Beni Wirtsberg ( Hebrew בני וירצברג ; August 12, 1928 , Altona , Germany - August 4, 1968 , Be'er Sheva , Israel ) [1] - Israeli writer who survived the Holocaust in childhood. He was the first in Israel to describe his trials during the Holocaust in the book, as well as his meeting with Jewish Yishuv in Palestine and the first years in Israel [2] . This book, “From the Valley of the Murder to the Gate to the Valley” (“Mey Gay Harega le Shaar Hai Gai ”, Heb. מגיא ההריגה לשער הגיא ), was written under the influence of the trial of Eichmann [3] and the resulting public debate on the Holocaust in Israel [4] . In Israel, he became a specialist in the field of afforestation and achieved significant success in this work [3] .
| Beni Wirtsberg | |
|---|---|
| בני וירצברג | |
 Beni Wirtsberg in 1948 in the shape of a Palmach | |
| Date of Birth | August 12, 1928 |
| Place of Birth | Altona , Germany |
| Date of death | August 4, 1968 (aged 39) |
| A place of death | Be'er Sheva , Israel |
| Citizenship | Palestine  Israel |
| Occupation | Forestry Specialist, Writer |
| Language of Works | Hebrew |
Content
- 1 Biography
- 2 family
- 3 Comments
- 4 notes
- 5 Literature
- 6 References
Biography
Beni Wirtsberg was born in Alton on August 12, 1928 , the only son of Gabriel and Rachel Wirtsberg [5] . After the events of Kristallnacht, the family was forced to move to the Jewish quarter of Sosnowiec in southern Poland . During the occupation of Poland by German troops, the family was deported to the ghetto in the village of Shrodula . Wirtzberg and his parents, along with other Jews, were hiding in the basement [6] , but were discovered and deported to Auschwitz . On August 1, 1943, the ghetto was liquidated [7] (according to another source - August 12, 1943 [8] ). Wirtzberg's mother was killed at Auschwitz, and his father died during the death march . Beni himself was used as an errand boy. He was also made a personal assistant to Dr. Joseph Mengele [5] . After Auschwitz, Wirtzberg went through several death marches and concentration camps .
After the release of the prisoners by the US Army [5], Beni Wirtsberg lived in several camps for displaced persons . He repatriated to Eretz Yisrael in November 1945 as part of the Youth Aliyah , as part of one of the first groups of children who survived in the Holocaust and arrived in Palestine at the end of the war [9] . He was admitted to the kibbutz Givat Hashlosa , where he was preparing for service in Palm . In February 1948 he was mobilized in Palms. He participated in the battles of the War of Independence as part of the 5th battalion of the "Harel" brigade , served in the 1st auxiliary machine-gun company. On armored cars escorted convoys delivering goods to besieged Jerusalem [5] . About this period of Wirtzberg’s life on the Palmach website it is written:
So Benny, the boy from the ghetto, walked the way from the valley of the murder to the gates to the valley and made his modest contribution to the war for Independence.
Original text (Hebrew)כך הגיע בני, ילד הגיטו, מגיא ההריגה אל שער הגיא ותרם את חלקו הצנוע במלחמת העצמאות.
He took part in the liberation of Jerusalem, fought in the Negev . After demobilization, he married Rachel Yisaskhar, a native of Rehovot of Yemenite origin, who was also a fighter of Palmach. He worked at the Jewish National Fund . In the last years of his life, he was the head of the research department in the forestry department of the southern region. Inspired by the Nabataean irrigation system, he invented the “Liman” artificial irrigation method and participated in the creation of estuaries in Arava [10] .
In 1967, he wrote the book “From the Valley of the Murder to the Gate to the Valley”, which was not successful among the huge number of victorious publications about the Six Day War that filled the shops [3] . On August 4, 1968, Beni Wirtsberg shot himself in his house. The cause of suicide was depression, from which he suffered in the last years of his life. He left behind his wife Rachel and two children: son Ilan and daughter Dahlia [1] . Above his grave, the chief rabbi of Beersheba Eliyahu Kushelewski said: “Eichmann killed him 25 years ago. Only today we received his body ”( Hebrew אייכמן רצח אותו לפני עשרים וחמש שנים. רק היום קיבלנו את גופתו ) [11] .
