At March of the Living on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust survivors and relatives of Oct. 7 victims stress urgency of remembrance

[Behind the Aegis]

Bellha Haim, who was born in 1938 and fled the Nazis with her family, swore she would never step foot again in Poland.

Then, on Oct. 7, Hamas invaded Israel, perpetrating the bloodiest day for Jews since the Holocaust — and bringing another tragedy to Haim’s family: Yotam, her grandson, was taken hostage by the terror group. He escaped with friends, only to be killed by Israeli soldiers in a case of mistaken identity in December.

“I can’t believe I’m here. I’m shaking,” Haim told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency outside a barrack in the death camp. She said she believed the Holocaust would never repeat itself.

“But then it did,” she said, referring to the Hamas attack, in which roughly 1,200 people were murdered and 250 taken hostage, including Yotam.

“My walking here today is revenge against all the evil in the world,” she said. “The time has come.”

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