Wittman family Sefer Torah

Yesterday my brother donated the Sefer Torah, left to him by our late Father, Mr. George Wittman, to the army base near Itamar. Our father was born in Hungary into a large family, in the area of Gyor.
They were a successful family exporting trainloads of food around Europe. The same train lines that took most of his family and 6 millions other Jews to their deaths in concentration camps. The horrific experiences and memories like the tattoo with an ID number the Nazis used to number their victims scarred him forever. Not a day went by without his past not affecting him. But he kept his belief in the religion throughout and had carried a very small Tefillin even in the forced Nazi work camps. He eventually arrived penniless as a refugee to Australa and worked non stop to rebuild a life. He fathered 4 sons. Two live in Australia, and two in Israel who recently made Aliya, myself being one of them. his love of Israel was immense and he and my Mother lived in Israel twice and had both worked tirelessly voluntarily on many projects for Israel and donated happily to many causes for Israel. Which brings me to the Torah he willed to my brother. My brother even though finding it hard to raise a family in Israel, with the high rents and difficult job market for one who is new to Israel decided to donate the Torah. He chose to give it to the Army in order to, maybe like our father who carried his Tefillin throughout those dreadful holocaust years, to protect us.
Now for the suprise. The Torah’s new home is 5 minutes drive from the site of the horrific murders of the Fogel family only around 2 months ago. The decision to donate the Torah to the army base was made around 1 year ago. I was asked by the base Rabbi if I would like to go on a quick tour of the area, and naturally said yes as it was my first visit to the area.

My brother and I had no idea the settlement Itamar was right there, virtually walking distance. I saw the sign Itamar and was shocked. The masssacre was one of the most gruesome you can imagine of a family sleeping in their home. I believe it is more than just coincidence the Torah is there, I feel happy it is there, maybe it will be of comfort to the souls of the family. The massacre haunts me, and you will also see by maybe more than coincidence I wrote on my facebook page about the massacre just after the event, my article on the massacre is the next one under this one, it was not written in this order and just was pasted randomly from my facebook page and ended up next to each other. Then about 2 months later I am bought to the exact area because my brother had decided a year before to donate the Torah to the Army

 May the Torah bring peace and comfort to all.

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