Bring Israel Home to Israel!
Donation protected
Please help me bring my brother's body to Israel!
Anna Pasternak with her brothers, David and Israel, and mother, Naomi.
Even though we were scattered while alive, we can try to choose our final resting place if possible.
On August 23, 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a non-aggression pact. Part of their deal included splitting up Poland between the two nations. On September 1, 1939, the Nazis attacked Poland. In response France and Great Britain declared war on Germany two days later, and WW2 officially started. And so began the crimes and unbridled evil against humanity…
Jews in the half of Poland that the Nazis took over were systematically rounded up and exterminated in the Holocaust. Jews in the part of Poland that the Soviets took over were expelled and sent to Siberia to live in gulags and contribute to the Soviet war effort.
We lived in the Soviet side of Poland.
My Parents, my two brothers, Israel and David and I wound up in a Soviet labor camp deep in the Siberian wilderness. My parents worked from sunrise to sundown for a piece of bread and stale soup while the children stayed in the barracks. We suffered -30 degree frost, hunger, disease, but always clung to our faith and never lost hope.
During that time, I lost my 7-year-old brother David to diphtheria. He is buried somewhere in the wilderness of Siberia. There is no marking on his grave.
Once we were freed from the Labor camps we settled in Kazakhstan where we lived in peace with many other ethnic groups for four years. During the second typhoid epidemic, tragedy struck again and I lost my brother Israel, at age 14 on October 27, 1945
After WWll ended, Comrade Stalin allowed us to leave. My parents and I left Kazakhstan, heartbroken, the following year.
My father never got over his son's death and dreamt of being re-united with him in heaven.
Eventually we moved to the re-born State of Israel, where my parents lived out their years and are buried.
Life went on and I've been blessed with a wonderful life and an incredible family of my own including two children and two grandchildren.
I've recently moved back to Israel in my 80's.
I have always wanted to be buried here in the Holy Land close to my parents.
That started me thinking, if only I could bring my dear brother here, we would all be together in one place.
I thought it was impossible but -astonishingly- I was recently able to locate Israel's grave in Kazakhstan. I have now contacted the proper authorities and services to accomplish the task of bringing his body to Israel this coming spring 2019.
Recent photo of Israel’s grave in Kazakhstan.
I am seeking the amount necessary to exhume Israel's body from Kazakhstan, transport it to Israel and give him a proper burial with his family. Additionally, the money I seek also includes the cost of a multiple EMMY-winning documentary team from America to travel to Israel to capture this interment and to document the widely unknown plight of the Polish Jews surviving WWII under the Soviet Regime. This shall be the core element for a new documentary designed for national distribution in the United States via PBS.
To be sure the trials and tribulations we endured were nowhere near the horrors our brethren faced at the hands of the Nazis during that same period, but it is a story of upheaval, human suffering and degradation, ultimately overcome by through faith, hope and unlikely kindness of strangers.
It is a story of strength, and optimism in the human character, of which you can read more in my book: The Untold Story of a Young Girl During WWII https://www.amazon.com/Untold-Story-Young-Girl-During/dp/1640820248
Please share in the mitzvah of bringing my brother's body home and reuniting our family forever.
Thank you.
Anna Pasternak with her brothers, David and Israel, and mother, Naomi.Even though we were scattered while alive, we can try to choose our final resting place if possible.
On August 23, 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a non-aggression pact. Part of their deal included splitting up Poland between the two nations. On September 1, 1939, the Nazis attacked Poland. In response France and Great Britain declared war on Germany two days later, and WW2 officially started. And so began the crimes and unbridled evil against humanity…
Jews in the half of Poland that the Nazis took over were systematically rounded up and exterminated in the Holocaust. Jews in the part of Poland that the Soviets took over were expelled and sent to Siberia to live in gulags and contribute to the Soviet war effort.
We lived in the Soviet side of Poland.
My Parents, my two brothers, Israel and David and I wound up in a Soviet labor camp deep in the Siberian wilderness. My parents worked from sunrise to sundown for a piece of bread and stale soup while the children stayed in the barracks. We suffered -30 degree frost, hunger, disease, but always clung to our faith and never lost hope.
During that time, I lost my 7-year-old brother David to diphtheria. He is buried somewhere in the wilderness of Siberia. There is no marking on his grave.
Once we were freed from the Labor camps we settled in Kazakhstan where we lived in peace with many other ethnic groups for four years. During the second typhoid epidemic, tragedy struck again and I lost my brother Israel, at age 14 on October 27, 1945
After WWll ended, Comrade Stalin allowed us to leave. My parents and I left Kazakhstan, heartbroken, the following year.
My father never got over his son's death and dreamt of being re-united with him in heaven.
Eventually we moved to the re-born State of Israel, where my parents lived out their years and are buried.
Life went on and I've been blessed with a wonderful life and an incredible family of my own including two children and two grandchildren.
I've recently moved back to Israel in my 80's.
I have always wanted to be buried here in the Holy Land close to my parents.
That started me thinking, if only I could bring my dear brother here, we would all be together in one place.
I thought it was impossible but -astonishingly- I was recently able to locate Israel's grave in Kazakhstan. I have now contacted the proper authorities and services to accomplish the task of bringing his body to Israel this coming spring 2019.
Recent photo of Israel’s grave in Kazakhstan.I am seeking the amount necessary to exhume Israel's body from Kazakhstan, transport it to Israel and give him a proper burial with his family. Additionally, the money I seek also includes the cost of a multiple EMMY-winning documentary team from America to travel to Israel to capture this interment and to document the widely unknown plight of the Polish Jews surviving WWII under the Soviet Regime. This shall be the core element for a new documentary designed for national distribution in the United States via PBS.
To be sure the trials and tribulations we endured were nowhere near the horrors our brethren faced at the hands of the Nazis during that same period, but it is a story of upheaval, human suffering and degradation, ultimately overcome by through faith, hope and unlikely kindness of strangers.
It is a story of strength, and optimism in the human character, of which you can read more in my book: The Untold Story of a Young Girl During WWII https://www.amazon.com/Untold-Story-Young-Girl-During/dp/1640820248
Please share in the mitzvah of bringing my brother's body home and reuniting our family forever.
Thank you.
Organizer and beneficiary
Anna Pasternak
Organizer
Miami, FL
Zev Pasternak
Beneficiary