Special Report

JN STORY SPARKS REUNION

A 1951 photo of Victor,

his wife and mother

Christian Angel from page All

hotels commandeered by the U.N. and
American forces with 1,200 survivors
residing in the camp. The military was
assigned to ensure calm with the local
residents, who were not happy their
hotels were commandeered. While most
of the other solders returned to their
barracks after their working shift, Victor
became friendly with the now-free Jews.
He returned in the evenings to socialize
with them and even watched plays from a
drama club that was formed by the resi-
dents of the camp.

American relatives. One day, Bell
and Freda came to him with a
request for assistance finding
their aunt in Detroit. Victor took
a personal interest in their plight
and wrote to his mother asking
for her help finding this Shapiro
relative.
The story of Victor Ayoub's extraordi-
nary compassion 62 years ago is now the
story of my family. Though Victor's words
were humble and his account simply told,
each word hung in the air and filled our
minds with the bright light of its signifi-
cance.
Ironically, the very next day, on June
10, darkness coiled and struck again at
the hearts of survivors when a tragic

Moment Remembered
Soon, people came to him asking for
assistance contacting Jewish agencies in
New York, hoping to make contact with

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Power Of Hope
But in West Bloomfield, tucked safely away
in a drawer, is hope ... hope in tomorrow

Lithuanian Sisters Reach U.S.
Through Efforts of Detroit GI

Ruth Miriam Levine
Jewish News Staff Writer

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shooting took place at the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. A
security guard was killed. Senseless and
violent, such acts blind us to the light and
all we see is the darkness. For survivors,
such horror must pull them back into the
shadow of their memories.

and hope in each other. Hope
that Victor is not an anomaly
and that the pure light of good
will prevails, despite dark
hearts.
Victor and his mother, Agnes,
are heroes to the Storchan fam-
ily and no doubt many other families of
survivors. No amount of gratitude could
express the feelings they have for Victor
and Agnes.
During the reunion on June 9, the
Storchan family was honored to present
Victor with an official tribute signed by
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Lt.
Gov. John Cherry. They also brought him
pictures from Bell and Samuel's wedding,
showing his wife and mother.

Reprinted from the Detroit Jewish News,
April 19, 1.947

reyda and Bella Fivosk (sic, should be
Fivosh), formerly of Slobodka-Kova
Lithuania and points south and west, are
at home with their aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs.
Robert Shapiro of 2451 Tyler, now thanks to the
efforts of a Detroit GI who was known to hundreds
of DP's in Bad-Gastein, Germany, as the "Christian
Angel."
The GI is Victor Ayoub, an American of Syrian
extraction, the son of Mrs. Agnes Ayoub of 7234
Tuxedo. He became a factor in the lives of the Fivosk
(sic) sisters after they had followed the painfully
familiar path of the European Jew from ghetto to
concentration camp to labor battalion to DP camp.
With their mother, Freyda and Bella had been
taken in June 1944, from the Kovno ghetto to
the Stuthof concentration camp in East Prussia.
They stayed there three weeks and were sent into
Germany, where they were placed at hard labor for
the most part in the German trenches.

Liberated By Russians
The privations of this life weakened all of them.
Bella, the younger sister, (she is 18 now) and her
mother fell desperately ill. Mrs. Fivosk (sic) died
shortly after the Russians liberated them in March
1945, but through the unselfish devotion and con-
stant nursing of her older sister (Freyda is 22), Bella
survived.
The girls wanted to return to their home in
Lithuania, but reports seeping back through Europe

told them that there was no home and no future
for them there; so they continued their European
wanderings until they entered the American zone
of occupation, where they were sheltered in the DP
camp at Bad Gastein.

Wanted To Aid DPs
Here, they attracted the attention of Sgt. Ayoub, an
American soldier who, unlike the majority of his
comrades, deliberately chose service at the Jewish
DP camps because he felt their plight so keenly and
wanted to give them whatever aid possible.
The girls had only vague information about their
American relatives. They were sure of the name
Shapiro, but only guessed at the location, Detroit.
Their benefactor, however, determined to find a
home for them, wrote to his mother.
Mrs. Ayoub went to work with the telephone
directory, contacting every Shapiro in the book,
until she finally reached the girls' aunt.

Landed March 14
From that point, arrangements went smoothly. With
the assistance of HIAS, the Shapiros, together with
Mrs. Shapiro's sister and brother-in-law, Rabbi and
Mrs. Meir Levi of Brooklyn, provided affidavits and
secured passage for the girls. They landed in New
York March 14, and have been in Detroit for four
weeks. Their visas, they note, were the first granted
by the Lithuanian minister to Austria from the mea-
ger quota assigned to him.
Today, Freyda and Bella Fivok are first learning
to forget the past; second, learning to speak English
and adapting themselves to the American way
of life, and always gratefully to Victor Ayoub, the
"Christian Angel" whose unselfish efforts brought
them to freedom. I

