When I spoke to Aliza, she found it difficult to hide her great excitement. Aliza Lax. She lives in Jerusalem and participated in the Bat Mitzvah ceremony for survivors that was once again held at the initiative of Yad Sarah and the Western Wall Heritage Foundation. She tells me: "It was an amazing ceremony, and after it was done, I went to the manager of the staff at Yad Sarah who accompanies the survivors, Edna Hishrick, to thank her." I remember from the days of the Holocaust one night when the children and mothers were separated from the men and loaded onto an overcrowded cattle train on the way to the Ural mountains. My childhood passed in the shadow of horror and freezing winter. The men were sent to work in the woods. My father died of starvation and disease. When we returned to Poland, it was a different country than we knew. We returned to nothing. We had nothing. Until I arrived in Israel in 1950. I joined the army. I attended nursing school. I worked in a hospital. I was married. We built a life here. Now comes this exciting initiative to celebrate our Bar/Bat Mitzvah at the Western Wall. This is a moment of pure joy for me at the Western Wall. I want to give thanks that I survived. The ceremony was so moving. Who thought then, as a child, under those circumstances, about a Bat Mitzvah. The challenge was to survive. To survive until the next piece of bread. My son accompanied me on this adventure. As we drove, we heard an informative historical lecture. At the Western Wall, we had a guided tour and saw a short film. We prayed and lit candles. Then back to the Western Wall plaza - to our party. With music and singing. "I felt the giving and I am blessed to be here."

#_lt#div style="text-align#_sc# justify;" dir="ltr"#_gt#  #_lt#p#_gt#When I spoke to Aliza, she found it difficult to hide her great excitement. Aliza Lax. She lives in Jerusalem and participated in the Bat Mitzvah ceremony for survivors that was once again held at the initiative of Yad Sarah and the Western Wall Heritage Foundation.#_lt#/p#_gt# #_lt#p#_gt#She tells me#_sc# "It was an amazing ceremony, and after it was done, I went to the manager of the staff at Yad Sarah who accompanies the survivors, Edna Hishrick, to thank her."#_lt#/p#_gt# #_lt#p#_gt#I remember from the days of the Holocaust one night when the children and mothers were separated from the men and loaded onto an overcrowded cattle train on the way to the Ural mountains.#_lt#/p#_gt# #_lt#p#_gt#My childhood passed in the shadow of horror and freezing winter. The men were sent to work in the woods. My father died of starvation and disease. When we returned to Poland, it was a different country than we knew. We returned to nothing. We had nothing. Until I arrived in Israel in 1950.#_lt#/p#_gt# #_lt#p#_gt#I joined the army. I attended nursing school. I worked in a hospital. I was married. We built a life here. Now comes this exciting initiative to celebrate our Bar/Bat Mitzvah at the Western Wall.#_lt#/p#_gt# #_lt#p#_gt#This is a moment of pure joy for me at the Western Wall. I want to give thanks that I survived. The ceremony was so moving. Who thought then, as a child, under those circumstances, about a Bat Mitzvah. The challenge was to survive. To survive until the next piece of bread.#_lt#/p#_gt# #_lt#p#_gt#My son accompanied me on this adventure. As we drove, we heard an informative historical lecture. At the Western Wall, we had a guided tour and saw a short film. We prayed and lit candles. Then back to the Western Wall plaza - to our party. With music and singing.#_lt#/p#_gt# #_lt#p style="text-align#_sc# justify;"#_gt#"I felt the giving and I am blessed to be here."#_lt#/p#_gt# #_lt#/div#_gt#