On the day of his release from the last concentration camp, Wirtzberg met nine boys who also survived the Holocaust . Their friendship continued in subsequent years; four of them died during the War of Independence [1] .
There were ten of us children, when we went out of the gates of death together, there were six, but not six orphaned children, but six soldiers. We always fought when the time came, so that Jewish children, whoever they were, would never again be orphans like us.
Original text (Hebrew)עשרה ילדים יצאנו יחדיו משער המוות, נותרו שישה,אבל לא שישה ילדים יתומים, כי אם שישה לוחמים. לחמנו ונילחם בכל עת, על מנת שילדים יהודים, באשר הם, שוב לא יתייתמו כמונו לעולם.
- “From the Valley of the Murder to the Gate to the Valley”, p. 214
Wierzberg's book was reprinted in 2008 by Carmel Publishing House. The Yad Vashem Foundation and the Jewish National Fund [3] took part in financing the publication. In August 2017, the book was published by Yad Vashem in English under the title From Death to Battle. Auschwitz Survivor and Palmach Fighter [12] .
Family
The Wirtsberg family was wealthy and completely assimilated, but not completely lost touch with Jewry. Beni attended a German school and attended Jewish on Sundays; the family sometimes went to the synagogue , and also participated in raising funds for the purchase of land in Palestine (there were blue piggy banks in the house [comm. 1] ).
- Mother - Rachel, a native of Germany. She graduated from the medical department of the university. After the birth of the child, she was engaged in housework. When her husband was expelled from Hamburg to a small town on the border with Poland, she had to look for a source of income: as an educated person, she wrote petitions to authorities on behalf of other Jews. Possessing an “ Aryan ” appearance, she sometimes came to the Gestapo personally as a representative of a Jewish family. She helped many, but could not help her husband. Killed in a gas chamber upon arrival at Auschwitz .
- Father - Gabriel, a native of Poland, went from a port loader to the owner of a large trading house. Staying in the ghetto and in Auschwitz turned him, formerly proud and confident, into a completely different person. He was extremely exhausted, both physically and spiritually, completely losing the will to live. During the death march, he was shot and killed by a German guard in front of his son.
- The younger brother of the father , the only one from the whole family, after Hitler came to power left the country: together with his wife and three children, having left all their property, he left for Palestine and settled in Jerusalem. Brother wrote about serious material difficulties; perhaps this was a reason for Beni's father not to leave Germany. When Beni Wirtsberg ended up in Palestine after the war, his uncle found him in the kibbutz Givat Hashlosh . They two were the only survivors of the whole family.
- Wife - Rachel (maiden name Yisaskhar, in the book of Paradise), a native of Rehovot of Yemenite origin. She was a fighter of Palmach, participated in escorting convoys through the Shaar ha-Gai . The love story of Beni and Rai is an important part of the book “From the Valley of the Murder to the Gate to the Valley”. This is a story of meetings and partings on the background of the War of Independence , which began with an acquaintance in kibbutz Hulda before the first battle. One of the episodes of this story was a declaration of love in the building of the pumping station in Shaar ha-Gai. The wife was the first listener and critic of the book, as well as a source of inspiration [13] .
- Son - Ilan Wirtsberg (born September 12, 1951) is a music producer, composer, guitarist and singer. He wrote two songs about his father [14] . In one of the interviews, Ilan Wirtsberg said: “My father carried monsters in himself, which killed him” ( Hebrew אבא שלי סחב מפלצות שגמרו אותו ) [3] .
- Daughter - Dahlia Wirtsberg-Rofe, (born April 12, 1958) - literary editor. She worked in the newspapers Yediot Aharonot , Maariv and in the local newspaper Tel Aviv, as well as in book publishing houses. She put a lot of effort into publishing the second edition of her father’s book. In an interview with the newspaper Ha-Aretz to the question of the journalist Dalia Karpel “Why was it so important to you?” Wirtsberg-Rofe replied: “I had a sense of mission, as if my father had put a will into my hand and took an oath to fulfill it” ( Hebrew הייתי חדורה בתחושת שליחות, כאילו אבי הפקיד בידי את צוואתו והשביע אותי למלא אותה ) [3] .
