'It's hard not to feel guilty surviving this': Millet Ben Haim shares story from Nova festival

What was once a campground now looks like a makeshift graveyard. 

The field is filled with rows of plots of upturned dirt, posters on stakes bear the faces of people who were murdered here. Standing amongst them, in a white T-shirt with her name printed across the back, Millet Ben Haim has returned to the scene where her nightmare began.

We’re close to Kibbutz Re'im, in southern Israel – the site of the Nova Music Festival where 364 people were massacred by Hamas terrorists who infiltrated Israel.

Millet was one of the lucky survivors.

Now, she's addressing a group of a couple dozen students from the Ramaz Upper School in New York who have traveled to Israel for a solidarity visit during the war.

With the sun glinting against her straw-blonde hair, Millet launches into the moment her escape from the terrorists began. "After a minute of driving we had to stop because the terrorists waited on that end and started shooting," she says. 

At that point, she and her friends got out of the car and ran for their lives.

"You just see people falling down and it kind of feels like, I don't have words to describe how scary it is, but you try to convince yourself that they're not dead. That they will get up and keep going."

"And it's everywhere. You don't have any options, it's just being helpless," Millet says, as a tear streaks down her face.

"I don't know if you've ever had one of those nightmares where you are running slowly, but that's the experience," she adds.

"We just curled under this, something between a tree and a bush, and we just tried to stay as silent as possible," Millet recalls. 

After hiding for about six hours, she was rescued by Rami Davidian and Colonel (res.) Leon Bar. Bar was killed during a battle with Hamas terrorists in southern Israel the following day, as IDF forces retook control of the area.

"It's hard not to feel guilty surviving this, knowing so many people did not make it, especially the one who saved us," Millet tells i24NEWS.

Now, Millet is recounting her story as a representative of "Survived to Tell." The project allows survivors of the massacre to share their testimonies with the world both online and in person, like today.

Millet says telling her story is important in the age of social media and misinformation. "I think that there is something different about seeing an actual living person that experienced it, who can share their own story rather than just keep scrolling and seeing information like that. And I know that difficult as it is, it has a different impact," Millet tells us.

After hearing the testimony, Stella Hiltzik, 16, says she feels it's imperative to pass it forward. "We're able to see firsthand what's going on, and we feel that it's our job to go back to our schools, to our communities, and share what we've seen firsthand. We'll never stop."

Another student present, Nicky Chalme, has her own personal connection to the tragedy, having lost a close friend at the music festival massacre.

"You go visit and she's not there. I send a text and I forget that she's not here. Hearing Millet's story, it's hard because I know Raz did the same thing," Nicky tells us. 

Millet, whose life was irrevocably changed on October 7, is now dedicated to spreading the truth of what happened that day to the rest of the world. "I will definitely keep sharing my story, and for me that is my life mission right now."

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