Israel: rocket attacks, fighter jets and the grandma who changed us forever

Rocket attacks, fighter jets, teen soldiers with automatic weapons. A visit to Israel is rarely free of drama but when you get to meet someone as inspirational as 91-year-old grandma Berthe Badehi, it’s a life-changing experience.

6,000,000 souls. Every one of them had a name, a story, a reason to be alive.

Children, 1.5 million of them, slaughtered because we didn’t like the look of them, thought they were a threat to us, or believed unfounded conspiracies spread by the politics of hate, with even Christian churches complicit in the campaign of deceit.

Jews, they said, killed the Messiah and didn’t deserve to live normal lives.

Jews, they said, were a threat to our national interests, and were behind world banking plots to make us poorer. Brothers, mothers, sisters and cousins targeted because of their bloodline. Tiny hands and feet and big hearts decimated.

Berthe Badehi, as a young Jewish girl, never had a childhood.

At 91, she is still telling her story of survival from the Holocaust to ensure the world never forgets man’s inhumanity to man during one of our darkest periods just a few decades ago.

Speaking at Jerusalem’s heartbreaking Yad Vashem memorial, she smiles beautifully, lighting up a face which has seen too much horror.

She is especially pleased the ‘classroom’ is filled with Australians from the Sunshine Coast about to get a history lesson that will be ploughed in their hearts forever. One of her grandsons lived in Australia for two years and loved it.

Berthe Badehi meets up with Sunshine Coast man Steve Groom in Jerusalem after telling of surviving the Holocaust.

Another, she later tells us, died after taking a sniper’s bullet in the neck while trying to rescue Israeli solders caught up in a wave of uprisings in 2002 just north of where we sit. The ‘terrible pain’ of losing a grandson to the same hate that snuffed out the lives of her aunties in Auschwitz death camp in Poland is still raw.

1100 ROCKET ATTACKS IN A WEEK

‘My grandson, he fought for us,’ she says as she tells of living with war after war since moving to Israel in 1956.

In the short time we are in Israel, more than 1100 rockets are fired towards the young nation from terror groups.

Israel is a country that lives with war. Alarms go off and children scramble to bunkers. Every young man and woman is expected to serve in Israel’s defence force with 18-year-olds seen in the street, at bus stops and even on the beach, carrying automatic weapons.

Berthe’s grandson was among those serving.

Berthe Badehi is hugged by Sunshine Coast woman Renee White after her moving story at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. Photo: Mark Furler

‘He gave his life so we can go on living as free people.

‘Thousands gave their lives so we can go on living in our own country.

‘That is why I am telling my story.’

‘I’m still here,’ she says.

83000 Jews from France were deported. only 3000 returned

One of the most compelling displays in the huge Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jersusalem.

Her Aunts were taken in wagons. They were proud women who would have been horrified at the prospect of having to ‘pee’ in front of others she tells us.

Growing up in France, she tells of how her father broke the news to them in 1939 while they were on vacation in a small village that the war had started.

Fighting had already broken out in northern France so the plan was to drive to their hometown of Lyon to Bordeaux to get on ship to England or America to escape the Nazis.

But with thousands of refugees on the roads, ‘the Germans arrived in Bordeaux before we did’.

A poignant reminder of the toll of the Holocaust at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Photo: Mark Furler

They turned around and watched as Jews were thrown out of French government jobs and men later started to be sent to camps inside of France.

By the end of 1941, her parents had a suitcase prepared for her and told her she was going to stay with a Christian family.

Berthe was only 9.

Initially she thought it would be just for a vacation.

One of the sculptures outside ethe Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.

She stayed with a widow with three children of her own.

It was a split second decision by Madame Massonnat that ultimately saved Berthe’s life.

in May 1944, Berthe’s mother wanted to be sure her daughter was okay, taking a train to the village where was living, despite the risks.

While her mother was staying, the two women saw a car approaching and immediately feared a Gestapo raid.

Young Israeli soldiers were among those visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. Photo: Mark Furler

Mme Massonnat went out to meet them, putting her own life at risk to protect the two Jewish women inside.

The Gestapo were hunting a young French man and she managed to persuade them it was not her son but someone else.

Britain's Prince William (C), Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis of the United Congregations of the Commonwealth (L) and chairman of Yad Vashem Avner Shalev, tours the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem on June 26, 2018 in Jerusalem. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / DEBBIE HILL

They left without coming into the house.

Berthe, who had been given a Christian baptism certificate, had been told to never mention her Jewish heritage.

‘I had to play role of a Christian,’’ Berthe says.

‘Okay,’ she adds. It’s an expression she repeats throughout her talk, emphasising a ‘she’ll be right’ resiliency that Aussies could relate to.

One of the The Fountain of Tears sculptures in Israel by Canadian artist Rick Wienecke. Photo: Mark Furler

As the Germans stepped up their offensives, closing down businesses, the young girl’s fear grew.

‘I became very afraid someone would find out I am not a Christian I am a Jew.’

The Fountain of Tears sculptures in Israel by Canadian artist Rick Wienecke represents the 'dialogue of suffering between the Holocaust and the crucifixion of Christ. Photo: Mark Furler

In September, 1944, the Americans got to southern France and liberated Lyon.

Berthe is forever thankful for the widow who took her in.

‘I owe her my life I don’t forget.’

‘I never stop saying thank you.’

One of the The Fountain of Tears sculptures in Israel by Canadian artist Rick Wienecke. Photo: Mark Furler

She admits it was hard to return to her parents as they worked hard to rebuild their lives.

‘I say I have never been a child.’

As a 14 year old, she spent much of her time looking after her sister.

One of the The Fountain of Tears sculptures in Israel by Canadian artist Rick Wienecke. Photo: Mark Furler

Many thought she was a single mother.

After meeting a handsome young Israeli, she fell in love and married him.

They moved to Jerusalem in September 1956 despite her parents’ concerns.

By then, she says: ‘I was not afraid of anything.’

Berthe Badehi, 91, she is still telling her story of survival from the Holocaust. Photo: Mark Furler

‘I did fall in love with Jerusalem,’’ the grandmother of nine says.

After she ends her talk, members of our overwhelmed group go forward to hug Berthe.

For the woman who has been speaking at Vad Vadhem for more than 25 years, it’s the best reward to know others understand and feel empathy for her powerful story.