Holocaust Survivor Testimony: Izi Kabilio

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2 ай бұрын

Izi Kabilio will be one of six survivors lighting torches at the State Ceremony opening Holocaust Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem.
Izi (Itzhak) Kabilio was born in 1928 in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia (today Bosnia and Herzegovina), the only child of Leon and Netta. Leon owned a factory that employed 250 workers. In January 1941, months before the German occupation, Izi was scheduled to leave for Eretz Israel (Mandatory Palestine) but was pressured by his family to cancel his plans.
The Germans occupied Yugoslavia and nationalized Leon’s factory. One of Leon’s employees, the German Josip Eberhardt, was on friendly terms with him. Eberhardt was recruited by the Gestapo but maintained his friendship with Leon.
In September 1941 the Ustaša deported Izi’s grandparents to the Jasenovac camp, where they were murdered. Eberhardt took Leon, Netta and Izi in, hiding them in the cellar. He obtained forged papers for them and smuggled them into the city of Mostar. Continuously on the move, the Kabilios escaped to Split, but they were eventually caught, and in March 1942 they were sent to a concentration camp on Rab Island.
In September 1943, anti-Nazi partisans raided the island and ferried the Jews by boat to dry land. Izi and his parents reached the vicinity of Croatia and went up into the mountains, where they lived with the partisans.
At the war’s end, Izi and his parents returned to Sarajevo. The Kabilios immigrated to Israel in 1948. Izi enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces and fought in a combat unit.
Izi eventually became an architect. For many years, he was actively involved in immigration to Israel, absorption and Holocaust commemoration, serving as chairman of the Association of Survivors from Yugoslavia in Israel, and telling his story to a variety of audiences at Yad Vashem.
Izi and his wife Odeda have two daughters, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
For more details: www.yadvashem.org/remembrance...

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@peterlombard2292 2 ай бұрын

I never cease to be humbled, amazed and grateful for the courage and fortitude of those who suffered so greatly yet revisit the pain so that we and future generations can learn from their experiences. While I myself am not Jewish, it is truly pleasing to see the large families of those people whose lives were targeted simply because of the god they pray to. The large family pictures serve as hope in these dire times.