“You have to get her out”
Israel rescues Holocaust survivors from Kyiv
03/24/2022, 4:12 p.m
Doba Huberhryz was born in 1921, survived the Holocaust and has lived in Kyiv since the end of World War II. In a night and fog operation, the Israeli rescue service Zaka evacuated the 100-year-old from the embattled capital.
A 100-year-old Holocaust survivor has been rescued from the embattled Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, according to Israeli sources. The action was organized by the Israeli rescue service Zaka, as a spokesman for the organization confirmed. The woman, named Doba Huberhryz, is now in Moldova and is to be taken to Israel on an ambulance flight.
Nachman Dickstein, deputy head of Zaka Ukraine, described the operation as an “absolute peak” in an interview with broadcaster 103FM. He received a call from Israel in the middle of the night: “Nachman, you have to get them out.” As a result, Zaka employees, together with other helpers, organized an ambulance that took the woman from Kyiv to Moldova.
Dickstein, who met her at the border, said: “Within two hours she packed 100 years of her life into a single suitcase.” Huberhryz was born on October 3, 1921 in Orikhiw in the Zaporizhia region. During World War II she fled Ukraine to Tashkent, after which the family returned to Kyiv.
The fact that war is raging again is particularly bad for the single woman. When he told her on arrival in Moldova that she could now sleep in peace without warning sirens, she had tears of relief in her eyes. She couldn’t imagine returning to her homeland. “She just wants to come to Israel now.”