‘If you have the why you’ll find the how’
Rachel described October 7 for Israel and the Jewish world as being "hit by a truck that is still on us".
Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, parents of murdered hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, have revealed how their son’s mantra saved the life of recently released hostage Or Levy.
Speaking in front of packed audiences during their visit to Australia for UIA, Jon and Rachel shared heartbreaking new details about their son’s abduction and murder.
Hersh was thrown into a truck and taken into Gaza along with Levy, Eliya Cohen and Alon Ohel after hiding in a bomb shelter on October 7. Levy and Cohen have been released over the last couple of weeks, while Ohel remains in captivity.
“We had the tremendous privilege to go sit in a room for a few hours one night with Or Levy days after he’d been released,” said Jon.
“Or shared some things with us that we had not known. Upon entering Gaza they were split up – the three boys went one direction and Hersh, who had been bleeding out, was put somewhere else.
“We haven’t shared this with anybody yet, but Or told us that he assumed Hersh was dead because they put him somewhere and covered him with a blanket.
“Then on day 52 Or and a few others were taken from an apartment down into a tunnel and he gets into the tunnel and there’s a guy with one arm in the tunnel. He didn’t put it together until they started talking and Hersh said to him, ‘You’re the guy from the bomb shelter with the son.’ They reconnected then spent two and a half days together before being split up again.”
Levy told Jon and Rachel that Hersh kept repeating a mantra that he then took on himself.
“It was a slight mis-translation of Viktor Frankl and Nietzsche, ‘If you have the why you’ll find the how’,” said Jon.
“Or told us that mantra saved him. He knew he had his two-year-old son – his wife he wasn’t sure, but we now know she was killed – he had to get home for his son.”
Rachel described October 7 for Israel and the Jewish world as being “hit by a truck that is still on us”. She also thanked the community in Australia for treating them with such care.
“We had that interview with The AJN and we were asked, ‘What can we do in Australia?’,” she said.
“I said I would love for you to smile and wave and so many people have done that.”
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