A bar mitzvah is a traditional rite of passage for Jewish boys when they reach the age of 13 -- but Arieh Czeislah never got to have his celebration because of the war. Finally, he's getting his party at 78.
A bar mitzvah is a traditional rite of passage for Jewish boys when they reach the age of 13 - but Arieh Czeislah never got to have his celebration.
The young man from what is now Slovakia turned 13 in 1942, at a time of great danger for Jewish families. When he turned 13, it was no longer safe to leave his house. Later that year, he and 41 other members of his family were shipped off to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Of his entire family, only Arieh and three other family members survived.
Today, Czeislah works as a farmer in Israel, minding more than 120 cattle. He has lived there since 1950, and only returned to Auschwitz for the first time four years ago, after being convinced by Israeli officers that he should share the story of what had happened to him there. Though his family were against the idea, Czeislah felt compelled to go: “All my life, I wanted to return there at least once, as a free person, not as the number 9860, the number tattooed on my arm,” he told BBC News.
Czeislah has visited the concentration camp to share his story with visitors several times since then - and last time, he received another interesting question: Had he ever received his bar mitzvah?
When Czeislah admitted that he had not, the Israeli officers went to work planning an event for him. They booked a synagogue for September 22nd, when Czeislah will finally have the chance to come of age, according to Jewish tradition.
Czeislah, weeks away from his 79th birthday, may not be quite the boy he was when the war started - but he’s grateful for the chance to celebrate his life. And it sounds like he’s still got plenty left to do: “I do have a plan,” he said. “I’m going to write a book about my life. I’ve already sketched out a few drafts.”