‘We’re going to the slaughter’ – Holocaust victim’s final letter to SA

“We have been fasting for two days now, and we are going to the slaughter. Our yortzheit will be on 29 August, so please observe it.” These were some of the words written by Zipora Maronis (nee Buck), in a letter that she hoped would get to her husband and his brother in South Africa. She wrote it just before she and her children were killed in the small town of Malat (Molėtai) in Lithuania in 1941, during the Holocaust.

“It was probably thrown out of the building,” wrote Sol Buck, sharing the letter on 14 June 2022 on the Facebook group called Southern Africa Jewish Genealogy. According to historical records, the approximately 2 000 Jews of the town were locked into their synagogue for a number of days before being shot and buried in mass graves.

“A Lithuanian woman found the letter and kept it until she was able to give it to a relative of the family who visited the Soviet Union about 20 years later, in the 1960s. Meanwhile, Zipora’s husband, Moshe, and my father, Benny, had died without getting to see the letter, which was never delivered to South Africa. The original letter is now in Yad Vashem,” says Buck.

Zipora’s bravery and fear are revealed in her heartfelt words, which she hoped would be carried across the seas. “May you all remain in good health and we will be good pleaders [with G-d, in the next world] for you. We are standing dressed up, all of us, with my dear little children, and are waiting. We are all in the Beit HaMidrash now, and have had enough of this life so that many a time one wished death to come,” she wrote. It’s assumed that she somehow threw the letter out of the synagogue while being locked in.

“Already on the eve of Rosh Chodesh Av, they lined us up to be shot, but a miracle happened. Today our miracle would be if G-d has mercy on us. Only if we are shot will he [the messenger paid to send the letter] send you the letter. Moshe, they are after your little kids. That is what they want. So goodbye and keep strong. We Jews are sacrificing ourselves for your redemption,” she wrote.

The letter was to be sent to Mr B. Buck, P.O. Alberton, Transvaal, South Africa.

“My parents immigrated to South Africa from Malat [Moletai] in 1928,” says Buck. “They got married in Morgenzon, [in the then Eastern Transvaal], in 1933. They then moved to Alberton, where they started a general dealer business. I was born in 1944, their youngest child. Both my sisters, Marcia and Doreen, were born and raised in Alberton, each of us moving to Johannesburg when we got married. In 1976, I immigrated with my wife, Maureen, and our three children to Toronto, Canada.”

Delving into the past, Buck says, “In Malat, my father’s sister, Zipora Buck, married Moshe Maronis. They had two daughters. Leaving Zipora and his two daughters in Malat, Moshe came to South Africa to find work and apply for citizenship to enable him to bring them to South Africa. Having no profession or trade, he found a job as a Hebrew teacher. Meanwhile, in Malat, the Jews were being rounded up for execution. This is when Zipora wrote her letter. There’s mention of this about 21 minutes into the film The Last Sunday of August, which can be found on YouTube.”

Buck found out about the letter only in the late 1970s while he was living in Canada. “Back in South Africa, a non-Jewish lady gave my sister, Doreen Braude, a book called Final Letters from the Yad Vashem Archive. This book has a collection of final letters, including the one written by my aunt.

“I was shocked by the words written by Zipora, and still remain uncertain how my father and uncle Moshe, would have reacted had they read this letter. I found out that the letter was delivered to my mother by a relative who returned to South Africa from a visit to the Soviet Union. At the time my mother received the letter, my father was still alive but had a weak heart and she was afraid to show him the letter due to his health. Years after his death, on a visit to Israel, she gave the letter to Yad Vashem. It’s not on display, but is kept in the archive, which is why I have been posting it on social media for all to see. Yad Vashem also sent me an official copy of the letter.”

Buck has mixed emotions about his father and uncle not seeing the letter. “My uncle lived a lonely life. He lived with our family and worked in my father’s business until he died in 1963. Both my uncle and parents never spoke about Zipora and her two children. As a result, we know very little about my father’s family and even the names of the two children.”

Buck hasn’t been to Malat, and wouldn’t want to go there. “Whenever reciting the Yizkor prayers in shul, I mention Zipora. As South Africa’s Jewish community has a large percentage of Jews from Lithuania, I feel it’s extremely important that the younger generation born in South Africa should know about the atrocities carried out in Lithuania.”

Buck recently found the Southern Africa Jewish Genealogy page while sharing the letter on social media. “The response in this community has been overwhelming. I also connected with a few descendants of parents from Malat.”

Ninety people from around the world commented on the post on Facebook. “Brave and dignified. It seems like she was somewhat at peace and saw herself as a de facto guardian angel as she very much must be for the generations that survived. What a remarkable person, and how proud you all must be that through the senseless horror and depravity, she composed such a testament. A true eshet chayil [woman of valour],” wrote Haraldo Harris.

“Thank you for sharing this. I have read this letter many times, and actually have a copy of it too, but this is the first time I’ve heard about it from the family it was written for,” wrote Kerryn Lehman. “No matter how many times I read it, it still gives me chills. My bobba was from Malat, and her family [parents and siblings] were killed there as well. She survived, and went to South Africa [after being liberated from Bergen Belsen]. She was the chairlady of the Molėtai Society.”

“Tragic, devastating, and heartbreaking. Yet here we all are, descendants of Malat who survived these horrors to bear witness for our children and grandchildren,” wrote Lauraine Glazer.

In 2016, Lithuania’s president joined hundreds of people marking the 75th anniversary of the massacre of the Jews of Molėtai.

Buck still feels connected to the South African Jewish community. “My sister lives at Golden Acres in Johannesburg, and my wife has a sister living in Johannesburg. The South African Jewish community is an important diaspora community, and it makes important contributions to every Jewish community to which it moves.”