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Judah Samet, 80, survived the Holocaust as a child. On Saturday, he missed the four-minute shoot of Tree of Life.(Photo: Ryan Miller, USA Today)
PITTSBURGH – Judah Samet was four minutes late in service on the Sabbath.
He always arrives at the hour, at 9:45 am. A conversation with his housekeeper Saturday however held him out of the slaughter of 11 of his friends at the Tree Synagogue of life.
For the 80-year-old Neo-Hungarian, the attack on his place of worship was the second time that anti-Semitism almost cost him his life. Samet survived 10 months in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during the Second World War and was only at a stopped train from Auschwitz.
Samet is parked in the Tree of Life parking lot "around 9:49, maybe 9:50" on Saturday, he said. Then a man knocked on the window of his car.
"He told me," There is shooting in your synagogue, "Samet told USA TODAY. "Suddenly, I see this policeman who was hiding behind a wall but went out his head. He had a pistol and he was shooting.
Three gunshots sounded. Samet, a former Israeli army soldier, said that he was not pissed off. He stayed in his car and tried to peek out. He saw the shooter – tall, dressed in jeans – with a big black rifle.
"The line of fire – the bullets whistled near me. He did not touch the car. It may have been only 1 to 2 feet, "Samet said.
The shooting continued for about a minute, said Samet. Then the shooter disappeared, apparently returning to the interior.
"He continued to kill," said Samet. "I was very lucky, four minutes saved my life.
Samet drove to the house. Her housekeeper had heard the news and took her in her arms crying.
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The first thing that came to Samet's mind after the shooting was his stay in a concentration camp. "It never ends, it was my thought."
Samet attributes to his mother his survival during the Second World War. She was a clever woman who responded to German soldiers without hurting herself, and could knit anything with a needle and thread, he said.
Samet explained that his family had stayed near a forest yard, at one point, waiting for his mother to hurry out after working all day to exchange food near a village.
The owner of the property was a Nazi supporter who wore a swastika on his chest. He unbuttoned his shirt and showed the symbol to the Jewish people forced to stay there, provoking it.
"But my mother taught us:" Do not listen to their words. Let it go over your shoulder. Look at their hands. The words will not kill you, "said Samet.
Samet claimed to have boarded three "death trains" throughout the war. On his last trip, the train stopped and the German soldiers fled. Soon after, the Americans arrived.
Samet arrived in the United States in his twenties. He met his wife through his family and married him in Pittsburgh.
A former staff member of Tree of Life, Samet has been attending the synagogue for more than 50 years. He went to the offices every morning and knew the 11 victims of Saturday's massacre.
Cecil Rosenthal, 59, who died as a result of the shooting, welcomed Samet every Saturday. He would ask about his family and how he was going.
Sylvan Simon, 86, who died with his wife, Bernice, 84, "was a tough guy," he said.
Samet said he spoke with 75-year-old Joyce Feinberg's son Saturday after she did not answer his phone.
"He asked me," Judah, do you know something? And I said, "Nobody knows anything yet," said Samet. He stayed at the Jewish Community Center near the hotel until 10 pm. Saturday.
Sunday morning, Samet saw the list of names of the dead. "It has cut my mind," he says.
Now, two days after the shot, Samet just wants to go back to his synagogue. He knows where the empty seats will be. "I'm going to look where everyone sits, and they will not be there."
But he says he's going to go ahead. "How did I manage the holocaust? You must continue.
Follow Ryan Miller on Twitter @RyanW_Miller
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