Chava Wolf was born in Vizhnitz, formerly located in northern Bukovina. Her mother studied Hebrew and dreamt of moving to Eretz Israel (Mandatory Palestine) and working as a kindergarten teacher; her father was a talmid yeshiva (religious Jewish scholar) and a butcher. Due to her father's work, the family moved to Dornești, where they lived until their deportation to Rădăuți. In October 1941 Chava's family was deported to Transnistria, along with the rest of the Jews of Rădăuți. At first the family was deported to a transit camp in Mohyliv-Podilskyi, a city in the Vinnytsia region. The transit camp was a ruined and polluted former army barrack, into which thousands were cramped. The camp was guarded by Romanian gendarmes, with extremely difficult living conditions. Chava's aunt, Miriam, who was a doctor, received special permission to work as a doctor in the Kopaihorod ghetto, and the family moved there with her. One day, while ordered to sweep the street, Chava was severly beaten by a Romanian gendarme. The wound became infected, impairing her eyesight. A short time later, on 5 July 1942, most of the Jews of Kopaihorod, both locals and deportees, were sent to a camp in a nearby forest surrounded by a double barbed wire fence, where they lived in harsh conditions. Hundreds of Jews died before the remaining survivors returned to the town. On 22 March 1944 Kopaihorod was liberated by the Red Army, and Chava's family returned to Rădăuți. Chava joined the Zionist Bnei Akiva youth
movement, immigrating to Palestine in late 1947 aboard the ship "Geula." The ship was caught, and Chava was sent to Cyprus. After her immigration to Mandate Palestine, Chava was sent to "Neve Amiel" Youth Aliyah institution. In 1953 Chava married Shimshon Wolf. The couple lived in Jaffa and had three daughters. Over the years Chava studied painting and creative writing, and through her art she conveys her life during the Holocaust.
Video length: 27 minutes
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