Leetal Ofer/FacebookTwo Jewish cousins who were separated during the Second World War have been reunited.
A heartwarming video shoes the moment Morris Sana, 87, and Simon Mairowitz, 85, came face-to-face in Tel Aviv, Israel, after decades of believing each other was killed in concentration camps.
They were reunited last Thursday after their relatives realised the childhood friends were still alive after finding them on Facebook.
The cousins were fighting back tears and said they were happy to see each other 75 years later, but it was only Morris who recognised his old family member at first.
Simon later comforted him, telling his cousin:
Good to see you too after all these years. 75 years you waited. It’s a long time, but we’ve got each other now.
Morris, who lives in Israel, and Simon from the UK, were separated after they escaped from Romania in the 1940s with their families when the government was overthrown and the country was forced to ally with Nazi Germany, People reports.
Leetal Ofer/FacebookThe video was posted to Facebook by Morris’ granddaughter, Leetal Ofer, who wrote:
This is one of the most moving things I’ve ever seen and I’d love to share it with you.
My mom recently found some of her long lost cousins on Facebook. To make a long story short…
My grandfather couldn’t find his cousin and best friend after the Holocaust and was sure that he was killed at the concentration camps.
She added:
He hasn’t seen or heard from his cousin in 75 years. We were able to arrange for the cousins to meet today.
The war tore so many families apart and to bring them together in Israel is so magical.
Leetal Ofer/FacebookWhen World War II broke out in 1939, King Carol II officially adopted a position of neutrality for Romania. However, after the country was overthrown, Romanian troops were responsible for the persecution and massacre of up to 260,000 Jews in Romanian-controlled territories, although the majority of Jews living in Romania survived the horrendous conditions.
Morris and Simon are two of thousands who had no idea what happened to loved ones in the decades following World War II.
Their reunion is one of the most heartwarming thing we’ll see this week.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.