Holocaust Project Katzenelson High School
"Relationet" 2015 


survivor's names: Shmuel and Rivka Caspi



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First name: Shmuel
Last name: Caspi
previous name: Lazer
Father:David
Mother:Rivka
Sibilings:Gustav,Mendel,Bluma
Year of birth:1930
City of birth:Iasi
Country:Romania

First name: Rivka
Last name:Cspi 
Previous name:Ya'akovson
Father: Reuven
Mother:Lea
Sibilings: Rachel, Yona, Mina
Year of birth:1932
City of birth:Ploiesti
Country:Romania

Shmuel Caspi

Shmuel was born in 1930 in Iasii, Romania. He grew up in a non-Jewish neighborhood. He had Jewish and non-Jewish friends. During his time in public school, the Christens kids used to abuse him because he was Jewish. They used to hit him and shout at him "you're a Jew! Return to Palestine!"  Shmuel's father was a manager of a synagogue and the family went to the synagogue on a regular basis. His father also had a deli in the city and every Thursday he used to give food to the poor. When Shmuel was 11 years old, a pogrom was conducted in the Jewish quarter. During the Pogrom, Shmuel's father and brother were murdered. 14,000 Jews were killed in this pogrom. Shmuel and his family stayed in their house for a few more months, until the German soldiers expelled them and turned their house into their headquarters.  Until the end of the war, Shmuel and his family went around from shelter to shelter.

 

Shmuel's Aliha
When the war ended, Shmuel joined to one of the branches of the "Hashomer Hatzair". It was a youth group that trained adolescents to be agricultures and to live in Palestine. Shmuel went to a training farm in another city. After several months, they crossed the border in an illegal way to get to Burags – a port city that from which they would sail to Palestine.  After they crossed the border, their guide abandoned them. They made it to Burgas by Guidance of one of the youth group's guide. From Burgas they sailed in massive cargo ships. Each ship carried 15,000 people. The ships brought  them to Cyprus where they were put in detention camps. Shmuel lived there for 2 years under horrible conditions, almost as bad as in the war. After 2 years, his group got approval to come to Palestine.

Rivka caspi

Rivka was born in Ploiesti, Romania in 1932. When Romania joined the war, Rivka was 9 years old. Her father, who was a tailor, was taken to the work camp "Torno saverin". Her brother, who was 17 years old, was taken to work as well. The citizens of the city were forced to give the Germans a quota of various equipment. When the citizens weren't able to fill the quota, the Germans took 10 women to prison. One of them was Rivka's mother. Rivka and her siblings hid at a farmer's house, thanks to the good relations between the farmer and their father. The fact he hid Jews at his house was life- threatening to the farmer,so Rivka and her siblings came back to their old house. From there they were deported to another city. In the new city a gentile who hid them in his basement. It was too dangerous for him to keep them so they left his house too.

For the next year and a half, they wandered around in the streets; they came back to Ploiesti and found their mother. All of them lived in their neighbor's house until the Russians came to the city. 

The hen the Russians came to the city Rivka found out that they are cruel an brutal as the Germans. They looted the city, and took a lot of things from the people of the town. Her father escaped from the work camp, and reunited with the family. After 6 months her brother escaped too and the family was united.  

 

After the war was ended, Rivka's family was very poor. At this time, "Hashomer hatzair" movement founded branches around Romania, including her city. The members of the movement convinced Rivka's parents to let her join to "Ha'apala" to Palestine with them. It "aliyah" for children only. At night, because the Romanian government didn't approve getting out of the country, the guides and the hundreds of children crossed the border to Bulgaria. There,  they got to Burgas, a naval city, and they boarded on ship called "Medinat Hayehudim" (the Jewish state). The ship originally was for 300 passengers, carried 1500.It was very crowded and there was very little food. The ship sailed through the strait of Dardanelles. When the ship entered British territorial waters, British destroyers tried to sink it. Rivka's ship, who was an ice-breaker, managed to create a hole in one of the British ships. When the ship docked at Haifa harbor, the British didn't allow them to go on shore, and made them sail to Cyprus on a British destroyer. At some distance, the ship stopped and they went on shore on little boats. They were put into camps that were surrounded by watch towers and barbed wire. The conditions in the camp were horrible. There was constant hunger.  Half a year later they arrived, her group was allowed to come to Palestine. In Palestine her group was put in kibbutz "Eylon". Rivka tells that they were very surprised from all the basic things they got, such as: pajamas, candies, sheets and beds.

The life together

After Rivka ended her participation in the youth group, she moved the kibbutz "Magen". In Palestine, Shmuel lived in kibbutz "Gat" with his friends from the youth movement. They defended the village from the Palestinians during part of the Israeli Independence War. After a few months, they moved to kibbutz "Magen" to recover it. It was in this kibbutz that Shmuel and Rivka met and had their first daughter, Smadar. After moving among a few communities in the area, Shmuel got a job at Ra'anana (central Israel). They moved to Ra'anana where their other 2 children, Danni and Osnat were born. Today, Shmuel and Rivka live in Kfar saba. They have a lot of grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Shmuel and Rivka believe that their revenge in the Nazis is that they came to Israel and started a family. Today Shmuel is the head of "Yesh" – Children in theHolocaust, an organization that helps needed Holocaust survivors. He and Rivka contribute a lot to other survivors.

Rivka when she was in Israel

Shmuel when he was in Israel 

A post card that Shmuel send to Rivka during "The six days war"

Shmuel, working in the kibutz

Shmuel and Rivka in Zichron Ya'akov

A monument to the victoms of the Iaci pogrom