26/11 attacks: Six years on Baby Moshe still remembers that fateful day

It is hard for anyone to forget the images that flashed on television screens across India during the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. The Taj Mahal Hotel going up in flames, bodies lying in pools of blood at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and the sounds of the bullets being fired inside the Chabad House in Colaba. One such crushing image was that of a wailing and confused two-year-old Moshe Holtzberg, who lost both his parents in the massacre unleashed by the terrorists, saved by his nanny Sandra Samuel. [caption id=“attachment_1824609” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Two-year-old Moshe Holtzberg is held by his grandmother Yehudit Rosenberg and domestic help Jackie during a condolence prayer meeting. File Photo/ Reuters[/caption] Good news is, six years on, all is well with Moshe who is now eight years old, living in Israel with his grandparents. Sandra, who doesn’t work with the Holtzberg’s anymore, tells DNA, “He likes to play football and eat ice cream. He is like any other boy of his age. He is too small to talk about what happened.” The Israeli government honoured Sandra with the title of ‘Righteous Gentile’, the highest award presented to non-Jews, and allowed her an extended stay in the country, according to PTI. Despite Moshe growing up far away from India, his grandfather says the child knows what transpired on that fateful day. DNA reports: “Though Sandra maintains that he is too small to talk about what has happened, his grandfather has a different view. “He knows what has happened,” said Shimon Rosenberg, Moshe’s maternal grandfather.” The assault on Chabad House, also known as Nariman House, in a narrow bustling lane in Colaba in South Mumbai, had left six people dead, including Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his pregnant wife Rivka (Moshe’s parents) who ran the centre. The couple had come to Mumbai in 2003 to serve the local Jewish community. “Like his parents, he too is into religious learning. He is currently studying in third standard, and goes to a religious school in Afula, Israel where the family lives,” reports DNA. Back in India, the Jewish outreach centre sprung back to life on 26 August this year. Twenty five Rabbis from across Asia including Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong were present at the ceremony to mark the reopening of the six-storey refurbished centre, one of the city’s landmarks ravaged during the 59-hour mayhem by 10 young Pakistani terrorists who brought Mumbai down to its knees. With PTI inputs