Holocaust Survivor Dies Weeks After Great-Grandson Killed in Gaza

Magda Baratz, a 96-year-old Holocaust survivor who endured Auschwitz, the death march, and imprisonment at Bergen-Belsen, died just two weeks after her great-grandson, Master Sergeant (res.) Asaf Cafri, was killed in combat in Gaza. Baratz had traveled to Germany with her family to attend a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Bergen-Belsen, where she was honored as a survivor, and the family only learned of Cafri’s death upon returning to Israel. Cafri, a tank driver in the IDF's 14th Armored Brigade, was fatally shot by a Hamas sniper during operations in Beit Hanoun, with three other soldiers wounded in the attack. Baratz’s son described her visit to the camp as a form of closure and a personal victory, with Magda sharing her survival stories and speaking in German during the ceremony. The loss of her great-grandson deeply affected her, and she is survived by three children, 10 grandchildren, and 17 great-grandchildren. Her life symbolized resilience, having survived the Holocaust and later raising a family in Israel, while her great-grandson’s death on Holocaust Remembrance Day underscored the continuing legacy of sacrifice for the Jewish people.