First, let me apologize if I have made any errors in the retelling of this history. This already is second-hand information and I may have remembered some of the facts incorrectly due to my delay of posting this story. But overall, I believe the majority of this recollection to be accurate and true.

N was only six years old when he and his family – mom, dad, younger sister and older brothers – were deported to Auschwitz. Before then they had been living happily in the Netherlands until the invasion of the Nazis.

At Auschwitz, N was selected to be a test subject of the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele (if one can even call him a doctor). But because of the camp’s large size, he was able to sneak away undetected before the tests were performed.

Unfortunately, N’s luck would not rub off on his family. In 1945, in an attempt to evade the Soviet advance on Poland, the Nazis forced the inmates to embark on a death march. N’s mother died along the way from starvation and exhaustion. His father also died during the march, although G was uncertain as to whether he was shot or if he succumbed to exhaustion as well. In the end, only N and his younger sister survived the Holocaust.

After they were liberated, N and his sister were sent back to the Netherlands. When he turned eighteen, N immigrated to Israel to begin a new life.

It was here that he met wife R*, who also is Dutch and has an incredible story of her own. R’s family was among the upper class of Dutch society, and her father ran a profitable business. But the business was forcibly shut down by the Nazis, and in order to escape deportation and certain death, R was hidden in the home of Christian family. She had been looking forward to being reunited with her family after the war. But to her dismay, her mother divorced her father and remarried a Christian man.

When she came of age, R also immigrated to Israel. And after hearing her and N’s story, I finally get it. I now realize just how empowering a homeland can be.

Before meeting R and N, antisemitism seemed like such a foreign, archaic concept to me. It is so easy for people to forget that the Holocaust happened barely 70 years ago.

It is this deeper understanding of the Jews and their past persecution which has led me to appreciate Israel in a whole new way. And I think this understanding is shared by G and her friends, who are currently serving two or three year stints in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). G, who works in intelligence, described the official ceremony for her acceptance into the army.

What she remembered most about that day was her grandfather’s look of pride.

Almost all of N’s family was murdered in the Holocaust and he very nearly died himself. But he had persevered and survived.

He had embraced Israel and even fought in its wars. And now here he was witnessing his own granddaughter embark on a duty to defend the Jewish people. His family had risen above all the terror and horror of the past. His people had overcome genocide and emerged from it a strong and unified nation. The Jews were finally free.

G said she could see the tears in his eyes.

*Names have been protected.