The Full Testimony
Testimony of
Simon Baum
Simon Baum, a gardener, lived with his wife Vicky and their two teenage sons in Kibbutz Nir Oz. On Saturday morning, when the alarms started, the family members and the dog entered the safe room. For many hours, they heard the sounds of gunfire and explosions outside their home, and learned from the kibbutz's WhatsApp messages that terrorists were breaking into the houses and burning them down. At the request of the boys, they turned off the light and the air conditioner and waited, while Simon and his eldest son were holding the door of the safe room the whole the time. When after 11 hours the door of the house was broken in, the family members feared that these were terrorists and Simon came out of the safe room with a baseball bat in his hand - and met the soldiers who came to rescue them. Later Simon learned that some of his closest friends in the kibbutz had been murdered or kidnapped. Simon feels that his life and he himself has changed beyond recognition since that Sabbath, which he defines as the worst day of his life.
Place of the event:
Nir Oz
Name:
Simon Baum
Organization:
None
Language:
Hebrew
Credit:
Date: 15.11.2023
Interview: Talya Avishai
Photography: Kfir Smiley Amir
Video Editing: Attar Keren
Content Editing: Einat Gal
Sound Editing: Ophir Lokay Eliassaf
Translation: Shoshana Lavan
Other media
Deborah Mintz
“Another couple of hours we would have been dead anyways”- Deborah Mintz on 7.10 in Nirim
Tamar Livyatan
From Tamar Livyatan's testimony: "I have a daughter and granddaughter here, and I am not leaving without them."
Judith Bdolach
From Judith Bdolach's testimony: "What should have been a calm and quiet work-out, turned into a nightmare"
Amir Levkowiz
From Amir Levkowiz's testimony: ""They'll have to go through me, but they won't get in from here. And I just shoot.""
Jude Ida Turgeman
From Jude Ida Turgeman's testimony: "They realized that we might not live, they realized that their friends were being killed."
Etel Bennett
From Etel Bennett's testimony: "I said to my grandson: "I'm not Rambo. I'm not going to fight anyone with knives.""
Liat Ben- shimol
From Liat Ben- shimol's testimony: "The beautiful and pastoral moshav had turned into a war zone, a battlefield."
Rotem Israel
From Rotem Israel's testimony: "I saw the barrel of a rifle between the closet and the wall, as if death was looking into my face"
Meshi Foldes and
Sebastian Posdsamser
From MESHI FOLDES, Sebabstian Posdsamser's testimony: "I hear gunshots spinning by me from every direction."
Danny Garkovitch
From Danny Garkovitch's testimony: " I performed the tearing mourning ritual in my heart a long time ago."
Regina Solomon
From Regina Solomon's testimony: "“Nobody understands what’s going on; firing, loud noise and many missiles.”"
