Holocaust survivor who collapsed on Holocaust Day dies; fascinating life story

April 21, 2023   

Rabbi Ephraim Mol, a Chabad Hasidic Holocaust survivor who was supposed to say the Elohim Mela Rahamim prayer at the Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony, but collapsed a few hours before the ceremony, passed away tonight after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Rachel, and his children: Mrs. Bilhah Lipshitz, Mrs. Beitia Mol, Rabbi Yoel Mol, and Mrs. Avigail Gur. His funeral will leave at 11:00 from his home, at 7 Aharon Brand Street, Jerusalem, passing through the Beit Shlomo Synagogue, and from there to the Chabad plot on the Mount of Olives, where he will be buried. Tanzva. His life story was published by Yad Vashem: Ephraim Mol was born in Belgium, and survived the Holocaust as a child in France. After his parents were arrested, he was adopted by a French Jewish couple and then sent into hiding. Ephraim's parents were murdered in Auschwitz. Ephraim later immigrated to Israel, served in the IDF as a sapper, and joined the Chabad Hasidism. He was born in Okel, a suburb of Brussels, Belgium, on March 9, 1938, the only son of his parents, Reuven Joel (Julik) and Bella. His parents and family emigrated to Belgium from Warsaw, their birthplace, immediately after World War I. The family lived in a rented apartment in Brussels. The father, who was a member of the Betar movement, made leather wallets in a workshop located in one of the rooms of the house, and the mother made women's hats in another workshop, located in another room of the house. In September 1942, Ephraim's parents tried to escape Nazi-occupied Belgium. They planned to reach Switzerland to seek asylum there. They arrived by train in the town of Besançon, France, not far from the Swiss border, and rented a room in a small hotel. The Swiss authorities had closed the border to Jewish refugees, but Ephraim's parents learned that a resident of the town was helping Jews cross the border at night, for a fee. The same man was supposed to arrive at the hotel the next night to take Ephraim and his parents across the border, but instead, two Gestapo men showed up at the hotel and arrested them. Ephraim and his parents were taken to the Gestapo station not far from the hotel. One of the Germans ordered two French policemen to take Ephraim. His mother managed to kiss him and put two photos in his pocket: a picture of her and a picture of his father. Ephraim did not know that he would never see them again. On September 18, 1942, his parents, Bella and Reuven, were deported to Auschwitz in transport number 34 from the Drancy concentration camp near Paris, and were murdered. Ephraim submitted pages of testimony to commemorate their memory, as well as that of his grandmother and grandfather, Hinda and Yankel Dembinski, who were murdered in the Holocaust. The police brought four-year-old Ephraim to a convent in Besançon. The nuns volunteered to take in many small Jewish children in Ephraim's situation at the convent. After a few weeks, Ephraim was sent to a Jewish orphanage in Paris, along with boys and girls from the convent. The French authorities collaborated with the Nazi occupier, but still allowed Jewish citizens of France to run an orphanage, a hospital, and a retirement home. Ephraim was adopted by the Weils, French Jews who were the parents of an only daughter, aged 18. The couple wanted a son and sought to adopt a Jewish child from the orphanage. Ephraim was chosen because of a good word that one of the nurses had put in about him, and also because he spoke French. His adoptive parents gave him warmth and love. The Germans and the French captured very young Jewish children, and in 1942 they tracked down Ephraim from his time at the monastery and were about to capture him. Lucy Cartier, an acquaintance of the adoptive parents, hid the parents in her home and found Ephraim a hiding place in an apartment in the suburbs of Paris, where she took care of all his needs until liberation. Later, Ms. Cartier received the title of Righteous Among the Nations. In the summer of 1944, the area where Ephraim was staying was liberated. Ephraim's adoptive parents were assimilated, there was no Jewish sign in the house, and Ephraim studied in the official French school system. In 1956, when Ephraim was 18, the Sinai Revolution broke out, which received a great deal of attention in the French media. The news of this led Ephraim to become aware of his Jewish identity. He became interested in Israel consistently, and in the summer of 1957 he visited Israel. The visit excited him, and he asked to serve in the IDF, instead of compulsory service in the French army. According to an agreement between France and Israel, this was possible. His adoptive parents strongly opposed the idea, so Ephraim was drafted into the French army and participated in the Algerian War. In 1960, Ephraim was released from military service. He immigrated to Israel and settled on a religious kibbutz, where he married, learned the basics of Judaism, and worked in the fields and in a cowshed. He was drafted into the IDF and became a sapper in combat reserve units. During one of his periods of service in the reserves, he met a Chabad Hasid there and was subsequently drawn to this Hasidism. After five years of pioneering life on the kibbutz, Ephraim asked to join the Chabad Hasidic community. He left the kibbutz with his wife and two daughters, and the family moved to Jerusalem. Ephraim worked in a defense factory and continued to serve in combat reserve units in the IDF. He participated in the Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur War, and the First Lebanon War. Upon his retirement, he began working as a copyist.