'Schindler's List' survivor celebrated Bar Mitzvah at age 84

Arye Sadeh, 84-year-old Holocaust survivor, celebrated earlier this week his Bar Mitzvah ceremony - 71 years after the original date. "I'm glad I can celebrate my Bar Mitzvah and at the same opportunity thank Oscar Schindler who saved my life," he said.

The Bar Mitzvah ceremony was organized by his family, along with a team of the Achuzat Beit Hakerem in Jerusalem, where he lives in an assisted living residence. Only on Sunday morning his wife and daughters surprised Sadeh, and told him about the event. Many family members and friends accompanied him to the synagogue on the estate, where he had an Aliya La'Torah and even candy was thrown at him.

Sadeh delivered a short Bar Mitzva drosha: "I'm very happy to have the possibility to thank Schindler, who was actually a single righteous man. He founded Brinlitz camp, and with his money he brought all the Jews to it."

Aryeh Ssdeh, whose original name is Leib Bitersfeld, was placed into the Krakow ghetto in Poland three days before his Bar Mitzvah. His mother was very ill at the time. After his mother died, he was sent to the Jewish orphanage in Krakow, from which he managed to escape, after he found out about the Aktion which the Nazis planned for the children.

After his escape he stayed with a Jewish woman who lived in the Krakow ghetto until its liquidation, and from there he was sent to the Plaszow camp. Shortly before eliminating the labor camp, he was attached to 'Schindler List' and went to the labor camp of Schindler in Brinlitz. He lived there until his release.

For many years he kept the secret and did not tell that he has never had a Bar Mitzvah. Only during his last hospitalization, he revealed it. "We assured him that we will celebrate it," said one of Sadeh's daughters.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!