Cassuto, Chana
Was born on January 20, 1911, in Ancona, Italy, where she graduated from a high school in Florence and studied at the British Institute of English at the age of 24. At the age of 24 she married Dr. Nathan Cassuto (his son) Of the Professor of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, MD Cassuto z “l). Her husband was the Chief Rabbi of Florence and was also known as a renowned eye doctor in this city. The racial laws severely damaged his scientific career, but did not undermine the confidence of the young couple and their hope for a peaceful future in the land of the forefathers. In this spirit they raised their children and in the same spirit also preached to his community. When the Germans took control of Italy in 1943, Chana had three children and at the beginning of this difficult period gave birth to a fourth time. She left the house and fled with her children to a safer shelter and rarely met her husband, who was engaged in underground work to save Jews at that time; he hid them in safe places, and as far as he could get his hand, he would help anyone who approached him. In these meetings with her husband, Chana would add encouragement and strength to him and would not bother him with family matters, even though her life with the three children and the baby was unbearable. During his hard and devoted work, her husband was arrested by the Germans and after a while he was sent to concentration camps in Germany. At that time, Chana Oz-Nefesh emerged from her absorption camp and contacted various people and underground institutions in the hope of saving her husband or providing him with material help. In one of these attempts she was also caught by the Germans, brought to a prison, and from there transferred to the Auschwitz death camp. Her friends in Auschwitz told of her great influence among her sisters on fate, which was weaker than her, and her willingness to share her poor bread with her friends who were sick with their bodies. When she left, she did not find her husband among the living (he disappeared in hell-camps); The baby, who was forty days pregnant from her mother, was also not alive (she died four months later). In 1945 she found her three children in the home of her father, her late husband Cassuto, in Jerusalem. It was not easy for her to return to normal life, but once again she discovered wonderful inner powers, and gradually found her way to the Lev of her children , Because because of the separation, a kind of barrier of alienation between the mother and the children was created, and the relationship between them grew closer and closer, and her health improved and she returned to her strength. On the part of the scientists with whom she worked. On April 13, 1948, she boarded a convoy of doctors and Hadas workers “Mount Scopus. The road to Mount Scopus passed through the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and upon the outbreak of the war the movement was allowed to mount convoys secured by the British army. On the morning of April 13, 1948, a convoy left for Mount Scopus, after the British promised that the road was open and safe. The convoy encountered an Arab ambush in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and hundreds of Arabs hurled heavy gunfire at it. Some of the vehicles managed to get out and return, but two buses, an ambulance and an escort escort were caught in ambush. For many hours the convoy members fought and tried to prevent the Arabs from approaching the vehicles. Fire from our positions in the city and Mount Scopus, as well as armored vehicles sent to the area, failed to help the convoy. British military forces in the area did not intervene and did nothing to help, despite appeals to them. In the afternoon the Arabs managed to set fire to two buses on their passengers. Only in the late evening did the British intervene and rescue the survivors from the trapped vehicles. Hannah was brought to rest in the cemetery in Sanhedria in Jerusalem.
