The first and only chance came on May 18, 1939, on the Kindertransport to England, which took in almost 10,000 children.
“I was child number 5580,” said Hedy.
“My parents gave me life a second time. They said we’ll see each other soon. I believed that. They perished in Auschwitz in 1942.”
Hedy’s move to the US in 1948 coincided with the establishment of the state of Israel. “I had mixed feelings. I was glad there was a place for people to go who survived the Holocaust. On the other hand, I felt something bad might happen somewhere down the road. I couldn’t imagine what.”
Busy establishing a life in her new country, Hedy did not really think of Israel and Palestine again until 1982 when the Sabra and Shatila massacres took place in Lebanon. Then she “literally received a wake up call”.
“I needed to find out who was responsible. The more I learnt, the more upset I became about Israeli policies and practices vis-à-vis the Palestinians,” she said.
She began a chapter of Women in Black in her hometown, St Louis, Missouri, where a vigil is held every month in opposition to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Once a year, in March, the vigil is held in memory of Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American who was killed when a Caterpillar armoured bulldozer, driven by an Israeli soldier, ran her over. The peace activist had been protesting the destruction of Palestinian houses. No prosecutions have followed since her death in 2003.
That same year in St Louis, a friend asked Hedy if she had any plans to go to Palestine. Without any prior thought, she responded, “Yes, I’m going.”
In December, 2003, she and three friends aligned with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), participating in non-violent demonstrations across the Occupied Territories.
During one demonstration, the marchers hoped to open an electrified fence near a Palestinian village that had not been opened for two weeks. A young Israeli demonstrator who’d just finished his military service was shot in the legs during the demo.
“I was near the back and heard gunshots. With my American mindset, I assumed they were firing warning shots in the air. But no, they were shooting live bullets at us. They severed the artery of the demonstrator. Blood was pouring out like a faucet.”
She then went to protest the building of the Israeli Wall which had the effect of dividing or obliterating Palestinian villages. “But we never got to Deir Ballut because they water canon sprayed us. Luckily it was a hot day so it wasn’t so bad.”
On her departure, she was detained at Tel Aviv airport for five hours. “I was strip searched and internally searched. I asked why, and they said ‘because you’re a terrorist and a security risk’,” said Hedy, who was 79 at the time.
“I never felt so violated before in my life. A young 23, 24-year old girl was doing this to me. What was going through her mind?”
Having missed her flight, Hedy slept on the floor until morning. She remembers little about the return flight other than that she wrote on every page of her in-flight magazine: “I am a Holocaust survivor and I will never come to Israel again.”
However, through counselling, Hedy got rid of the rage inside and learnt to use it “constructively instead of destructively”.
“It took me ages to talk about it, shame on them,” she said.
In less than six months, she was back and detained for three hours on entry.
“The security official asked me where I was going, and I said Jerusalem Hotel, but I didn’t tell him which one. There are two.”
When she told him she had no family in Israel, he snapped: “Why not?”
“Because they all died in the Holocaust,” Hedy replied.
“And he said ‘OK’. But it’s not OK. He speaks English well enough. He could have said, ‘I’m sorry to hear that.’ But he just kept saying ‘OK’.”
After joining the group, ‘Women of a Certain Age 2004’, Hedy participated in more demonstrations against the Israeli Wall, where she experienced tear gas for the first time.
“They must have put nerve gas in there because I was shaking all over involuntarily for almost an hour.”
Near Tulkarem, she helped move four big boulders blocking access in and out of a Palestinian village. Within two days, the boulders were back.
Every year after, Hedy returned to Palestine to continue the non-violent resistance. This year, she hopes to see Gaza for the first time: “I’ve got crayons, pencils and balloons packed so I can work with the children,” she said.
“Of course, none of us know what the Israelis might do or not do given the history,” she added.
Asked why she insisted on going then, Hedy quoted from the Old Testament, Leviticus 19:16: “Thou shalt not stand against the blood of thy neighbour.”
“With this voyage, I hope to fulfil one of Judaism’s most basic values, not to stand idly by when people are dying from starvation, disease and lack of medical treatment.”
And with that, she got up spritely and left the room.