Holocaust Survivor David Danieli Meets President Isaac Herzog to Recall a 1946 Rescue Train

On a recent Tuesday at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, President Isaac Herzog welcomed David Danieli, a 94-year-old survivor of the Holocaust. During their conversation, Herzog expressed that he felt “privileged and honored” to meet one of the hundreds of children rescued by his grandfather, Rabbi Isaac Herzog, and to hear Danieli’s personal recollections of that rescue.

The Jerusalem Post

In August 1946, Danieli joined more than 500 orphaned Jewish children at Katowice railway station in Poland. The children, gathered by Rabbi Isaac Herzog and the Va’ad Hatzala rescue committee, boarded a train that traveled to Prague before the High Holy Days. After a brief stay, some were transferred to Strasbourg, where members of the Hapoel Hamizrahi organization cared for them. Later that year, Danieli boarded the SS Exodus, which set sail from Marseille with 4,515 Holocaust survivors. British authorities intercepted the ship and returned the passengers to Europe.

The Jerusalem Post

Following the failed Exodus voyage, Danieli spent time in a displaced-persons camp in Hamburg before successfully sailing to Israel in 1948. He entered the standard immigrant absorption process, became an engineer, married, and settled in Beersheba. Danieli lived there for 42 years, raising a family and contributing to the development of the Negev region.

The Jerusalem Post

Danieli’s meeting with President Herzog highlighted the enduring impact of the rescue efforts organized by Rabbi Herzog’s generation. The president’s remarks underscored the symbolic link between the historic rescue of orphaned children and Israel’s ongoing commitment to remembering Holocaust survivors. Danieli’s detailed recollection of his wartime experiences—despite limited early knowledge of Judaism—offers a personal window into the broader narrative of post-war Jewish displacement, rescue, and nation-building.

The Jerusalem Post