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For Ruth, October 7 was the most traumatic day she had experienced since the Holocaust.
Ruth Haran-Herzman, a Holocaust survivor who survived the October 7 2023 massacre in Kibbutz Be’eri by hiding for 15 hours while Hamas terrorists banged on her door, passed away last night at the age of 90.
Haran-Herzman, born in Romania, survived the Holocaust and the brutality of the Nazi regime before immigrating to Israel, where she built a proud and devoted family in Kibbutz Be’eri in the western Negev.
On October 7 she lived through terror once again.
Her son, Avshalom “Avahalomov” Haran, was murdered by Hamas terrorists that morning, and seven members of her family were kidnapped.
“I wasn’t afraid, somehow”
Ruth recounted waking up to the sound of rockets and immediately attempting to reach Avshalom, her daughter in law, and grandchildren. “There was no response,” she said.
From her window she saw armed terrorists advancing across her lawn. “They had green headbands. They were terrifying, but somehow I wasn’t afraid.”
A loud knock followed. As the attackers turned away for a moment, she fled to a hiding place and remained there for 15 hours, trembling and alone.
“Only late at night did our soldiers rescue me,” she recalled. “There were bodies around me. Burned houses. Murdered people and tiny infants. I was witnessing death again.”
A survivor twice confronted by evil
For Ruth, October 7 was the most traumatic day she had experienced since the Holocaust.
“I woke up to a horrifying reality of invasion, murder, torture, rape, acts the human mind cannot imagine. It was the loss of all sense of security.”
Despite a life marked by extraordinary suffering, she chose resilience. “Evil and hatred crossed her path more than once,” her family said, “yet she kept fighting for her family with hope and strength.”
She often spoke of the unbearable parallels between her two traumas
“October 7 took me back to my childhood in Europe, the same absolute evil, the same helplessness.”
And yet there was one painful difference
“During the Shoah I did not personally know the six million who perished. But in the Be’eri massacre I knew almost every single person who was killed.”
A family torn apart and slowly returned
Ruth’s daughter in law, Dr. Shoshan Haran, was kidnapped to Gaza, as were her granddaughter Adi Shoham, Adi’s husband Tal, and their children Naveh and Yahel.
Shoshan, Adi, Naveh, and Yahel were freed in the first hostage deal in November 2023. Tal returned to Israel in 2025 after 505 days in captivity.
Ruth’s daughter, Sharon Avigdori, and her granddaughter Noam were also abducted on October 7 and were freed after 50 days.
May her memory be a blessing.
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