Holocaust Survivor Meant to Recite ‘Kel Maleh’ at Ceremony Hospitalized

By COLlive reporter

Holocaust survivor Efraim Mol, who was supposed to recite the ‘Kel Maleh Rachamim’ prayer at the official Monday evening Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem, fell ill on Sunday during the preparations for the event and was rushed to the hospital, according to Yad Vashem.

In his place, renowned Israeli singer Shuli Rand recited the prayer.

“Yad Vashem and the Jewish people send prayers and best wishes to Efraim Mol and his family,” a statement on behalf of Yad Vashem said.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hosted at his office a greeting for a group of survivors who were scheduled to headline the event. Mol was one of them.

Mol was born on March 9th, 1938, in Uccle, a suburb of Brussels, Belgium. In September 1942, Ephraim’s parents attempted to escape Nazi-occupied Belgium via Besançon, France.

They planned to reach Switzerland in other to receive assylum, but were arrested en route by the German Gestapo.

Ephraim and his parents were separated – Ephraim was sent to a monastery at Besançon, where he was looked to, along with other Jewish children, by nuns; whereas his parents were taken to the Drancy transit camp and from there deported to Auschwitz.

Ephraim was later adopted by the Weil couple, French Jews. As deportations of Jews in Paris intensified in 1942, Lucie Cartier hid the adoptive family in her house, and located a hiding place for Ephraim in an apartment in the suburbs of Paris, where she tended to him until liberation in the summer of 1944.

After liberation, Ephraim completed his studies and enlisted to the French standing army, taking part in the Algerian War.

Following his discharge, he immigrated to Israel, settling in the Sde Eliyahu kibbutz. He later married Rachel and the two have children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

“I hope my grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be proud of their grandfather and great-grandfather,” Mol told COL.org.il ahead of the ceremony.

VIDEO: Like A Door Opening to the World: The Story of Ephraim Mol