Ninetta Matsa Feldman lost an estimated 126 family members to Auschwitz. The Grecian-born Holocaust survivor shared her story in the Congressional Gold Room on Jan. 23 in honor of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Feldman, 86, was among the Holocaust survivors and their descendants who shared their stories around the DMV this week.
The speaking opportunity was organized by Sephardic Heritage International DC to commemorate Holocaust victims, honor survivors and take a stand against prejudice and hatred, including antisemitism.
Feldman is a member of SHIN-DC and has attended the annual Congressional Holocaust Commemoration every year since its inception seven years ago. Afraim Katzir, the founding director of SHIN-DC, said the two have known each other for years.
“I knew she was a Holocaust survivor, but I didn’t know the details of her story until later because she hadn’t spoken before,” Katzir said of Feldman.
At the standing-room-only venue filled with Congress members, ambassadors and community members, Feldman told her story of taking shelter in the ancient city walls during air raids and surviving in the mountains of Greece as the Nazis approached.
“She spoke about the Jews of Greece, the Romaniotes and the Sephardic populations there,” Katzir said. “She also spoke of the great losses in Greece during the Holocaust and told her family’s story about how they hid in the mountains.”
Katzir noted the importance of hearing from all Holocaust survivors, especially today.
“Eighty years later means there are fewer survivors who are alive, and with each subsequent anniversary, the number of survivors dwindles,” Katzir said. “We’re particularly fortunate to have [Feldman] share her testimony this year.”
He added that Feldman’s identity as a Jewish person in Greece makes her story even more significant, as most people don’t realize the impact of the Holocaust outside Germany and Eastern Europe.
“Many people are not as familiar, or don’t know about the Sephardic and Romaniote experiences of the Holocaust,” Katzir said. “I think it’s very important to hear every single narrative because otherwise we don’t realize the full scope of the Holocaust — that it wasn’t just in one place.”
More than 67,000 Greek Jews were killed in the Holocaust, which made up about 87 percent of Greece’s Jewish population, according to the Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum. Katzir said this is one of the deadliest proportions in Europe.
Hearing diverse perspectives such as Feldman’s offers a broader sense of the Holocaust that “brings this [tragedy] closer to home for us,” Katzir said. He also said it’s important to recognize the lasting impacts of the Holocaust in Greece.
“Today in Greece, we have a much, much smaller community that is working to rebuild, and they’re still working,” Katzir said. “They still face challenges to continue building their community because of the Holocaust 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz.”
Telling Holocaust stories firsthand allows us not only to support the communities that are still struggling but also preserve the victims’ memories, which leads to healing and an increased awareness around combating antisemitism.
Katzir said Feldman is a “very eloquent” speaker whose story struck the audience.
“At one point, she spoke about the losses of her family, she became emotional — there’s a moment where she had to pause because that was so painful … and I think that this was particularly moving for the audience,” Katzir said. “When she spoke, everyone rose to their feet and applauded.”
He added that the reason he plans these Holocaust commemoration events at Congress is to relay the importance of Holocaust survivors’ stories.
Adam Zimmerman, a third-generation Holocaust survivor, said his grandparents had declined speaking opportunities at museums and with filmmakers and authors during their lifetimes.
“I think they had a feeling of, ‘What can I possibly share that someone else hasn’t already?’” Zimmerman said.
The Rockville resident, a published author and speaker, will share his grandparents’ story at Washington Hebrew Congregation’s Jan. 27 International Holocaust Remembrance Day event in partnership with 3GDC, an organization for third-generation Holocaust survivors.
Zimmerman regularly shares his family’s story at local schools to raise awareness of their Holocaust experience since his grandparents hadn’t spoken publicly about their lives.
“For me, it’s a way to honor my grandparents’ story,” Zimmerman said. “I owe my life to them and their example: the fact that they lost so much, came to the United States with no money, didn’t speak English, the vast majority of their respective families having been killed, and were able to somehow through the wreckage of all of that rebuild a life, start a family and eventually own their own dry cleaning business and have a son.”
Zimmerman’s grandfather, Morris Zimmerman, was the sole survivor of the Zimmerman family. Because of his survival in 1945, there are now 15 Zimmermans to succeed him — Adam Zimmerman and his two brothers have a total of seven children.
“They were the best of humanity coming out of the worst of humanity,” he said. “Even though [the Holocaust] was a very long time ago in a very faraway place, there are still so many lessons for the Jewish and non-Jewish communities alike in our area and across the country to lift up their examples.”
Although Zimmerman finds meaning in telling his grandparents’ Holocaust survival story, he said he hopes to also portray them as human beings: “I want people to understand who my grandparents were as people. The Holocaust was no doubt a focal point of their lives, but it didn’t fully define them.”
“It’s so important to transmit these memories on to the next generation,” Katzir said. “In order for ‘never forget’ to be a reality, you have to pass on these memories.”
