Jewish cousins reunite after 75 years of believing the other had died in WWII

The number of Jewish families who were forcibly separated and torn apart from each other during the Holocaust is staggering to say the least. While many families lost their legacies altogether, others were left to wonder about what had happened to their relatives, only to eventually believe that no one in their lineage had survived. This can, of course, be an isolating and disorienting experience. For Jewish cousins Morris Sana and Simon Mairowitz from Romania, however, the story ended on a more positive note. Though they were the closest of buddies while growing up, the Holocaust tore them apart from each other when a fascist coup in 1940 allied the Romanian government with Nazi Germany. For 75 years, they believed that the other hadn't survived - until the lifechanging moment they got to meet each other, reports The Telegraph.

The two cousins had gone their separate ways during the coup. Morris fled to Israel, where he settled down, and Simon found refuge in the United Kingdom. According to the news outlet, Morris and Simon had convinced themselves that their cousin had simply passed away in a Nazi concentration camp. But when Morris' daughter began to conduct some research on the internet, she was able to track down some relatives through social media platform Facebook and communicate with them. After establishing the connection, Simon flew down to Israel to meet his long-lost and thought-dead cousin Morris. In an emotional and heartwarming video, Morris' granddaughter Leetal Ofer captured the bittersweet moments the cousins met each other after almost a century. Simon is seen asking, "You can see me now, can’t you?" As Morris begins to weep. "Good to see you," he responds. The two brothers then engage in conversation after years of not having the opportunity to do so. They reflected on the past and how far they had come. The two men embrace and hold each other as the video comes to an end.

Sharing the video to Facebook, Leetal wrote: This is one of the most moving things I’ve ever seen and I’d love to share it with you. My mom recently found some of her long lost cousins on Facebook. To make a long story short... My grandfather couldn’t find his cousin and best friend after the Holocaust and was sure that he was killed at the concentration camps. He hasn’t seen or heard from his cousin in 75 years. We were able to arrange for the cousins to meet today. The war tore so many families apart and to bring them together in Israel is so magical. Morris and Simon are one of the many Jewish individuals who reunited with each other after decades of being separated due to the Holocaust. Because many Jews were forced to change their names in order to escape persecution, they lost the only connection they had to their families. This heartbreaking reunion reminds us all that we can never let history repeat itself.