The Baby Saved from Auschwitz

In a town called *Gutschein, Germany in 1943 there was a child to be born to the Luria family. The time had come and the child was born. It was a great Simcha in the family, the firstborn was a boy.

All just but a few hours later, the Nazis YMS rounded up a big part of the town to send them off and deport them to a “better place” – to the labor and concentration camps.

Miriam Luria held her little bundle tightly for the few hours before they were to be sent off in the trains, hoping to find a solution how to save her newborn baby from the hands of the Nazis.

She found a few medicinal pills, she gave them to the baby to put him asleep, so that he would not make a sound, hoping to keep the baby safe and secure for a little while longer.

The train came to the camp – Auschwitz.

The Jewish people went through the selektzia, the Selection to see who is suitable for labor and who is suitable for…

Miriam has passed the selection, being that she was a young and able bodied woman. But on her back she had a treasure hidden deep inside her backpack, the newborn baby boy.

When the opportunity arose, she was near the electric barbed wired fence, she saw a peasant and threw the backpack over the fence to him. The peasant that received the bag felt sorry for the child and promised to take care of him and brought the child to an orphanage.

After the war, Miriam and her husband both survived. They have gone far and near, looking for their child which has been transferred from one orphanage to the next.

They came to Paris, France and there they found their little – big bundle, their 5 year old son.

Off to Australia they went, as Miriam put it “to be as far away from Europe as possible” and as far away from Yiddishkeit as well.

Little Alex as he was named, was not going to Sunday school, was never brought to Shul nor did he have a Passover Seder or a Bar Mitzva. His parents wanted to keep him as far as possible from yiddishkeit.

His only experience as being a Jew was a sad one. In public school all the students mocked him. His mother brought him to a Rabbi to explain to him what it means to be a Jew. As Alex puts it “he didn’t really explain anything, he gave me all the right reasons why they hate me…”

About 55 years later, Chabad of RARA (Rural and Regional Australia) under the leadership of the founder Mr. Saul Spiegler, has come in contact with “Little” Alex.

Dovid Leib Marasow and Levi Levitin, Chabad volunteers who were in Balarat Victoria, had the name Luria on a list from the white pages and decided to give it a try.

The two went to the address and knocked on the door. The door opened and a man looking about 70 opened the door. “Who are you?” He asked.

The “RARA boys” responded, “Chabad of Rara Jewish visitation service”.

Alex’s face lit up and he said “the Christians were coming after me for a long time to try to convert me and I will never do that, but I was wondering when the Jews will come? Come right in, you are finally here!”

Needless to say, Alex laid Tefillin that day for the first time in his life celebrating his “Bar mitzvah”, and excitedly placed a Mezuza on his doorpost, thereby beginning his journey in learning about his heritage and his people.

As the Rara boys were about to leave, Alex tells them “my father always told me that I was a direct descendant of Rabbi Isaac Luria.” What Alex did not know was that Rabbi Isaac Luria was the Arizal.

Chabad of RARA’s Message: no Jew will be left behind.

*the names and details are from what Chabad of Rara has heard from Mr. Luria himself.