Open Doors and Open Hearts

Zvi Eyal was born Harry Klafter in Utrecht, the Netherlands. As a teenager, he was imprisoned in Westerbork, the Nazi transit camp whose purpose was to prepare Jews for extermination by creating a virtual reality, depicting a quasi-normalcy made possible by the victims' denial of the facts on the ground. Zvi finished high school in defiance of the ongoing extermination of Dutch Jewry. On the even of his transport to Auschwitz, he miraculously escaped, and with the courageous help of three Dutch families survived the war. The saga of his illegal aliyah to Palestine, participation in the War of Independence, the family he built, and the distinguished career he led in surgery exemplifies the ingathering of the Jewish people in its exaltation and glory. (back cover)