Gal Gadot hosts Holocaust survivor for remembrance event in her LA home
Celina Biniaz, the youngest female survivor rescued by Oskar Schindler, speaks to Hollywood A-listers
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
Gal Gadot hosted a Zikaron Basalon event, an intimate gathering to hear the testimony of a Holocaust survivor, at her Los Angeles home on Holocaust Remembrance Day this week.
Survivor Celina Biniaz shared her story with Gadot’s family and friends, including Sacha Baron Cohen, his wife Isla Fisher, Harvey Keitel and “Wonder Woman” director Patty Jenkins.
Gadot, the granddaughter of a survivor, said that hearing Biniaz’s testimony deeply affected everyone present.
“I don’t know about God, but I believe in people, in the power of one’s decision to do good,” she said in an Instagram post. “At the end of her testimony, Celina looked at me and said, ‘Life is just like what you said in your Wonder Woman movie — only love can save the world,’ and this moment will stay with me forever.”
Biniaz is the youngest female survivor rescued by Oskar Schindler, and is known to say, “Oskar Schindler saved my life but Steven Spielberg gave me a voice” in his film “Schindler’s List.”
It wasn’t until the release of the 1994 film that Biniaz began sharing her testimony.
Her story was recently documented in a book written by author William Friedricks: “Saved by Schindler: The Life of Celina Karp Biniaz.”
Zikaron Basalon was founded in 2011 as a grassroots organization that gives voice to survivors in living rooms across the world, and works conjunction with the USC Shoah Foundation, which connected Gadot with Bianiz.
The Shoah Foundation was established by Spielberg after the completion of “Schindler’s List,” to collect and preserve video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust.
