Lives Lost: Holocaust Survivor Was Israel's First Virus Victim
Source: Associated Press
JERUSALEM (AP) -- As a child in Hungary, Arie Even survived the Holocaust by taking shelter along with his mother and brother after his father was shipped to a notorious concentration camp.
Even's well-connected grandfather found them refuge in a Swiss-protected home in Budapest before they were rushed to another shelter, under the cover of night, thanks to the Swedish embassy and the efforts of famed diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved tens of thousands of Jews before mysteriously disappearing. The next day, Even's grandfather was shot to death and his body was dumped in the Danube River.
Later in life, Even overcame multiple heart attacks, surgeries and even a brush with a cholera epidemic during a family visit to Spain. But he couldn't escape the wrath of the global coronavirus pandemic that has been plaguing the globe.
On March 20, the 88-year-old became Israel's first coronavirus fatality after he was infected by a visiting social worker at his Jerusalem assisted-living facility...
Read more: https://apnews.com/4cec4491c87ec54b09588738d7298c91
Even died alone, his loved ones were forced to keep their distance from his infectious virus and had to say goodbye over the phone. "He was a strong man and he overcame the hardships of the Holocaust," said his 57-year-old daughter Yael, "He lived a full life. It's just a shame he had to go this way."
He was born George Steiner, to a well-to-do Hungarian Jewish family. Their lives were turned upside down by Nazi rule. His father was sent to Mauthausen concentration camp and when Germany occupied Hungary in 1944, Even, his mother and brother had to go into hiding for nearly a year. He immigrated to Israel at age 17 after the war, joined a kibbutz and then was drafted into the military as an aircraft technician.
Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg (4 August 1912 - disappeared 17 January 1945) was a Swedish architect, businessman, diplomat, and humanitarian. He is remembered for saving tens of thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary during the Holocaust from German Nazis and Hungarian Fascists during the later stages of World War II. While serving as Sweden's special envoy in Budapest between July and December 1944, Wallenberg issued protective passports and sheltered Jews in buildings designated as Swedish territory.
On 17 January 1945, during the Siege of Budapest by the Red Army, Wallenberg was detained by SMERSH on suspicion of espionage and subsequently disappeared. He was later reported to have died on 17 July 1947 while imprisoned by the KGB secret police in the Lubyanka, the KGB headquarters and affiliated prison in Moscow. The motives behind Wallenberg's arrest and imprisonment by the Soviet government, along with questions surrounding the circumstances of his death and his ties to US intelligence, remain mysterious and are the subject of continued speculation...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_Wallenberg
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It is so heartbreaking that due the contagious nature of Coronavirus, the people who pass away, must do so without their loved ones, who desperately want to be at their bedside. It's overwhelming to ponder.
R.I.P. Mr Arie Even
“... lucid until the end, sauntering around with a cane and telling his children to forgo a recent celebration of his birthday and instead plan on a bigger party when he turned 90.”
Still, it looks like he rose up to have a good life, scholarly, long marriage, travel and plenty of grandchildren.
