Holocaust survivor says Hamas attacks brought back devastating memories of Nazi massacres

For one Holocaust survivor, witnessing the sickening Hamas terror attacks on Oct. 7 brought back his devastating childhood memories of watching Nazis slaughter his neighbors in Tunisia. 

In 1942, Gad Partok was 10 years old when the Nazis marched through the Tunisian coastal town of Nabeul, going door to door to shoot his neighbors dead before setting their homes ablaze.

The 93-year-old, who today lives in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, just 15 miles from the border with Gaza, said the nightmarish memories of his youth came rushing back as he watched on the news on Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists tore through nearby towns and villages on a murderous rampage. 

“The dragging of the people of Be’eri, Nir Oz, Kfar Aza, Kissufim, Holit, it’s the same thing. It reminded me of the same thing,” he told The Associated Press, reciting the names of the Israeli communities where residents were brutally killed by the terrorists. 

“I was very, very unwell. I even felt a feeling, it’s hard to explain, of disgust, of fear, of terrible memories,” Partok said.

Saturday is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which reminds the world of the 6 million Jews and many other groups massacred by the Nazis and their allies.

For many people in Israel, which is home to roughly half of the world’s Holocaust survivors like Partok, this year’s remembrance has even greater gravitas in light of the Oct. 7 attacks, when Hamas terrorists killed roughly 1,200 people and kidnapped another 250. 

Partok’s family managed to escape Tunisia to what would become Israel in 1947, a year before the nation’s independence.

Over the years, he became a photography instructor and owned a photo shop in Ashkelon. Today. his many grandchildren and great-grandchildren also call the Jewish state home.

Hamas’ devastating attack, however, obliterated the sense of security Partok had felt in Israel, which he had long believed to be a haven for Jews.

The nonagenarian recalled his shock watching the savage terrorists easily blazing a bloody trail through towns and farming communes across southern Israel, having caught the country’s renowned security forces by surprise. 

“Where is the army? Where is the government? Our people?” he recalled thinking.  

Today, the sounds of war are ever present in Partok’s life, between the constant booms of Israel bombarding Gaza and Hamas firing rockets into Israel. 

More than 26,000 Palestinians have been killed since the outbreak of the war, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and terrorists.

Partok regularly has the news channel on the television in his home, tuning in for updates on the war and hostages. 

“I’m sitting here in my armchair, and I’m looking, and my eyes are staring, and I can’t believe it,” he said. “Is it true? Is it so?”

With Post wires