A Letter to My Daughter Kim before she embarks on the March of The Living…
Dearest Kim,
The March of the Living is an extraordinary, unforgettable experience. With thousands of Jewish people, from countries all around the world, you will share in a once in a lifetime experience when they march three kilometers from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the largest concentration camp complex built by the Nazis during World War II. The March commemorates Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. You with be there – along with over 8,000 participants who will be part of this historic event.
As one of the Marchers, you will retrace the steps of the March of Death, the actual route which countless numbers of our people were forced to take on their way to the gas chambers at Birkenau. You will experience Jewish history where it was made. This time, however, there will be a difference. It will be a March of the Living with thousands of Jewish youth, like yourself, marching shoulder to shoulder. You will take part in a memorial service at one of the gas chambers/crematoria, in Birkenau, which will close with the singing of Hatikvah, reaffirming Am Yisrael Chai – The Jewish People Live.
Kaddish is a Jewish Prayer to Remember the Dead and normally said by Men. In the absence of a Male Member of the Family ( there are only your brother Jonathan and I left) when you place the Three Jerusalem Stones with the Names of Three Branches of your Family that were Murdered in the Holocaust say Kaddish out Loud . Say Kaddish for the Drues of Kraków and your Great Aunt Hadasaeah that died in Belzec extermination camp and all the other Drues cousins of Kraków that died in Belzec,Treblinska and Auschwitz .Over 280 Drues s of Kraków relations died. There are no known survivors.. Say Kaddish for the Drues of Majzugola near Vilna who died in the Vaivara and Auschwitz Camp if they were not murdered first in the Forest of Paneriai .There are no known survivors . Say Kaddish for the Shabelshok/Fialkov Families of Riga who were murdered between 30th November and 8th December in the Rumbula Forest near Riga with 25,000 thousand other Jews from Latvia. Say Kaddish for the sisters and brothers of your Great Grandmother Freda Shabelstok Baker who died in the Forrest of Rumbula . Say Kaddish for Sarah , Robert, Michael, David , Gregor , Rachel , Lazer, Leah and Fredrich , Freda and Rosa Shabelstok’s older sisters and brothers and all their children and even grandchildren Not one survived. Over 350 members of the Shabelstok / Fialkov Families died in the misty Forest of Rumbula with other Latvian Jews mainly from Riga and surrounding areas. Say Kaddish for all the Shabelstok/Fialkov/Drues cousins and relations …there must have been hundreds and hundreds, , if not thousands and thousands, in the extended Shabelstok / Fialkov families .Four Shabeltok Siblings married four Fialkov Siblings. None are no known survivors.
Say Kaddish in Tears and then Scream … “We Survived and Are Here Now Again -Never Ever Again” , אנחנו שרדנו ואנחנו כאן עכשיו – לעולם לא עוד יהיה שם שואה חוזרת
Those that Survived The Holocaust but did not experience it first hand:-
Shabelskok: Freda and her younger Rosa . Freda was in Uitenhague ,South Africa married to Chaim Baker and Rosa, her younger sister in Norway taken there by the Danish Resistance with most of the Danish Jews.They were the youngest of 11 siblings . All the siblings were married with kids .all the siblings and their families were murdered in the Forest of Rumbuka
Fialkov: Twin Brothers Manny ( Mordechai) and Jay ( Josef) in Cape Town,South Africa . They were the youngest of 10 siblings . None of their siblings or their families survived the Holocaust..
Drues: Samuel ( your great grandfather) and Naomi in Cape Town, South Africa and William in Chicago, USA survived the Holocaust.. The children of Hadaseah who died in Belzec, joined Shomer Hazair,immigrated to Israel in 1932 and survived in Israel . They were Freda and Hashya who married the Kurman Brothers , Max , who was wounded twice in Palmach operations and Chaim who was a teacher for 43 years before retiring.
Mourn and then Celebrate the Shabelstok/ Fialkov / Drues Survival when you March from Birkenau to Auschwitz… you are their Symbol of Survival .
Love You To Bits
xxx
Dad
On the Origin of our surname
Stephen Darori ( Drori)
Before I Hebrewized my surname on the 6th September 1986 I was Stephen Ellis Drus…the son of Fay Baker Drus and Morrie Drus z’l
Fay Baker Drus was the daughter of Freda Shabelstol Baker and Hymie ( Chaim Baker) one of the 3 founders of Betar in South Africa in 1931 and Jabotinskyt stayed at him when he visited the Eastern Cape, South Africa in the same year.
Morrie ( Morris ) Drus is the son of Samuel Drues and Sarah Kaplan Drues. . They were married in Poland and then in 1921 immigrated to Cape Town , South Africa. Drues became Drus.
