Israeli actress Gal Gadot, best known for her role in Wonder Woman, hosted Holocaust survivor Celina Biniaz, 91, at her home on Tuesday to relate her story to fellow Hollywood A-listers.
Biniaz is the youngest of more than 1,100 Jews rescued by German industrialist Oskar Schindler, whose efforts were portrayed in the Oscar-winning film Schindler’s List.
The Des Moines Register related part of her story last year:
Celina Biniaz was 12 years old and naked when she looked death squarely in the eye and found the courage to utter three short words.
“Let me go,” she said in German to the notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death, at Auschwitz in 1944. Mengele then pushed her aside rather than to the left, which would have meant certain death.
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Biniaz, who eventually moved to Des Moines as a teenager with her parents and graduated from North High School and Grinnell College, became a school teacher in New York before retiring with her husband in California. She lives there today at age 91 and is in good health, said her son, Rob Biniaz. Her husband of 62 years, Amir “Bini” Biniaz, a retired dentist, died on Oct. 4 [in 2022].
Schindler used his factories to enlist, as forced laborers, many Jews who otherwise would have been murdered. He included many Jews who were technically too young or old to work, saving them from certain death.
Gadot hosted the evening as part of a grass roots program, Zikaron BaSalon, aimed at encouraging people to commemorate the Holocaust in intimate gatherings in their homes, not just in public memorial events. She worked with the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation.
The Times of Israel reported:
Survivor Celina Biniaz shared her story with Gadot’s family and friends, including Sacha Baron Cohen, his wife Isla Fisher, Harvey Keitel and “Wonder Woman” director Patty Jenkins.
Gadot, the granddaughter of a survivor, said that hearing Biniaz’s testimony deeply affected everyone present.
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The Shoah Foundation was established by Spielberg after the completion of “Schindler’s List,” to collect and preserve video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust.