Bnei Brak, Israel - For nearly 60 years, Binyamin Shilon believed his sister was among the six million Jews killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Now he holds her in his arms and cries with joy.
Shilon, 78, and Shoshana November, 73, were separated from each other and their two brothers in their native Poland during the 1930s.
After World War 2 broke out, Shilon ended up joining the Soviet Red Army. His sister was sent to Auschwitz.
They survived and emigrated separately to Israel, each believing the rest of their family had been wiped out by the Nazis.
Then on Friday, an American cousin brought November to Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial authority in Jerusalem, to check the records left by other survivors.
The check revealed Shilon was alive, and lived just a 90-minute drive from November's house. That same night, she spoke to her brother for the first time since 1938.
"Today, even, I don't believe it," November said.
Shilon and November are worn by their years, but soon again became Bronik and Ruja Szlamowicz, their Polish childhood selves, hugging and nuzzling each other.
The siblings came to Israel for different reasons. November moved to Palestine on the eve of Israel's 1948 independence to avoid following her stepmother to Canada.
Shilon immigrated in 1957 to escape a revival of anti-Semitism in Poland.
The two resumed their lives.
November filed her testimony as a Holocaust survivor at Yad Vashem in the 1950s. It took Shilon until 1999, when he finally filled out forms for his mother and all the siblings he believed had been killed by the Nazis, including his little sister Ruja.
On Friday, the first night of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, November's grandson Nir Silberberg, 24, called to ask Shilon three questions: "Does the name 'Szlamowicz' mean anything to you?" "Did you have a sister named 'Ruja?"'
And finally: "Would you like to talk to her?"
The siblings spoke twice that night, and on Saturday saw each other for the first time since 1938. They traded stories and lit Hanukkah candles. November found out she was two years older than she thought.
"It's hard to explain that feeling we have. It's hard to measure in terms of gain. It's all inside," Shilon said. "You cannot describe it." - Sapa-AP