How a family tree brought one lone soldier to Israel and the IDF
‘I will risk my life to protect those people who couldn’t be protected 80 years ago.’
By ALAN ROSENBAUMDANIEL SIMON, who made aliyah from Spain, is planning to attend IDC Herzliya when he completes his IDF service(photo credit: Courtesy)
A family tree that dates back 500 years. A meeting with a long-lost relative on a stopover between flights in Frankfurt, Germany. A legendary hero who gave up his place on the last ship to Palestine before World War II in order to save Jews in Europe. It’s a story that wends its way from Germany to Holland, to Madrid, and ends up in Israel, with a lone soldier being ‘adopted’ by the nephew of the hero who saved Jewish youth.“If I tell you, you won’t believe it,” says Arie Windmuller, of Moshav Borgata, located in the eastern Hefer Valley in the Sharon Plain. Windmuller, a native Israeli, has a family tree dating back to 1480. According to the tree, his great-great-grandfather on his father’s side had a twin brother. Several years ago, while visiting family in Seattle, Arie was contacted by a cousin from Germany who was the descendant of his great-great-grandfather’s twin. On their return trip to Israel, Arie and his wife arranged to stop in Frankfurt, and met his cousin, Daniela Neumann, who held a picture of a windmill, the family symbol, as they disembarked, in order to identify herself.A year later, Windmuller continues, another distant cousin – the brother of his cousin from Germany, entered his life. Claudio Simon from Madrid, Spain, together with his wife and then 16-year-old son Daniel, visited Israel during Hanukkah. “My wife’s family,” says Windmuller, “has a tradition to light the Hanukkah lights together with all of their cousins. He decided to bring his Spanish relatives to the candle-lighting ceremony. At the ceremony, Daniel, who was then a high school senior, asked him questions about Israel, but Arie thought little of it. A year later, in 2017, Claudio wrote to Arie, informing him that Daniel had decided to make Aliyah.“The Jewish community in Spain is very small,” says Claudio Simon, speaking from Madrid, “I am not orthodox at all. I am not even involved in the community.” In the summer of 2017, Daniel who had graduated from high school, informed his parents that he was going to move to Israel, rather than attend university in Spain. Claudio was quite surprised, though Daniel had always been interested in the family’s roots and the family’s history. “My father and grandfather were not Zionists,” says Claudio. “I didn’t expect it.”Daniel Simon explains why he wanted to make Aliyah. “I always talked to my father about the story of our family, and how many died in the Holocaust.” Daniel’s grandparents came from a highly assimilated German Jewish family. In fact, says Daniel, his grandfather wasn’t even aware that he was Jewish, and, he explains, the last one in the family to observe a Bar Mitzvah was his great-grandfather. In 1936, Daniel’s great-grandfather, who was a businessman, “saw what was coming”, and moved, together with his family, to Portugal, which was a neutral country for most of the war. As a result, Daniel’s grandfather, and his father grew up in Portugal. Later, Daniel’s father moved to Madrid.“I wanted to do something for what happened to my family,” says Daniel. “I know that I can’t do anything to make up for it, but I know I could do something for today.” Daniel did not want to remain in Europe and says that more and more Jews from Europe are moving to Israel. He decided to move to Israel, and join the IDF, because, he says, “I am going to go, I will risk my life to protect those people who couldn’t be protected eighty years ago.” At the age of 18, Daniel made Aliyah on his own, with the assistance of the Jewish Agency.Arie Windmuller picks up the thread of the story and continues. After Claudio informed him that Daniel was making Aliyah, Arie and his wife Shosh did all they could to help. They met him at the airport when he came. Shortly after arriving, Daniel went to Kibbutz Naan, which is near Rehovot, and studied Hebrew at the kibbutz Ulpan for five months. It was there that he befriended two fellow olim, Suzana Camerini from Florence, Italy, and an American oleh. The trio moved to Ramat Gan for two years, where Daniel attended a pre-army program and improved his Hebrew in two additional Ulpan programs. He then joined the IDF’s paratrooper unit. Suzana and his American friend from the kibbutz ulpan had also joined the IDF.Being a lone soldier, he says, has both positive and negative aspects. While he does receive assistance from the IDF, not having parents and family around can make things difficult. “We get a lot of help from Nefesh B’Nefesh,” he says. He attended a Nefesh B’Nefesh seminar for lone soldiers, and they have given him a lot of good advice, he adds.“We are constantly looking for ways to give back to the special men and women who are making Aliyah from around the world, and are now protecting the Jewish homeland,” said Noya Govrin, Director at the FIDF - Nefesh B’Nefesh Lone Soldiers Program. “Through our programming and support, we aim to allow the soldiers to focus on their essential tasks of protecting and serving our country without having to worry about time-consuming, personal matters during their army service.”
