Over 200 Israelis attend funeral of Holocaust survivor they don’t know

More than 200 Israelis attend the funeral of a complete stranger — a Holocaust survivor from the Canary Islands who is buried in a Tel Aviv cemetery.

Hilde Nathan’s final wish was to be laid to rest in Israel alongside her mother, the United With Israel organization says on its website.

Nathan, who did not have a husband or children, died alone last week in the Canary Islands at 90. Knowing of her wishes, the Canary Island Jewish community, which numbers about 20, raised the money to fly her body to Israel for burial. The community put out a call through the Israeli media for mourners at her funeral, which is held Monday morning.

“Nathan always lived alone, but today it seems that the entire People of Israel has come to say goodbye. She lived alone, but did not leave alone,” an Israeli Holocaust survivor, the only person at the funeral who was acquainted with her when she was alive, tells the United With Israel website.

Nathan, a native of Germany, was one of the few released from the Theresienstadt concentration camp by the Soviet army on May 8, 1945. Her father died shortly after the war and was buried in Germany, and she and her mother moved to the Canary Islands. Her mother died several years ago and was buried in Israel.

— JTA