The number of Jewish families that were forcibly separated and torn apart from each other during the Holocaust is staggering. While numerous families lost their legacies altogether, others were left to wonder about what had happened to their relatives, only to believe that nobody in their lineage had survived. That can, of course, be a disorienting and isolating experience. For Jewish cousins Morris Sana and Simon Mairowitz from Romania, though, the story ended on a more positive note. Although they were the closest of buddies while growing up, the Holocaust tore them apart from one another when a fascist coup in 1940 allied the Romanian government with Nazi Germany. So, for 75 years, they believed that the other had not survived - until the life-changing moment they got to meet each other, as The Telegraph reports.
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The two brothers went their separate ways during the coup. Morris fled to Israel to settle down, and Simon found refuge in the UK. According to the news outlet, they both had convinced themselves that their brother had passed away in a Nazi concentration camp. However, when Morris' daughter began to conduct some research on the internet, she managed to track down some relatives through Facebook and communicate with them. After establishing the connection, Simon flew down to Israel to meet his long-lost and thought-dead cousin Morris.
In an emotional and heartwarming video, Morris' granddaughter Leetal Ofer captured the bittersweet moments the brothers met each other after almost a century. Simon is seen asking, "You can see me now, can’t you?" As Morris began to weep. "Good to see you," he responded. The two brothers then engaged in conversation after years of not having the opportunity to do so. They reflected on the past, discussing how far they had come. The two men embraced and held each other as the video came to an end.
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Morris and Simon are one of the numerous Jewish who reunited with each other after decades of being separated due to the Holocaust. As many Jews were forced to change their names to escape persecution, they lost the only connection they had to their families. The heartbreaking reunion reminds us all that we can never let history repeat itself.
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