Jewish cousins Simon Mairowitz and Morris Sana were once the best of friends, but everything changed when the Nazis invaded Romania.
Back in the 1940s, their respective families realized their best chance of survival was to flee the country. And so they left Romania, effectively separating the boys for the next 75 years of their lives.
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However, just last week the pair found themselves reunited in a touching moment that was thankfully all caught on video.
Both men grew up wrongly believing the other had died in a Concentration Camp in Europe during World War II.
An estimated 6 million Jewish people were killed during the era of the Holocaust as part of Germany’s effort to create a “racially pure” state.
It wasn’t until Mairowitz and Sana’s relatives connected on Facebook that the two men found out the other was alive..
According to People , Sana, 87, who now lives in Israel, learned about his cousin through his daughter and niece, who used the social media site to reach out to their distant family members.
The 85-year-old Mairowitz now lives in the UK, meaning the cousins have been unknowingly separated by more than 3,000 miles for over seven decades.
The childhood friends were finally reunited in an emotional moment captured by Sana’s granddaughter Leetal Ofer.
In the video, the two men tearfully walk towards each other and embrace, closing their tragic 75-year-long distance.
“Good to see you,” Sana says.
“Good to see you too after all these years,” replies Mairowitz, holding his long lost pal’s face in his hands. “Seventy-five years you waited.”
In the video, the two vow to continue to keep in touch, no matter the distance between them now.
“I know it’s a long time,” Mairowitz says of their decades spent apart as he holds Sana. “We’ve got each other now. And we can see each other.”
Watch the full video below.
Sana goes on to tell Mairowitz that he’s spent many time thinking about the two of them as boys in Romania.
“You remember, don’t you?” Mairowitz says with a smile before admitting, “I can’t. I can’t remember that.”
Overcome with emotion, Sana takes a moment to look at his friend before telling him, “I’m glad to see you.”
“So am I,” Mairowitz replies. “Very, very glad.”
Right at the end of the video, the two take a seat next to each other, presumably to catch up on the years of memories, stories, and friendship that they have sadly missed out on together.
But now they have a chance to reconnect, and if their emotional reunion is any indication, these two will certainly never let anything separate them again.
h/t: People
