A woman who lost practically her whole family in the Holocaust was nearly moved to tears when the only thing she had to recall her parents was resurrected.
The Repair Shop episode on Wednesday was poignant for Naama, 80, who came to the crew for help repairing a precious pair of baby shoes she had as a child.
Her parents, both of whom were born in Poland, immigrated to Palestine – now Tel Aviv – before World War II.
They met there, fell in love, and had their daughter together.
Naama told the crew about how her family struggled financially as she grew up, and how her parents made holes in her baby shoes for her toes to peep out so they would last longer.
She explained that the family was all alone in the world since their extended family – “not only grandparents, but aunts and uncles” – were all horribly slain in the Holocaust.
After her parents died, the old and worn pair of shoes became the “only tangible object I have of my parents,” and she desired to pass it along to her own children and grandkids.
While she intended to have the little pair of shoes in ‘better shape,’ she was keen about keeping the cut in the toes in memory of her parents and the hardships they went through, and so it would ‘look like the final day she wore them.’
Viewers were almost as moved as Naama, with some claiming that they were moved to tears the instant they heard the narrative – even before the big announcement.
‘OK, so I already know the woman with these shoes and the fix is gonna have me in bits inside 20 minutes,’ one fan wrote.
And they were correct.
Naama was noticeably moved when the mended shoes, which still had the toe cuts, were unveiled, saying, ‘I thought I wouldn’t cry but but I’m going to cry.’
‘It fills my heart with happiness,’ she said as she inspected the sentimental item, adding she wished ‘my parents could see them.’
Naama claimed that her mother was from a “tiny village” in Poland and that her family was so poor that they couldn’t afford shoes, recalling a photo of her mother as a little girl at school, barefoot while her friends had shoes.
‘She was so happy when she could afford to give me my first shoes when I was one year old,’ she said.
‘You have made an old lady very happy.’
The Repair Shop airs Wednesdays at 8pm on BBC One
