While Rudy is starting to build his life in Palestine, his parents live in Germany under the Nazi regime.
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| Raphael and Ida, Rudy's parents, in 1931 |
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| Arthur, Ida's brother, 1937 in Frankfurt |
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| 28 year old Rudy visits his parents in 1939 |
They didn't make it.
On Sept, 15, 1942 the Nazis deported Raphael and Ida to the Theresienstadt Ghetto in Terezin, German-occupied Czechoslovakia. Teresiendtad was a way station to Auschwitz and other extermination camps. Raphael sent a telegram to Rudy through the red cross, just a few days prior- "On September 15 we will travel with Arthur (Ida's brother) to Theresienstadt. Will give notice as soon as possible. Hopefully also yours".
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| Telegram sent from Raphael via the red cross to Rudy's parents in law |
Two months after reaching Terezin, Arthur, Ida's brother, died in the ghetto.
Ida and Raphael survived there for a few more months but Ida got sick and eventually died on April 9, 1943. Raphael died (probably) four months later.
In 1955, Rudy gave testimonies in Yad Vashem on their deaths. Not clear exactly whether Raphael died of a disease or took his own life.
It's worth mentioned that there is one contradicting testimony as to Raphael's fate. According to a Terezin survivor, Raphael was sent to Auschwitz and got murdered there. However, based on the memorial book "Victims of the Persecution of Jews under the National Socialist Tyranny in Germany 1933 - 1945" prepared by the German Federal Archives, it seems as Rudy's testimony about his father death in Terezin is more accurate.
As for Rudy's brother, Kurt- in the late 30s he got married and moved to Lyon, France. His fate was no better than Rudy's parents and most of the Jews that stayed in Europe. In 1944 he was deported from Drancy to Auschwitz and was murdered there.
More than 160,000 German Jews (70% of the original Jewish community there) were murdered in the Holocaust.
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