Israel colonel honors Holocaust survivor parents on Remembrance Day

Colonel (Res.) Eli Konigsberg carries much more of the burden of command when he puts on his uniform at age 57. It carries the story of two families that are almost wiped out from the map of Europe.

As the world celebrates International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, Israel’s Deputy Commander for Jerusalem and Central Area, Home Front Command, says the past is not distant history. For him, it lives on in memory, in service, and in the urgency of defending a Jewish state, which he believes is the only place where Jews are truly protected.

“My parents are both Holocaust survivors,” Konigsberg, whose photo was blurred for security reasons, told Fox News Digital. “My father came from a large Orthodox Jewish family in western Poland. Before the war, the extended family numbered about 700 people. After the Holocaust, only my father and two cousins ​​remained; three out of 700.”

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After surviving Auschwitz, his father joined the Betar movement and attempted to reach Israeli territory on the ship Theodor Herzl in 1946. He was detained by British authorities, imprisoned in the Atlit camp, and exiled to Cyprus for nearly two years.

But it finally came with the declaration of Israel’s independence.

“He joined the military, fought in the War of Independence and four additional wars, and served in the reserves for 55 years,” Königsberg said. he said.

On the mother’s side, the losses were no less devastating. His parents and sisters were taken from their home in eastern Poland after a neighbor tipped them off.

“They were forced to dig their own graves under a pear tree and were executed by fire,” he said.

Konigsberg said the Holocaust was rarely discussed openly in his childhood home, but its presence was constant. Now he’s worried about a different silence.

“80 years have passed since the Holocaust, and the people who could say ‘I was there, I saw’ are disappearing,” he said. “Therefore, it is our duty to commemorate.”

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Col. (Res.) Eli Konigsberg, whose face has been blurred for security reasons, is the son of Holocaust survivors and deputy commander of Israel’s Jerusalem and Central Region Home Front Command. (IDF)

This sense of responsibility shaped his life. Konigsberg, a father of four daughters and a grandfather, served in the Israeli reserve forces for more than 36 years and spent more than 3,600 days on duty.

“10 years of reserve duty in total,” he said. In Israel, reservists are legally exempt from duty at the age of 45. Konigsberg preferred to continue: “When they call me, I come right away.”

It was mobilized again after Hamas’ attack on October 7.

“What we saw on October 7 was killing for the sake of killing,” he said. “Not to conquer territory or change reality. This was hatred for the sake of hatred.”

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Eli Konigsberg, whose face was blurred for security reasons, was photographed with his mother next to the cemetery of his father and grandfather in Poland after they were killed while fighting in the Red Army against the German army three days before the end of World War II. (IDF)

Since then, he has commanded rescue and heavy engineering units operating in the Gaza Envelope, inside Gaza and in the north. Its forces carried out body detection, recovery operations and clearance missions aimed at eliminating terrorist hideouts.

“We will return to Gaza again in the next few days for cleansing and destruction,” he said.

Despite the trauma, he says, the reserve system reflects something powerful about Israeli society. “The nice thing about the reserves is that people can have very different political views and everyone still comes and works as one,” he said.

Konigsberg reflected on what he believed history had taught again. “We now see that antisemitism exists and will continue to exist in the future,” he said.

He pointed to the global reaction to Israel since Oct. 7. “There are terrible things happening in other places. For example, the Iranian regime crackdown on its own people, and you do not see demonstrations like this, but when it involves Israel and Jews, there is an outcry,” he said.

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‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ sign at the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in Oswiecim, Poland. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

According to Königsberg, commemoration is not just about mourning the dead. It’s about protecting the living. “Every Jew has a place in Israel,” he added. “And we must always remain united and strong. We must be here on our land, strong and united, and make sure that ‘never again’ really means never again,” he said.