Comments
- ↑ “Blue piggy bank” called tin boxes, which before the start of World War II stood in thousands of European Jewish houses and were intended to raise funds for the Jewish National Fund , see “Blue piggy bank” was returned to its place
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 2 e-mago ”, 01/05/2009) (Hebrew)
- ↑ Hana Yablonka, text on the cover of the book “From the Valley of the Murder to the Gate to the Valley” (Hebrew)
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 דליה קרפל סיפורו של בני וירצברג, עוזרו בכפייה של מלאך המוות מאושוויץ, ד"ר יוזף מנגלה הארץ , who has been assisted by the death of Beren, Mengele (Hebrew) . Ha-Arez (February 13, 2009). Date of treatment March 9, 2013. )
- ↑ Khan Yablonka. “The trial of Eichmann and the Israelites: after 40 years” ( Heb. משפט אייכמן והישראלים: מקץ 40 שנה ) (Hebrew) . The site of the center for learning technologies מטח. Date of treatment October 5, 2013.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Biography of Beni Wirtsberg . on the Palmah website, (Hebrew)
- ↑ Ronen, 2011 , p. 318.
- ↑ Ronen, 2011 , p. 320.
- ↑ List of ghettos on the partnership website ( Hebrew עמותה ) Aviv lenzolei ha-shoa (Spring for Holocaust survivors) (Hebrew) (German)
- ↑ We are here, 2008 , p. 40.
- ↑ Iris Bernstein. Estuaries in the Negev. Policy Document P. 4. on the website of the Jewish National Fund , (Hebrew)
- ↑ דב גולדשטיין, הכדור האחרון של בני בספר כאלה הם היו , הוצאת אחיאסף, 1974, עמ '197-183 ( Dov Goldstein , “The Last Patron of Beni,” in the book Akhas, 1974, ed. 183—197)
- ↑ From Death to Battle. Auschwitz Survivor and Palmach Fighter. (eng.) . Yad Vashem . Date accessed August 29, 2017. )
- ↑ Wirtsberg, 2008 , p. 8, 173, 192.
- ↑ Ilan Wirtzberg. The son sings a song about his father, "What remains" ( Hebrew מה שנשאר ( Hebrew) . The official website of Ilan Wirtzberg (1989). Date of treatment May 12, 2014.
Literature
- Beni Wirtsberg. From the Valley of Assassination to the Gateway to the Valley. - Jerusalem ;: Carmel, 2008 .-- 224 p. - ISBN 978-965-407-904-4 . (Hebrew)
- Avigu Ronen. Sentenced to live - the diaries and the life of Hayki Klinger (נידונה לחיים - יומניה וחייה של חייקה קלינגר). - Haifa ;: ed. Haifa University and Ediot Spharim, 2011 .-- 630 p. - ISBN 978-965-545-208-2 . (Hebrew)
- Bella Guterman, Khan Yablonka; Avner Shalev. We are here. Holocaust survivors in the State of Israel (אנחנו פה. ניצולי השואה במדינת ישראל). - Jerusalem ;: ed. Yad Vashem, 2008 .-- 307 p. (Hebrew)
Links
- Dmitry Avdosiev. “Service at Mengele saved the life of a boy” (inaccessible link) . Jewish.ru. Date of treatment October 13, 2013. Archived April 22, 2014.
- Selection. Beni Wirtsberg. "Valley of Death" (excerpt) . MASSUAH. Date of treatment October 13, 2013.
- Punishment and selection. Beni Wirtsberg. "Valley of Death" (excerpt) . MASSUAH. Date of treatment October 13, 2013.
- Hospital. Beni Wirtsberg. "Valley of Death" (excerpt) . MASSUAH. Date of treatment October 13, 2013.