Q u a r t e r ly m a g a z I n e, V o L. , J u ly 9
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visit of the Pope
3 compassion for the victims remembered here… I am deeply grateful to God and to you for the opportunity to stand here in silence: a silence to remember, a silence to pray, a silence to hope.” Following his address, Rabbi Lau presented the Pope with a gift, a facsimile of a painting by Jewish artist Felix Nussbaum, who was murdered in the Holocaust (see p. 5). The Pope then greeted six Holocaust survivors: Avraham Ashkenazi, Ruth Bondy, Israela Hargil, Gita Kalderon, Dan Landsberg and Ed Mosberg, and Ivan Vranetic, a Righteous Among the Nations who lives in Israel (see p. 4). At the conclusion of the visit, the Pope inscribed the Yad Vashem guest book with the entry: “His mercies are not spent” (Book of Lamentations 3:22). While references to antisemitism and the identity of the Nazi murderers and their accomplices were missing from his address at Yad Vashem, Pope Benedict XVI’s visit was a positive and significant event that will surely increase Holocaust awareness around the world. His remarks during his visit to Israel regarding the Holocaust strengthen his global message: to honor and respect the victims and survivors of the Shoah, and to commit to the basic human values that underpin the coexistence of humanity. Pope Benedict XVI’s Historic Visit to Yad Vashem ■
Monsignor Antonio Franco (left). Above left, left to right: President Shimon Peres, Speaker of the Knesset Reuven Rivlin and Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Rabbi Israel Meir Lau greet the Pope. Above right, at the memorial ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance, front row, left to right: Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Reuven Rivlin, Pope Benedict XVI, President Shimon Peres, Avner Shalev 4
During his visit to Yad Vashem, Pope Benedict XVI greeted six Holocaust survivors and a Righteous Among the Nations Avraham Ashkenazi ■ Avraham Ashkenazi was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1939. After the German invasion of Greece, the family was forced to flee to Athens using false identity papers obtained from Greek Christian friends. Under constant threat of denouncement, they eventually escaped Greece in a fishing boat. From Turkey they crossed to Syria, where they met members of the Haganah. In 1944, the family reached Israel by train via Lebanon. Today Avraham is the administrator of a marketing services company. Ruth Bondy ■ Journalist, author and translator Ruth Bondy was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1923. Following the German occupation of Bohemia and Moravia in 1939, Ruth was interned in the Terezin ghetto, and in 1943 she was transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she looked after young children who were later sent to their deaths. At liberation in the spring of 1945 at Bergen-Belsen, Ruth weighed just 35 kilograms (77 pounds). She returned to Prague and came to Israel with the establishment of the State. Israela Hargil ■ Artist Israela Hargil (Harnik) was born in Brody, Poland, in 1938. Her mother was murdered following the German invasion of the town in 1941. In January 1943, the 6,000 Jews of Brody were concentrated in a ghetto. Israela was hidden at the home of family friends, the Miklaszewskis, later recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. Her father also went into hiding and then joined the Red Army. The two were reunited some four years later, and came to Israel together. Gita Kalderon ■ Gita Kalderon (née Shami) was born in Monastir, Yugoslavia, in 1926. After the annexation of Macedonia to Bulgaria, Gita fled with eight of her friends to the Italian-occupied area of Greece, where they joined the resistance movement. However, Gita was caught and sent to Auschwitz in 1944, and then to Bergen- Belsen and Mauthausen, where she almost died. In December 1948 Gita, her husband Shimon (Simo) Kalderon and their daughter emigrated to Israel. Today Gita volunteers at the Schneider Children’s Hospital in Petach Tikva. Dan Landsberg ■ Dan Landsberg was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1939, and lived with his parents in nearby Otwock. In 1942, just before the Otwock ghetto’s liquidation, Dan was transferred to the orphanage at the Saint Elizabeth convent in Otwock, where he was hidden under a false identity. He was then sent to live with a local family in a village in the Lublin district, and after the war was reunited with his mother. Dan came to Israel with his wife in 1965. Prior to his retirement, he ran the projects laboratory at the Technion’s Electrical Engineering faculty. Ed Mosberg ■ Ed Mosberg was born in Krakow, Poland, in 1926. He and his family were interned in the Krakow ghetto in 1941. In 1943, Ed was sent to the Plaszow concentration camp and then to Mauthausen, where he was almost beaten to death by one of the guards. In 1951, Ed and his wife Cecile arrived in the US, where he became a successful businessman and esteemed philanthropist. Members of the American Society for Yad Vashem, Ed and Cecile Mosberg are recipients of the Yad Vashem Prize for Holocaust Commemoration. Ivan Vranetic ■ Ivan (Ivica) Vranetic was born in Vrbas, Yugoslavia, in 1927. In September 1943, after the German occupation of Italy, Yugoslav partisans released Jews interned on the Island of Rab, and helped them reach Topusko in southern Yugoslavia. Seventeen-year-old Ivan aided the Jews from the moment they arrived. He befriended them, found them places to live and warned them of upcoming dangers. After the war, he kept in contact with many of the Jews he saved, among them Arna Montilio, who emigrated to Israel. Some 20 years later, Ivan came to Israel and married Arna. In 1970 Yad Vashem honored Ivan Vranetic as Righteous Among the Nations. He was awarded honorary citizenship of the State of Israel, and in 1986 was elected Chairman of the Organization of Righteous Among the Nations in Israel. ■
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