Israel’s Oldest Holocaust Survivor Dies at 107

Yehuda Aharon Widawski, a Holocaust survivor who endured the Łódź Ghetto and Auschwitz before dedicating much of his later life to preserving Jewish history, has died at the age of 107.

Widawski was believed to be Israel’s oldest living Holocaust survivor. His remarkable life stretched from the horrors of Nazi-occupied Poland to the establishment of a new life in Israel — and ultimately to a decades-long mission to make sure those who were lost would not be forgotten.

SURVIVING THE HOLOCAUST

Widawski was born in Poland in 1919 and grew up in Turek before his family later moved to Łódź.

Following the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, Widawski and his family were eventually forced into the Łódź Ghetto.

When the ghetto was liquidated, the family was deported to Auschwitz.

Widawski survived, but most of his immediate family did not. His parents and several of his siblings were murdered during the Holocaust. Yehuda, his youngest brother and an uncle survived.

BUILDING A NEW LIFE

After World War II, Widawski began rebuilding a life that the Nazis had attempted to destroy.

He married Lea Dobrysz, returned to the textile business and eventually immigrated to Israel in 1950.

There he built a family and a new life in the Jewish state.

But decades later, Widawski would return to the country where so much had been taken from him.

A SEARCH THAT BECAME HIS LIFE’S WORK

In 1978, Widawski returned to Poland while searching for his grandmother’s grave.

That search grew into something much larger.

Over the following decades, Widawski worked to locate, identify and restore Jewish cemeteries and graves that had been neglected, damaged or destroyed.

His efforts helped identify more than 3,000 graves and preserve the memory of Jewish communities nearly wiped from the map during the Holocaust.

What began as a personal search for one family grave became a mission to preserve the history of thousands of others.

A LIFE THAT BECAME HIS ANSWER TO THE NAZIS

Widawski saw his survival, his family and the existence of Israel as an answer to those who had attempted to destroy the Jewish people.

Rather than allowing the Nazis to have the final word over his life, he spent decades rebuilding what he could and preserving the names and memories of those who could no longer speak for themselves.

In 2012, Widawski was honored by being chosen to light a torch during Israel’s state Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem.

A LEGACY OF REMEMBRANCE

Israeli President Isaac Herzog remembered Widawski following his death, recalling both his extraordinary life story and the mission that grew from his search for his grandmother’s grave.

Widawski’s story is one of survival, but it is also one of rebuilding.

He survived one of the darkest chapters in human history, built a family in Israel and then spent decades ensuring that thousands of Jewish men, women and children who came before him would not simply disappear from history.

Yehuda Aharon Widawski died at 107 years old, leaving behind not only generations of family, but thousands of restored graves and preserved memories that will continue telling the stories of those who were lost.

May his memory be a blessing.