Born March 18, 1927   |   Kuty, Poland (now Ukraine)

There is only one safe place for Jewish people. That place is Israel.

Dora was 14 years old when, on June 22, 1941, she fled with her Aunt Sheindle and six-month-old cousin by horse and carriage toward the Russian border as the German army advanced. Dora’s parents, three siblings, grandmother, uncles, aunts and cousins stayed behind in Poland. All were rounded up and murdered. Dora spent months evading the Nazis and their collaborators while living in abysmal conditions. Talented and resourceful, she survived by selling her own needlework and labouring at menial jobs. Winter was particularly harsh, with starvation a constant factor. In 1942, Dora made her way to Karaganda, Kazakhstan, where she worked in the accounting department of a coal mine. There she met her future husband, Moshe, a forced labourer at the mine. 

Following the war, Dora married Moshe. In 1946 they returned to Poland, settling in the city of Dzerzoniow where their children, Hadassah and Jacob, were born. Stalwart Zionists, the Karzbruns made numerous attempts to immigrate to Israel and were finally permitted to make aliyah—immigrate to Israel— in 1957. They settled in Ashdod and together established a successful propane distribution business in the rapidly growing industrial and port city. A widow since 1997, Dora continues to live in her condominium overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Multilingual and engaged in the world around her, she follows current events in several languages. A loving and inspiring matriarch, Dora is a trusted advisor to her family and proud savta to six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.