Horrendous evil, amazing grace
Arye Ephrath and his family’s story of Holocaust survival
You could have heard a pin drop Sunday afternoon in the Washington Town Hall, where the soft-spoken Arye Ephrath, at the invitation of the Rappahannock Historical Society, relived his family’s amazing story of survival during the Holocaust.
“My own life story some of you will find disturbing, I actually find it uplifting,” Arye began. “You can be the judge later which of those is most accurate.”
Arye was born on April 7, 1942, in Bardejov, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), on the very day that the Jews of Bardejov were ordered to report to the town’s square. His mother had reason to ignore the strict edict, giving birth to Arye in the basement of their home with the assistance of
a housemaid.
Fearing for her son’s life, Arye’s mother wasted little time returning to her hometown in Hungary, moving from inn to inn to avoid detection, while the infant was kept hidden in an orphanage. Arye’s father, at the same time, operating the only general store in Bardejov — serving the needs of residents and occupying Nazis alike — was issued a certificate that translated into “useful Jew,” preventing him from being deported or killed.
“And that continued for the first few years of my life,” Arye recalled, until German soldiers occupied Hungary in March 1944. Similarly, Arye’s father learned his life-saving certificate would not be renewed, so together the family of three escaped to a carefully chosen village in western Czechoslovakia, which “very uncommonly did not have any other Jews living there.”
The family proceeded directly to the village priest, who was told by Arye’s father point-blank: “We are Jews trying to hide from the Nazis.”
“The priest was taking a huge risk,” Arye observed, and whereas the cleric agreed to hide the parents in the church belfry he suggested it far safer for the child to live with a local shepherd and his wife, who were parents of four daughters but no sons.
The shepherd, who raised sheep and goats, agreed to shelter Arye with two stipulations: “One condition was because he had four daughters, people are used to seeing little girls running around,” explained Arye, so the boy must be dressed as a little girl and change his name to “Annicka.”
The other stipulation: should Arye’s parents not survive the occupation, they agree that the couple could adopt Annicka as the “son” they never had.
With little choice, Arye’s parents signed such a “document,” although his father later that night in the belfry asked his wife, “What did we do? We just gave him the perfect excuse to turn us in.”
It wasn’t long that rumors began circulating around the village that the belfry was hiding Jews, otherwise keeping as “quiet as church mice.” When word reached the pastor that Nazis would be arriving to search the belfry, he quickly arranged for Arye’s parents to be transported by horse and wagon to another farm, where the cramped living quarters consisted of a single room hardly large enough to house guests — particularly in need of hiding.
So a hole, big enough to squeeze reclining bodies, was dug below a haystack. By day, beneath the straw, Arye’s parents slept, while as often as could be risked at night Arye’s mother made the long trek on foot through forests and fields to the shepherd’s house to visit her son, “and she would wake me up.”
The secret living arrangements lasted for eight months — “Annicka,” now wearing a ribbon in his hair, surrounded by daily farm chores, while his parents remained out of sight under the haystack. It was a huge risk for all involved, not just Arye and his parents. If discovered, the Jews, the priest, the two farmers and their families would certainly face death at the hands of the Nazis.
As it happened, the Soviet army — on Arye’s third birthday, no less — liberated Czechoslovakia, and Arye became a boy again and was reunited with his parents. Three years later, in 1948, the family relocated to Israel. Upon finishing his military service, Arye studied engineering in Florida, and was soon awarded a scholarship to MIT, where he earned his Master’s and PhD degrees. He eventually became a professor of engineering, and worked in various aerospace laboratories during his accomplished career.
Soon to turn a youthful 77, Arye today consults with the Department of Homeland Security and volunteers at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Editor’s note: Dr. Arye Ephrath is a graduate school friend and colleague of Rappahannock Historical Society President John Tole.