IDF, US Navy surprise Shoah survivor as independence, Dachau liberation coincide

Today is Yom HaAtzmaut – Israel’s Independence Day. Please click on the article below to watch a heartwarming 3 minute video, in which the Israel Defense Forces and US Navy bands surprised an Israeli Holocaust survivor in a first ever joint social media project. To mark both Israel’s 72nd Independence Day and the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp, the joint band played Israel’s national anthem, Hatikva, for a survivor of Dachau.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, center, his wife Karen, second from left, and his daughter Charlotte, left, are led by Holocaust survivor Abba Naor, right, as they visit the former Nazi concentration camp in Dachau near Munich, southern Germany, February 19, 2017 (Sven Hoppe/pool photo via AP)

The Israel Defense Forces and US Navy bands surprised an Israeli Holocaust survivor this week to mark both Israel’s 72nd Independence Day and the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp, playing for him a rendition of Israel’s national anthem, Hatikva.

Abba Naor, 92, had believed he was only going to tell the American and Israeli soldiers about his experiences in Dachau during the Holocaust. But when he logged on to the Zoom videoconferencing application from his home in Rehovot to speak to them, the troops took out their instruments and — from dozens of locations — played Hatikva, as Naor stood at attention and saluted.

“It was a big surprise for me,” he said. Read more…

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