{"id":246711,"date":"2026-08-12T21:02:44","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T21:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/246711\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T21:02:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T21:02:44","slug":"i-owe-my-life-to-her-israeli-man-83-pays-tribute-to-christian-woman-who-saved-him-from-holocaust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/246711\/","title":{"rendered":"I owe my life to her: Israeli man, 83, pays tribute to Christian woman who saved him from Holocaust"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Mintz&#8217;s name will be engraved on The Wall of Honour in The Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<p>Kochba told YNet:\u00a0\u201cI was deeply moved to receive this wonderful news from Yad Vashem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn behalf of the entire family, I thank them for closing an 83-year circle. Symbolically, I will celebrate my 83rd birthday next week, and this is the most moving gift I could receive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"p-smartembed\" data-attr-caption=\"The cover page from Ephraim's album (Image: Yad Vashem)\" data-attr-credit=\"\" data-attr-f=\"3x2\" data-attr-has-caption=\"true\" data-attr-has-credit=\"true\" data-attr-q=\"0.3\" data-attr-w=\"400\" data-onecms-id=\"contentid\/1t2lnrxdx6vsurro8q6\" data-onecms-type=\"image\" href=\"javascript:throw new Error('React has blocked a javascript: URL as a security precaution.')\" polopoly:contentid=\"contentid\/1t2lnrxdx6vsurro8q6\" data-tracking-context=\"In article link\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot 2026-08-12 at 16.22.46.png\" loading=\"lazy\"   alt=\"The cover page from Ephraim's album (Image: Yad Vashem)\"\/>The cover page from Ephraim&#8217;s album (Image: Yad Vashem)[Missing Credit]<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>In 1943, three years after the Nazis occupied the Netherlands, Kochba\u2019s\u00a0parents asked their friend\u00a0Mintz\u00a0to look after him and keep him safe, fully aware that they could be taken off to the concentration camps at any moment.<\/p>\n<p>Mintz agreed\u00a0and took in baby Kochba despite the fact that she was on her own because her Jewish husband Max was being\u00a0held at the Westerbork transit camp, where Dutch Jews were kept before being\u00a0transported to concentration camps.<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"p-smartembed\" data-attr-caption=\"One of the pages from Ephraim Kochba's childhood scrapbook (Image: Yad Vashem)\" data-attr-credit=\"\" data-attr-f=\"3x2\" data-attr-has-caption=\"true\" data-attr-has-credit=\"true\" data-attr-q=\"0.3\" data-attr-w=\"400\" data-onecms-id=\"contentid\/1t2lntv4km821f968kb\" data-onecms-type=\"image\" href=\"javascript:throw new Error('React has blocked a javascript: URL as a security precaution.')\" polopoly:contentid=\"contentid\/1t2lntv4km821f968kb\" data-tracking-context=\"In article link\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot 2026-08-12 at 16.23.00.png\" loading=\"lazy\"   alt=\"One of the pages from Ephraim Kochba's childhood scrapbook (Image: Yad Vashem)\"\/>One of the pages from Ephraim Kochba&#8217;s childhood scrapbook (Image: Yad Vashem)[Missing Credit]<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Mintz, who didn\u2019t have any biological children, raised Kochba as if he was her own, detailing\u00a0every stage of his early life with photographs\u00a0in a scrapbook,\u00a0from his first smile to his first steps.<\/p>\n<p>Towards the end of the war, Kochba\u2019s biological parents were murdered by the Nazis.<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"p-smartembed\" data-attr-caption=\"Ephraim Kochba at Yad Vashem (Image: Yad Vashem)\" data-attr-credit=\"\" data-attr-f=\"3x2\" data-attr-has-caption=\"true\" data-attr-has-credit=\"true\" data-attr-q=\"0.3\" data-attr-w=\"400\" data-onecms-id=\"contentid\/1t2mnby90qa19c00e0u\" data-onecms-type=\"image\" href=\"javascript:throw new Error('React has blocked a javascript: URL as a security precaution.')\" polopoly:contentid=\"contentid\/1t2mnby90qa19c00e0u\" data-tracking-context=\"In article link\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Byl91tMOLzx_1_280_720_405_0_x-large.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   alt=\"Ephraim Kochba at Yad Vashem (Image: Yad Vashem)\"\/>Ephraim Kochba at Yad Vashem (Image: Yad Vashem)[Missing Credit]<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Sadly, Mintz then died\u00a0while Kochba was still very young and he went to live with relatives of his biological parents.<\/p>\n<p>Aged just\u00a0four,\u00a0he was taken to Israel by his adoptive family.\u00a0He still lives there today.<\/p>\n<p>For around the next two decades, he had no idea of his history or how he survived the Holocaust.<\/p>\n<p>But in his early twenties, Kochba found out how Mintz had cared for him, and was even reunited with Max in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"p-smartembed\" data-attr-caption=\"Wedding photograph of Ephraim Kochba's biological parents (the child in the picture is not Ephraim) (Image: Yad Vashem)\" data-attr-credit=\"\" data-attr-f=\"3x2\" data-attr-has-caption=\"true\" data-attr-has-credit=\"true\" data-attr-q=\"0.3\" data-attr-w=\"400\" data-onecms-id=\"contentid\/1t2lnwgvnukr50mscnd\" data-onecms-type=\"image\" href=\"javascript:throw new Error('React has blocked a javascript: URL as a security precaution.')\" polopoly:contentid=\"contentid\/1t2lnwgvnukr50mscnd\" data-tracking-context=\"In article link\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot 2026-08-12 at 16.23.18.png\" loading=\"lazy\"   alt=\"Wedding photograph of Ephraim Kochba's biological parents (the child in the picture is not Ephraim) (Image: Yad Vashem)\"\/>Wedding photograph of Ephraim Kochba&#8217;s biological parents (the child in the picture is not Ephraim) (Image: Yad Vashem)[Missing Credit]<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>At 40, Kochba received his childhood scrapbook album, translated into Hebrew by his relatives, and for the first time he was able to have a glimpse of his own childhood.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI greatly appreciate Yad Vashem\u2019s determination and care in advancing the recognition of Jacqueline, who is very deserving of it,\u201d he told\u00a0YNet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mintz&#8217;s name will be engraved on The Wall of Honour in The Garden of the Righteous Among the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[14814,37,63852,23999],"class_list":["post-246711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-holocaust","tag-israel","tag-righteous-among-the-nations","tag-yad-vashem"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117084563124889141","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}