The dangerous and daring rescue operations from Mariupol, the ruined city in southeastern Ukraine, which suffered the heaviest fire during the war, were revealed for the first time this week in a special feature article in the weekly "Kfar Chabad".
In conversations with author Mandy Cortes, Chabad emissary Rabbi Menachem Mendel Cohen and several survivors recounted the impossible paths from the streets that became brutal and merciless battlegrounds to a safe haven.
The descriptions are horrifying. Quite a few of the city's Jews did not survive the inferno. Some died strange deaths, some were hastily buried. But hundreds of them managed to escape in unusual ways, through actions led by Rabbi Cohen.
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One of the survivors, David Bezalel Shislov, who was also injured during the war, recalled the moments of the mother. "I couldn't move," he told Kfar Chabad. "I suffered a serious injury to my spinal cord. Almost every position I took was uncomfortable. I couldn't sit comfortably or move my hand comfortably.
""We didn't know what to do, we thought of a way to get to the hospital. In the end, we managed to get there. It's hard to call the place we arrived at a 'medical center.' There was no electricity or any other facilities. There were a lot of people, a lot of blood, a lot of soldiers marching. They tried to get the gunshot out of me, without anesthesia, but they couldn't. In the end, they gave me antibiotics, but I still felt bad. I couldn't do anything. My mother helped me with every action.".
The Shislov family split in two. David Bezalel stayed with his mother, while the little brother stayed with his grandparents in another place in the city. "We couldn't reach them," says David Bezalel, "because of the frequent shelling in the city. My mother was in a dilemma about what to do, whether to travel with me to another city where I could receive treatment or to try to reach her other son who remained in the city. It was easier for me to leave after the injury, because the soldiers there allowed the sick to leave.
""In the end, my mother stayed with me and we arrived in Donetsk, where they took care of me. There we also spoke with Rabbi Cohen. Later, my grandparents and brother also arrived there. We reunited in Donetsk. From there we traveled to Rostov and other cities in Russia, to Georgia, and from there on a flight to Israel. At all stages, we were closely accompanied by Rabbi Cohen.".
Two days after Passover, which they celebrated at the hotel in Tel Aviv, the family met for the first time in the Holy Land Rabbi Cohen, who had arranged for their rescue. "We met the man who saved us," recalls Israel David, who until the war had taken an active part in the activities of the Chabad house. "The only thing I wanted to do then was hug him and help him with his activities. There are other people left behind. After all, I was there, I know what's going on there, and I know how much help is needed and how much influence can be exerted from the outside.".
Shislov is still recovering from his injury. "I need rehabilitation and physiotherapy, and I'm doing it in Israel." He is optimistic about his future and that of his family. "Right now, we're in the hotel in Tel Aviv. First, we're taking care of the basics, finding a suitable school for my brother and a hospital for me. Later, we'll see exactly what's going to happen for the longer term. The main thing is that we survived.".
