Getting Old

The man loves spending time alone. “You get old,” he says. “I walk around with a cane, shaky. You have time. You sit in a chair, an easy chair and start thinking about your past, what happened,” said Uri.

Monkey Toy

This is amazing how a monkey toy with no life inside changed so many lives. Gert would have never imagined that a toy he held on to all his life would help him get back to his family.

In Disbelief

Uri himself is in disbelief. He said, “What happened to his parents, to him and our family is still hard to absorb. But one little thing from the past also delivered a big surprise. My father packed that monkey in a suitcase when he fled for his life nearly 80 years ago.”

Concluded

He concluded, “It turned out he had to give up that treasured piece of his history to discover something new about the past. “It’s a gift,” he says. “In my old age, I have discovered I have a family.”

Got Viral

The story, when put in the public domain, tugged to thousands of people’s heartstrings. Some called it sad, some focussed more on its happy ending. One of the Twitter users going by the name Allison Norlian said, “Just listened to @uberliner’s piece about his father surviving the Holocaust & how a stuffed monkey brought him together with unknown family in the future. The story is riveting & I’m sitting here crying. Thank you, Uri for sharing this heartfelt story.”

Never Happen Again

Mona Huffman, another user said “Thank you for sharing this story. What a horrific part of our world history. People should tell theses stories again and again so that we remember and take steps so that atrocities like the Genocide of Jewish people never happen again.”