Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot hosted an A-list event to commemorate Yom HaShoah which featured survivor Celina Biniaz, the youngest Schindler’s List survivor.
The Israeli actress invited Jewish actor Sacha Baron Cohen, Isla Fisher and Harvey Keitel to a "Zikaron BaSalon" event at her Hollywood home. Translated as "living room memories", it has become an increasing tradition in Israel where Holocaust survivors tell their stories in an intimate setting.
Gal revealed last year how her grandfather, born Adolf Weiss in what was then Czechoslovakia, lost most of his family at Auschwitz. Aged just 13, he managed to survive the horrors of the death camp. "The sights he saw, the horrors he went through are unimaginable," she wrote.
She added that he didn’t tell any of his family about what he had been through until after her grandmother died. "He realised how short life is and how important it is to tell the story so history will never repeat itself."
Posting pictures of her Zikaron BaSalon event, Gal said: “I don’t know about God, but I believe in people, in the power of one’s decision to do good. Today we had the honour and privilege of hosting Celina Biniaz, a local Holocaust survivor who came to share her powerful and extraordinary story with our family and friends. Hearing her testimony about the horrors she and her family went through and seeing the strong inspiring woman she became left no dry eye in the room.
"At the end of her testimony Celina looked at me and said, ‘Life is just like what you said in your Wonder Woman movie - only love can save the world,' and this moment will stay with me forever."
Celina, who was born in Krakow in Poland, was just 13 when she and her family were sent to Auschwitz. They made it onto Schindler’s list thanks to anti-Nazi businessman Julius Madritsch, who had previously hired the family in his factory and he got them out of the death camp to work in his factory in Brunnlitz, 140 miles northeast of Prague. When the Soviets beat back the Nazis, Celina and her family tried to return home but a pogrom in Poland made them realise that had to get out of Europe and they eventually found their way to America.
She later credited the film Schindler’s List with enabling her to talk about the experiences she had been through saying: "For 40 years I was never able to talk about it because I didn’t think anybody would understand."
pXH4_0lqPUfqZM7njpFQtqJqh3VRV0CPXrwhX7fpVr8=.html