Banknote helps Holocaust survivor reunite with soldier who liberated her
“A start to a new life. Good luck and happiness,” the note read in English. "Assistant to Chaplain Schacter."
By ZACHARY KEYSERAUSCHWITZ(photo credit: REUTERS)
The great-grandson of Auschwitz survivor Lily Ebert, Dov Forman, 16, shared an interesting story about how the family's matriarch reunited with the soldier who liberated her.Forman said that his great-grandmother showed him an Allied military authorities' (Alliierte Militärbehörde) banknote inscribed with a hopeful message. A message that also helped her find the kind individual who gifted her the note and freed her from the Nazi death camp near the end of the Holocaust.“A start to a new life. Good luck and happiness,” the note read in English. "Assistant to Chaplain Schacter."To whom the note is referring to is an assistant to Chaplain Herschel Schacter.Schacter was an American Orthodox rabbi who seved as a chaplain in the Third Army's VIII Corps. Schacter also participated in the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp on April 11, 1945, where he aided survivors afterwards and led religious services. He is also credited for assisting in the relocation of survivors, one such survivor in particular being orphaned writer and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel.After the post became widespread, earning over 15,000 likes and 2,000 retweets, Forman received responses from around the world and found the unnamed soldier to be Private Hayman Shulman from New Jersey. Shulman passed away seven years ago. And further due to the success of the post, Lily and Dov had the opportunity to speak with the family of the deceased soldier to thank them for his kindness posthumously.Forman shared three images to his Twitter page. One of Ebert meeting up with the chaplain's assistant - who was still donned in his military attire at the time - portrayed in a black and white photo shortly after the liberation. The two others depicted images of the banknote she received from the soldier, with the hopeful English note inscribed along the border.
Yesterday my great Grandma (Lily Ebert - an Auschwitz survivor) showed me this bank note- given to her as a gift by a soldier who liberated her. Inscribed, it says “a start to a new life. Good luck and happiness”. Later on, she met up with those who freed her (third photo). pic.twitter.com/LAx2ZGFCnH
The Auschwitz Memorial shared Forman's post, further corroborating the story, where they stated that Ebert was deported at the age of 14 to Auschwitz from Bonyhad, Hungary in 1944.The memorial noted that she and her two sisters Renee and Piri were registered at the death camp, while her mother Nina, brother Bela and sister Berta were gassed. She was liberated at an ammunition factory near Leipzig, after being transferred from Auschwitz.