Arie and Shosh “adopted’” the three young lone soldiers who had no family in Israel.
“It was a package deal,” he jokes. “We had them over many times and invited them for Seder and other holidays.”The entire atmosphere on the moshav was new to them, and Arie and Shosh, together with their children, who had already completed their IDF service, helped them integrate into Israeli society and start their new lives. As their ‘family’ in Israel, they attended all of their IDF ceremonies to mark completion of their military training, and even broadcast the ceremonies to their real relatives overseas.“We tried to be his ‘parents,’ as much as we could,” says Arie. Daniel adds, “It’s is nice to have my cousins here for Rosh Hashanah, Pesach, and Hanukkah. It’s a better way to enter the culture and feel more a part of it.” These days, the three lone soldiers, with their different schedules, rarely have time to be together at Arie and Shosh’s home. Nevertheless, they try to see them regularly, and stay in contact as much as possible.ARIE’S DEDICATION to the trio of lone soldiers is no coincidence. His uncle was Max Windmuller, a hero of the Jewish Dutch resistance. Windmuller, who was born in Emden, Germany, in 1920, moved to Holland with his parents and sibling, in 1933, after Hitler came to power. In August of 1939, Windmuller, together with two of his brothers, was on board the Dora,the last ship that sailed for Palestine from Amsterdam before the outbreak of World War II. Shortly before the ship left port,a Dutch Zionist leader begged Max to remain in Holland to help coordinate rescue activities for Jewish youth. Max heeded the plea, got off the boat, and remained in Holland. He joined the Westerweel Group which was dedicated to organizing hiding places and identity documents for Jewish refugees in the Netherlands. Max smuggled Jewish youngsters from Austria and Germany through occupied Holland via Belgium and France through the Pyranees, to neutral Spain. Many of those who were saved ended up in Israel. Max personally saved over 100 youths, and the Westerweel Group saved almost 400 Jews. In 1944, he was captured by the Germans, and died shortly before the end of the war on a death march. “Honestly,” says Arie Windmuller, “Max is the role model for my entire life.”Arie says that it wasn’t easy for Claudio and his family to accept the fact that their son moved to Israel, became a citizen, and is serving in the IDF. Nevertheless, says Claudio, he and his wife are proud of what their son has accomplished. Claudio speaks to him several times a week, and is relieved that he is not in Spain, where more than 20,000 people have died from the coronavirus.Daniel is planning on attending IDC Herzliya when he completes his IDF service, and he wants to study counterterrorism and homeland security in the school’s government studies program. A seemingly unrelated turn of events – united long-lost family members from Germany, Spain, and Israel. “I’m the first one in the family who had this crazy idea,” says Daniel. “I am happy with it.”The Nefesh B’Nefesh Lone Soldiers Program, in partnership with the FIDF, provides support and assistance to lone soldiers from across the world. The program acts as the address for every lone soldier in Israel before, during, and after their service in the IDF, providing resources, support and guidance for a successful service and acclimation to life in Israel.There are currently over 3,000 lone soldier Olim serving in a range of positions throughout the army. For these soldiers, it is a time that is often accompanied by the challenges of acclimating to military service and an independent lifestyle in Israel, although it is most certainly an empowering experience.All of the services provided by the FIDF- Nefesh B’Nefesh Lone Soldiers Program are complementary to the IDF’s care of these soldiers. More information on the program can be found at: www.nbn.org.il/lone-soldiers-programThis article was written in cooperation with Nefesh B’Nefesh and its partners FIDF, Keren Kayemeth Le’Israel, the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, The Jewish Agency and JNF-USA.