The logic of the Hebrewaization of Drus ro Darori. Drus דרוס pronounced Darus is the Gerund of “Ledareis”.לדרס..” to be trodden on to be run over”…. could not live with that when I came on Aliyah from Cape town, South Africa and a letter change דרוס -> דרור which became דרורי the Biblical word for a Sparrow. Cage a Sparrow and it will die wrote Acad Ha’am so Eliezer Ben Yehuda, the reviver of the Hebrew Language in his New Hebrew dictionary gave Drori a new metaphorical meaning of “Freedom and Liberty”. The “a’ was added for Branding Purposes . Darori ( Drori) is very approproiate… Kim , your great Aunt Professor Ethel Drus led the committee of 12 ( 9 Jews and Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Z.K. Mathews ) who drafted the Freedom Charter , the most important document of the African National Congress. Both your Grandparents and I were very active in the Progressive Party of Helen Susman and Harry Oppenheimer which has evolved into the Democratic Alliance, the Liberal Opposition to the ANC,
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumbula_massacre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp
http://www.jewishgen.org/forgottencamps/camps/auschwitzeng.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treblinka_extermination_camp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belzec_extermination_camp
Stephen Darori on Zionism 
14 COMMENTS
אוריאל
January 8, 2014 at 7:45 pm
This is scary. What cant the Israel supports do something? How can we do nothing?
Ilana
January 8, 2014 at 8:01 pm
Very sad to see this and am not sure if there is a way to stop it. might got too far
שרון תא
January 8, 2014 at 8:03 pm
Just wondering what the Israeli government have to say about it
Ari N
January 8, 2014 at 8:35 pm
תעירו אותי כשממשלת ישראל תתעורר
froyerush
January 9, 2014 at 4:29 pm
the nations are now conspiring to legitimize what the Nazi did, i.e. dehumanize the Jews in order to annihilate them..by turning the Nazi label onto the Jews and Israel, these nations above are almost completing the task of dehumanizing and preparing for genocide of the Jews. Europe and USA are in the mix of this de-civilization..what an indictment to the whole humanity..people all over the world, use your God-given thinking faculties..study history yourself thoroughly , and look into why you’re joining this highly emotive hate-bandwagon instead of letting yourself be brainwashed by the descendants of the real Nazi.. ideology..
Hachem
January 9, 2014 at 5:22 pm
All this people can go like tourists in beaches or in Hotel’s Clubs to swim with Arabic.
kåre rolland
January 9, 2014 at 7:03 pm
the demon(stants) must be shamed, they have no historical connection to judea samaria or Jerusalem,they bild a fals story and liars cause they cant prove where they belong,go back to Jordan and other arabisk country and ceep your mouth shut, they cant belive a word of what they are telling the world, that cause you cant prove thing.no documentasion just false history.
SHAWNDA DUPREE
January 9, 2014 at 9:40 pm
UMMM, I do not get it…Israel is bad why?? All the photos and videos I have just seen is hate coming from the opposite side…where are these “HATEFUL ISRAELIS”????
Uzi Abrahams
January 10, 2014 at 3:24 pm
Our main problem is the silent of the western world who don’t understand that kind of problem ! It’s about time to wake up !
Arabe Muslim lies about Israel continue to fly around the world, instead of supporting Israel , the western world boycote Israel and became so anti Israel !
What Israel has contributed to the world until now, the Muslim Arab world didn’t.
Think about it !
Let’s fight for the truth and not for that Arab world lies !
Israel will exist and for ever in that mad region we call, the Middle East !
The Palestinian can go back to them countries they came from to that region.
We means the Arab Muslim countries.
Luke
January 17, 2014 at 11:30 am
It’s like Nazi Germany all over again. The left propagating hatred and lies about Israel. G_D bless Israel and long may Israel shine.
Pat
January 18, 2014 at 11:43 pm
We,as Christians, are commanded to pray for the peace of Israel. Our Lord Jesus was born in Israel by a virgin Jewish mother, Mary. God is always in control. He made the world and everything in it. Jesus will return to Israel,not as a sacrifice for our sins, but as our Leader and Commander and easily destroy all of satan’s armies. I Love Israel and it’s people because God picked this tiny nation to fulfill all His promises of the Messiah, Jesus. God Bless Israel, amen
CMav
January 22, 2014 at 3:49 pm
“Some minds are like soup in a poor restaurant—better left unstirred.”
― P.G. Wodehouse
It’s unlikely that any of the idiots shown above can even find Israel on a map. Frankly, it’s a pleasant reminder that, while anti-Semitism is still flourishing like never before in Jew-hating Europe, its practitioners still possess the intelligence of a dust mite. And the ONLY known antidote is ISRAEL. Am Yisrael CHAI!!
Sharon Klaff
January 22, 2014 at 4:16 pm
Yes, the Israeli government needs to act. We in the diaspora have bben on the streets trying to combat this, but it’s really huge. At last Naftali is saying a little something, but this is WWlll with Islam using terror with expert PR campaigning. Israel needs to up its PR – get a prestigious agency and start sending us who go on the streets pamphlets and posters, flags and messages. It needs to have ambassadors doing the universities and schools, government offices and churches its time to tell it as it is. Diplomacy time has run out.
Raynav
January 23, 2014 at 11:28 am
We are all from this planet. All people (creed, race, etc.) are entitled to a land because we are all born here. Its not like one race or creed came later on from outer space. Scientists say our ancestors came from Africa, multiplied and branched out from there. Stop the hatred and fighting..