 15:21
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