ASTOUNDING: 105-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor R’ Berysz Aurbach Marks His Mother’s 105th Yahrtzeit [VIDEO]

An incredible scene played out in Melbourne, Australia, on Wednesday afternoon, as 105-year-old Holocaust survivor R’ Berysz Aurbach marked the 105th (!) yahrtzeit of his mother a”h.

In past years, R’ Berysz made global headlines on YWN as he davened for the amud at the Caulfield Bais Medrash on his mother’s yahrtzeit – a mother who he had barely ever known, as she passed away when he was an infant. This year, due to a recent illness, members of bais medrash came to his home for the yahrtzeit’s commemoration, enabling him to recite kaddish. They also joined him in singing traditional Gerrer niggunim – hearkening back to the pre-war days of his youth in Poland.

Born on Gimmel Elul 5680 (1920) in Biala Podlaska, Poland—a town with deep ties to the Gerrer Chassidus—R’ Berysz was raised in a home suffused with Torah, and mesorah. Together with his siblings—three older brothers, a sister, and a half-brother—he imbibed the spirit of chassidus and the foundation of Yiddishkeit that would carry him through the years ahead.

He recalls learning as a child in the local Talmud Torah, vivid memories from a world that would soon be consumed by Churban Europe. In a miraculous neis, he was among the very last Yidden to be smuggled out of the Warsaw Ghetto before Pesach 5703 (1943), mere days before the uprising and the unspeakable destruction that followed. Tragically, with the exception of one sister who had reached Eretz Yisroel before the war, his entire family was murdered al kiddush Hashem.

Left bereft of family and home following the war, Reb Berysz reached out across the seas to an uncle in Australia. That uncle secured him a visa, enabling him to come to Melbourne, where he would rebuild his life.

For over 40 years, R’ Berysz has been a dedicated member of the Caulfield Bais Medrash, presenting weekly Shiurim and occasionally serving as Baal Tefillah. He has also served as President of the Shul for two terms. In additional to the marking of his mother’s yahrtzeit, his annual Erev Pesach Taanis Bechorim Siyum has become a highly anticipated event in the kehilla.