Holocaust survivor Shoshana Ovitz has passed away at Mayanei HaYeshua Hospital in Bnai Brak aged 105.

Her 104th birthday ‘once in a lifetime’ celebrations surrounded by 400 descendants from around the world at the Western Wall in 2019 went viral.

Surviving Auschwitz, Shoshana married another survivor, Rabbi Dov Ovitz, whose wife and four daughters were murdered by the Nazis. From Austria they emigrated to Israel, settled in Haifa where they had four children and became respected members of the Viznitz community in Bnai Brak.

Shoshana said her long life was due to respecting her parents until they were murdered in Auschwitz.

She recalled “Angel of Death” Nazi doctor Josef Mengele selecting her mother at Auschwitz leading to her death. Shoshana’s father also died at the death camp.

Shoshana’s eldest granddaughter, Pnina Friedman, reportedly told Walla News that it was not easy to organise the Kotel event. “She asked us to put together a list of all the names of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren so that she could look and pray for them,” Pnina said.