TEilY MAGAZINE, VOl. 50, JULY 2008 Yad Va hem Jerusalem QUARTERLY MAGAZINE, VOL. 50, Tammuz 5768, July 2008 Published by: Joseph (Tommy) Lapid, z”l Yad Vashem Contents ■ The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Yad Vashem Closing the Circle ■ 3 Remembrance Authority mourns the passing Recently Acquired ITS Documents ■ of Holocaust survivor Help One Survivor Finally Reveal the Joseph (Tommy) Vice Chairmen of the Council: Fate of His Father Dr. Yitzhak Arad Lapid, z”l, who served Dr. Israel Singer Education ■ 4-8 as Chairman of the Professor Elie Wiesel Breaking New Ground Yad Vashem Council, Chairman of the Directorate: Avner Shalev New International Seminars Wing a member of the Director General: Nathan Eitan Answers Rising Demand for Holocaust Knesset and Minister Head of the International Institute for Holocaust Education of Justice. Research: Professor David Bankier Lapid was born in December 1931 in Novi Survivors Share in the Task of Chief Historian: Professor Dan Michman Sad, Yugoslavia, and moved to Hungary as a Holocaust Education Academic Advisors: young boy. When the Germans invaded Hungary Professor Yehuda Bauer From Denial to Commemoration Professor Israel Gutman in March 1944, Lapid and his mother were forced Members of the Yad Vashem Directorate: Yad Vashem Educational Awards 2008 into the Budapest ghetto where they managed to Shlomit Amichai, Edna Ben-Horin, survive. He later told his son Yair in a television Chaim Chesler, Abraham Duvdevani, Sixth International Conference on interview: “I felt I was eluding some kind of ”.Oded Eran, ֿֿMoshe Ha-Elion, Yehiel Leket, Holocaust Education fate to which I had been doomed Tzipi Livni, Adv. Shelly (Shlomo) Malka, Linda Olmert, Adv. Dov Shilansky, New on www.yadvashem.org/education Near the end of the war, Lapid and his Effi Shtensler, Baruch Shub, Amira Stern, mother were taken to the Danube River, where Revealing the Good ■ 9 Adv. Shoshana Weinshall, Eli Zborowski, Jews were being shot and tossed into the frozen Dudi Zilbershlag Recognizing the Righteous Among the Nations waters. As they heard Allied airplanes approach, THE MAGAZINE the line of marchers scattered for fear of being Empathy and Understanding ■ 10-11 bombed. Lapid and his mother hid in a public Editor-in-Chief: Iris Rosenberg Survivors Volunteer in the Names bathroom, and when they emerged everyone Managing Editor: Leah Goldstein Recovery Project had disappeared. “That, I believe, is where I Editorial Board: ■ 12-13 became a Zionist,” recalled Lapid. “When a little Yifat Bachrach-Ron Pioneering Research Deborah Berman Antisemitism in North Africa Jewish boy is standing in the snow wearing a Susan Weisberg Preceding WWII yellow star and there are people who want to Cynthia Wroclawski kill him because he’s a Jew—he needs a country Estee Yaari Brimming with Courage and in which this cannot happen." Lapid’s father Editorial Coordinator: Determination ■ 14 Lilach Tamir-Itach and many members of his extended family The Story of Maxi Librati Language Editor: Leah Goldstein perished in the Holocaust. Proofreader: Ezra Olman Being a Jew after the Holocaust ■ 15 In 1948, Lapid immigrated to Israel. He Translated by: Hever Translators’ Pool (Intl) Survivors’ Efforts to Rediscover worked as a journalist, newspaper editor and Assisted by: Their Identities Director General of the Israel Broadcasting Alexander Avraham, Prof. David Bankier, Rachel Barkai, Shaya Ben Yehuda, News ■ 16-19 Authority. He served as a member of Knesset for Richelle Budd-Caplan, Annie Eisen, seven years; for two as Deputy Prime Minister Friends Worldwide ■ 20-23 Nadia Jacobson, Limor Karo, Dina Maslova, and Minister of Justice. Throughout that period, Prof. Dan Michman, Dr. Noa Mkayton, he regarded himself as the Holocaust survivors’ Ayala Peretz, Dana Porath, Elli Sacks, Lilach Shtadler, Amanda Smulowitz, Amir Wolf representative in the Knesset. In 2006, Lapid Photography: Yossi Ben David, Isaac Harari was appointed Chairman of the Yad Vashem Production: Keter Press Council. “As a refugee from the Holocaust, I Design: Stephanie & Ruti Design view Holocaust commemoration among young This magazine was published with the and old, in Israel and abroad, as a sacred duty,” assistance of Canit Hashalom Investments LTD. Lapid stated upon his appointment. “Holocaust remembrance was a fundamental part of Tommy’s identity,” said Avner Shalev, ISSN 0793-7199 Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate. “As ©Articles appearing in this issue may be reprinted a survivor, he shared his experiences with the with proper acknowledgement. public as well as with distinguished visitors Yad Vashem’s activities are supported by and heads of state, courageously explaining the legacy of the Holocaust and how it is still the Ministry of Education ■ On the cover: The new International Seminars Wing relevant to us all today.” Design: Guggenheim — Bloch Architects and Urbanists the Claims Conference Lapid leaves a wife, author Shulamit Lapid, Architectural illustration: Shalom Kweller and two