Aryeh Goldberg, now 94, was 13 years old when the Nazis occupied his home town of Chelm in Poland. He had survived the Holocaust and rebuilt his life in Israel where he married and fathered three children.
Goldberg, who owns a small shop selling household goods in the northern city of Afula, has dedicated his life to recounting the horrors he had experienced, educating the residents of his town about the history of the Holocaust and the bravery of the survivors. He has been meeting with high school students annually, preparing them for their organized visits to Nazi concentration camps in Poland.
This year, because of the coronavirus pandemic, Goldberg worried he would be unable to man his post at his shop and is prevented from reaching out to people who may want to hear his personal story.
But thanks to a local initiative, he was able to address 70 of the city's middle and high school students via the Zoom video conferencing app to tell his harrowing life story.
Among the hardships he had to endure as a teenager at that time, he describes how a German soldier dragged him to the attic of a stable he had been working in, tied him to a pole, threatened him with a loaded pistol and asked "who is your God?"
Goldberg's story will be a centerpiece in the city's virtual Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony, commemorating 75 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
During the war, he was taken along with other boys to work at a stable that served the SS, giving them the nickname "straw boys" due to the straw and hay they had to cut for the horses.
His father left him in the care of a local family before he himself was taken to the Sobibor extermination camp and killed.
Goldberg was later sent to Auschwitz, where he survived harsh labor and starvation.
After the war, he reunited with his mother and sisters, immigrated to Israel, and served in the IDF during the country's war for independence in 1948. Eventually, he got married and moved to Afula.
After releasing his memoir "Who is your god" several months ago, Goldberg met with Afula mayor Avi Elkabetz, and presented him with a copy.
"I've known Aryeh for many years from his shop downtown," said Elkabetz. "During our meeting, I promised him that every child in the city will know of his brave story. I wish him and all holocaust survivors in the city long and healthy lives.
Afula's municipality has also decided that any student in the future who will be part of the organized school trips to Poland will receive a copy of Goldberg's book.