Holocaust survivor Magda Baratz a”h, was niftar at age 96 just days after learning of the petirah of her beloved great-grandson, Master Sergeant Asaf Cafri Hy”d, who fell in battle while defending Israel in Gaza.

Baratz, a survivor of both Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, was in Germany as the guest of honor at a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony marking 80 years since the liberation of the infamous Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, when the tragic news was delivered. Her grandson Hagai, the father of Asaf, had accompanied her on the trip. He received word of his son’s death shortly after their arrival.

Asaf, 26, a resident of Beit Hashmonai and a reserve soldier in the IDF’s Armored Corps, was killed by sniper fire from a Hamas terror cell in Beit Hanoun. His unit came under heavy enemy fire, including sniper fire and anti-tank missile attacks, leaving three others wounded.

“She faded after that,” her son Ehud Baratz said of Magda following her return from Germany. “But it meant everything to her that she was able to return to Bergen-Belsen with three generations of her family. That was her victory over the Nazis — to show that she had survived, built a family in Eretz Yisrael, and raised doros who are moser nefesh for Am Yisrael.”

Magda had a particularly close kesher with Asaf, who she often praised as a source of nachas and pride. “She said it was deeply painful, but she was proud — proud that he stood up when his people needed him, just as she had done in her own way decades earlier,” Ehud recalled.

Born in Hungary, Magda endured unimaginable suffering during the Holocaust. She was deported to Auschwitz, survived the death march to Bergen-Belsen, and built a new life after liberation. She worked as a ganenet for many years and then helped her husband in his small metal workshop, all while raising a beautiful Torah-true family in Bat Yam.

In 2020, she was photographed alongside Asaf for Rishon Lezion’s Holocaust memorial campaign. The caption read simply: “Magda’s personal victory.” The campaign sought to show how survivors rebuilt their lives — and Magda was its embodiment.

Mayor Raz Kinstlich noted the painful symbolism of her great-grandson falling in Gaza on Yom HaShoah. “The past and present merged in the most heartbreaking way,” he said. “Her story reminds us of the power of Jewish survival — and the price we still pay for our right to live as Jews in our Land.”

Asaf was the oldest of four brothers — Yoav, Itai, and Idan. He was studying engineering at Ariel University and had already completed three rounds of reserve duty. On October 7, without hesitation, he donned his uniform and ran to the front lines.

“He said this was his generation’s turn to protect Klal Yisrael,” said his aunt, Hadas. “He stayed in Gaza even over Pesach, missing the Seder. We had a Zoom with him, sent pictures, but his absence was felt at the table.”

Just hours before his petirah, he spoke with his kallah, Lihi. “She kept hoping, kept davening — but then the knock came,” said Hadas.

Magda Baratz leaves behind three children, ten grandchildren, and seventeen great-grandchildren. Among them, a soldier who gave his life al kiddush Hashem. Their stories are one — from the ashes of Bergen-Belsen to the front lines of Eretz Yisrael.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)