children, Meirav Lapid and journalist and the Jewish Agency for Israel Yair Lapid. May his memory be blessed. Closing the Circle Recently Acquired ITS Documents Help One Survivor Finally Reveal the Fate of His Father by Leah Goldstein ■ At the beginning of January this year, Yad The first document to provide a reliable Vashem received an appeal from Holocaust explanation of his Kastner’s fate was a record survivor Moshe Bar-Yuda to discover the already contained in Yad Vashem’s Archives, fate of his father, Alfred (Avraham) Kastner, listing deportees to the Novaky camp in Slovakia. murdered during the Shoah. Bar-Yuda’s The list indicates that Moshe’s memory was request was timely: although Yad Vashem had accurate: the deportation took place on the already received Pages of Testimony regarding eve of “Shabbat Hagadol,” 27 March 1942 Kastner’s disappearance just before Passover (9 Nissan 5702). Recently received documents 1942, the trail had run cold. However, due to from the ITS then helped complete the picture: the recent transfer of some 20 million digitized Kastner’s name appears on a crematoria list of documents to the Yad Vashem Archives by the people murdered in Majdanek on 7 September Appelbaum Photo: Courtesy Tomer German-based International Tracing Service 1942 (25 Elul 5702). The list was only received (ITS), Bar-Yuda was able to find out exactly by the ITS in the 1960s, and was therefore not where—and when—his father died. included in ITS documents photographed by Yad Vashem a decade earlier. “After saying kaddish for my father for 60 years on the general day of mourning (10 Tevet), now he has a specific yahrtzeit,” said Bar-Yuda on receiving the new information. “And while it doesn’t comfort me, or make me happy, there is a kind of satisfaction here. I can now move forward.” Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev said “After saying kaddish Bar-Yuda’s tale shows how the newly expanded collection of records can help the families of for my father for 60 years Holocaust victims. “This story demonstrates on the general day how the 75 million pages of documents already collected by the Yad Vashem Archives, in of mourning (10 Tevet), conjunction with the millions of new documents now he has a specific that have recently arrived and will continue to arrive from the ITS archive in Germany over the yahrtzeit” next two years, can help individuals fill in the picture about the fate of their loved ones.” Moshe Bar-Yuda Director of the Yad Vashem Archives Dr. Haim Gertner explains that since February, the number of people applying to Yad Vashem for further information about missing relatives has ■ Page of Testimony filled out by Alfred (Avraham) Since February, the Kastner's brother in 1955. increased by some 50 percent. “In the last few months we have processed data searches on some number of people 2,000 Holocaust victims,” he remarks. “Some applying to Yad Vashem Born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, Moshe of the applicants had previously applied to us, Bar-Yuda was only eight years old when he saw and are now asking for additional information for further information his father for the last time. Through a number about their relatives; others are making their about missing relatives of false identities, Moshe managed to survive requests for the first time. The addition of the ITS the Holocaust in Hungary, and came to Eretz documents to our own collection offers us new has increased by some Yisrael before the end of the war. A Tel Aviv possibilities, and enhances our ability to trace rabbinical court released his mother from her the fate of people during the Holocaust.” 50 percent married status in 1948, and over the years, Moshe Requests for searches may be submitted via an heard rumors that his father had been murdered online form available on the Yad Vashem website: www.yadvashem.org, or by regular mail. at Majdanek, or possibly at Auschwitz. 3 Breaking New Ground by Wendy Lever ■ Over the past decade, the activities of Yad The new International dividing walls, creating a bigger space for more Vashem’s International School for Holocaust interactive work or more sizeable lectures. Studies have increased above and beyond Seminars Wing “The new International Seminars Wing even the most optimistic of projections. Every will allow us to match the physical facilities year, teachers, students, politicians, journalists, will enable teachers from of the School to the professional, pedagogic community leaders, diplomats and others from abroad to benefit from a and methodological standards we are constantly all over the world pass through the School's working towards,” says Director of the School doors to gain a broader understanding of what more conducive learning Dorit Novak. “It will enable teachers that come happened during the Holocaust, and to learn the environment from all over the world to benefit from a more latest interdisciplinary approaches to teaching spacious, better-equipped setting in which to this period of history in their own countries.