My name is Itzik Yaakobi, son of Olga and Yaakov Elimelech, brother to Klari (all of blessed memory), survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau, number B.11057.

This is my story.

#HowItzikSurvived

📸 Yediot Achronot

I was born in Debrecen, Hungary to an ultra-Orthodox family.

Under my father Yaakov Elimelech's direction, I spent my childhood studying religious and Jewish texts.

My fondest memory is studying the weekly Torah Portion with my father.

📸 @MakorRishon

This is my father of blessed memory who perished in the #Holocaust.

#HowItzikSurvived

While many of my childhood memories have been obliterated by the trauma I experienced during the #Holocaust, I remember Yulia, our non-Jewish housekeeper who I was very found of and who would give me double portions of Gefilte fish.

📸 The synagogue in Debrecen

When I was 13, the Nazis came to power in Hungary & forcibly moved all Jews into ghettos.

The conditions were unbearable. There was little food.

The Nazis purposely fed us pork (forbidden by Jewish law). My mother made me eat it because we were starving. I vomited it up.