Familie Makler/Mor
London, England • Tel Aviv, Israel • Berlin

While Shifra survived the Shoah, her father, mother and two siblings all died. She grew up in a kibbutz in Israel, where she located her older brother, and later moved to Tel Aviv.

 

In 1992, Shifra read an article in the newspaper Ma'ariv about the children from Bullenhuser Damm and learned what had happened to her sister. In 1998, she visited the Bullenhuser Damm memorial for the first time:

"I thought I was a strong person and that life had toughened me up. But when I was standing in the cellar, I felt like I was falling apart. The impression was so strong that my whole body was shaking."

The next day, she was invited to visit the daycare center named after her sister Bluma. The children had drawn pictures, sung Hebrew songs to her and also asked Shifra questions about her life and that of her siblings: "Children who ask such questions, I told myself, are the generation that will prevent man-made atrocities like the Holocaust for all time."

In 2012, more of Bluma's family members attended the memorial service in Hamburg. Shifra lived in Tel Aviv until her death in 2016, and she made it a point to visit Hamburg nearly every year. Her nephew Yuval and his family, who live in London, also regularly attend the memorial service. For several years now, Vanessa Gravenor, a second cousin of Bluma, has continued this meaningful tradition.