From the archives: Holocaust survivor and dedicated Melbourne Holocaust Museum volunteer Phillip Maisel died on Tuesday, eight days after celebrating his 100th birthday with twin sister Bella Hirshorn. Good Weekend has republished this article, which tells the story of how Phillip lost Bella during the war, and how they found each other again by sheer chance.
Phillip Maisel and his sister twin sister Bella Hirshorn were born in 1922 in Vilnius and survived the war incarcerated in different camps. Phillip became a member of the partisan group, Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye. Phillip was a good friend of Hirsh Glik who wrote the poem Zog Nit Keynmol (The Partisans’ Song). During this time, the…
Holocaust survivor Phillip Maisel shares his story after recording testimonies at Melbourne s Jewish Holocaust Centre for three decades watoday.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from watoday.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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In the spring of 1944, Phillip Maisel had reached the lowest ebb of his life. Held captive in an Estonian labour camp, the 21-year-old Polish-born Jew and his fellow inmates were forced, every Sunday, to haul a pile of rocks from one end of an icy field to the other, back and forth, over and over again. It was back-breaking work, made even more miserable by their gnawing hunger and perilously weak physical states. The task had no practical purpose, since the workshops and shale-oil mines were all closed on this supposed day of rest, but their Nazi overseers had a unique talent for inflicting misery: this exercise in futility had been expressly designed to shatter the men’s spirits.