On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israeli actress Gal Gadot chose to share a recent project that she narrated for the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial and museum — and her very personal connection to it.
“Today is international holocaust day,” the “Wonder Woman” star wrote on Twitter. “A little while ago, I had the honor of narrating a short film for visitors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial and museum. This is the same concentration camp my grandfather was in, the one he barely survived.”
“Standing in the recording booth, telling the unbelievable, unbearable stories, I thought about my Saba,” Gadot, 37, recalled, using the Hebrew word for grandpa, “and wondered if he would ever imagine his [own] granddaughter, telling these stories, in Hebrew, for the world to hear. This was one of the most moving and powerful experiences of my life and I am grateful for the opportunity to take part in such an important cause and coming full circle with my own personal family story. May we always remember and never forget. I miss you Saba.”
It is incredibly moving to think that Israelis visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau will be able to listen to Gadot recount the stories of those who perished and survived the horrific concentration camp in Hebrew, both because she is the granddaughter of an Auschwitz survivor, but also because she is one of the most celebrated Jewish and Israeli actresses in the world. She’s a true testament to the fact that we, as a people, are still here — kicking and thriving — despite those who tried to eradicate us.
Gadot is also working on keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive in other ways. She’s currently working on a biopic of Holocaust hero Irena Sendler.
Throughout the years, Gadot has shared stories about her maternal grandfather, Abraham Weiss, on social media. In 2020, she shared a picture that Weiss took in the prison camp uniform he was forced to wear as a teen in the concentration camp. Gadot shared that Weiss “miraculously avoided his own untimely death 9 times.”
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She’s shared old pictures of Weiss, recounting that he was born in 1928 in a small village named Muncaks in Czechoslovakia and that he lost his entire family in WWII, but that his legacy was one of love.
“My grandpa taught me there is NO wrong religion. No wrong color. And no wrong race. I was taught to love all people for what their heart is,” she shared.
She also wrote that “his legacy was to have his own new family and create for himself new roots in this world as all he ever had was taken from him.” Gadot is continuing that legacy with her three daughters.
Back in 2018, when she was shooting “Wonder Woman 1984,” Gadot visited the Hall of Remembrance at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to light a candle for her grandfather and his family.
That same year, her assistant also happened on this beautiful video of the two of them:
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“My grandpa is always with me,” she wrote in the caption about Weiss, who passed away in 2014.
May his memory be a blessing — and may we always remember all those we lost to the Holocaust.
