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Moshe Bejski

Survivor of the Holocaust through Oskar Schindler's humanitarian actions

Moshe Bejski (Hebrew: משה בייסקי, 29 December – 6 March ) was a Polish-born Israeli Supreme Court Justice and President of Yad Vashem'sRighteous Among the Nations Commission.

After surviving the Holocaust with the help of Oskar Schindler, Bejski immigrated to Israel. In , he testified about his experiences during the Holocaust during the trial of Adolf Eichmann. He served on the Tel Aviv-Yafo district court from to and was appointed to the Supreme Court of Israel, where he served from to As President of the Righteous Commission from to , Bejski helped honor thousands of Holocaust rescuers.

He also headed the Bejski Commission in the aftermath of the Israel bank stock crisis, which led to the nationalization of most of Israel's major banks.

Life

Childhood in Poland

Moshe Bejski was born in the village of Działoszyce, near Kraków, Poland, on 29 December During his youth, he joined a Zionist organization that organized the shift of young Polish Jews to Mandatory Palestine to build a new nation in the Jewish "promised land".

However, he was not able to leave for Palestine with his family before the invasion of Poland in due to health issues.^[1]

The Holocaust

The German occupation of Kraków began on 6 September ^[2] The area's Jews were murdered or required to live in the Kraków Ghetto.

Bejski's parents and sister were shot soon after they were separated. In , Bejski, along with his brothers Uri and Dov, ended up in the forced labor camp^[a] of Płaszów.

On paper, the brothers were listed as a machine fitter and a draftsman, but Uri had expertise in weapons and Moshe had change into a skilled document-forger.

Throughout the war, Moshe Bejski helped forge papers and passports that other inmates and Schindler used to smuggle resources to the Jews or to smuggle Jews out of danger.^[3]

He and his brothers eventually got placed on the famous list for Oskar Schindler's factory in occupied Czechoslovakia, where they spent the remainder of the war in relative security.

He was worker number on Schindler's list. They were liberated by the Red Army in May When the brothers discovered the fate of their parents and sister, they decided to emigrate to Israel.

New animation in Israel

Bejski was able to begin a new life in the place of his dreams that he hadn't been capable to reach when he was a boy, but his Zionist dream soon clashed with life.

His brother Uri was killed by an Arab sniper on the day the Jewish Declare was recognized by the UN. He served in the Israel Defense Forces during the Arab-Israeli War, reaching the rank of captain. In , he was sent to France to control the Youth Aliyah department in Europe and North Africa until Although he had originally dreamed of becoming an engineer, Bejski completed his law degree at the Sorbonne in and was awarded a doctorate in commandment for a thesis on human rights in the Bible.

After returning to Israel, he was certified as a lawyer in and became one of the most reputable lawyers in Tel Aviv.

As a Holocaust survivor who saw the inside of several concentration camps during the Second World War, his story also provides a unique and powerful entry-point for learning about the Holocaust. Written by Daniella Lurion and Melissa Mikel and illustrated by Elena Kingsbury, the picture book is an age-appropriate introduction to one of the most difficult chapters in human history, the Holocaust, as skillfully as antisemitism, the underlying hatred that allowed this crime to happen. In addition to the story, a study guide to support classroom learning has also been created and can be accessed in both English and French here. I understand that I am opting-in to collect emails from Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies and I can withdraw my consent by unsubscribing at any time.

He was appointed a magistrate judge in , a district judge of Tel Aviv-Yafo from to , and a judge on the Supreme Court of Israel for 12 years, from until He also taught legal courses the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv University from through ^[4]^[5]

The Eichmann Trial

Moshe Bejski left his past in Poland behind him.

For years no one knew of his history; he was commonly mind to be a Zionist who came to Palestine before the Nazi persecution or even a native born Israeli. He only willingly revealed his story and origins in , during the trial of Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann.

He was called on by the state's lead prosecutor, Gideon Hausner to testify about the Płaszów concentration camp. Bejski delivered an emotional account of the circumstances at the camp and he conveyed the many crimes committed there to the court.^[3]

For the first time in Israel, the deep unease of the European refugees who survived to the Holocaust was revealed.

The book describes Wiesenthal's encounter in the Lemberg concentration camp near Lviv and discusses the moral ethics of the decisions he made. The title comes from Wiesenthal's observation of a German military cemetery, where he saw a sunflower on each grave, and fearing his hold placement in an unmarked mass grave. The book's second half is a symposium of answers from various people, including other Holocaust survivorsreligious leaders and former Nazis. The first English translation was published in

There were those who were unable to integrate themselves and be approved by a populace who despised them and accused them of cowardice and lack of rebellion against the Nazis. A debate opened around the world, also stirred by the polemic contribution of Hannah Arendt, a German philosopher of Jewish descent who escaped to America in the s.

The hardships connected to the history of the Jews during World War II was divulged.

The Yad Vashem Memorial was established in Jerusalem for eternal remembrance and acknowledgment of the Holocaust victims. In , the State of Israel pledged itself to bestowing an honor to gentiles who had saved Jewish lives.

Biography. Simon Wiesenthal was born on December 31, in Buczacz, in what is now the Lvov Oblast section of the Ukraine. When Wiesenthal's father was killed in Society War I, Mrs. Wiesenthal took her family and fled to Vienna for a brief period, returning to Buczacz when she remarried.

They were awarded the title of Righteous among the Nations.

The Righteous Commission was established and given the task of running investigations to detect the acts of rescue and to find who the title must be awarded to.

The most well-known judge in Israel at the time, Moshe Landau, who had presided over the Eichmann trial and issued the death verdict, was appointed president. Landau soon left the position and proposed that the nomination be given to Bejski.

Bejski replaced him in and kept the presidency until when he retired. In that time nearly eighteen thousand Righteous had been honored and had been fit to plant a tree in the avenue dedicated to remembering them and their gestures at Yad Vashem.

Bejski committed to helping other Righteous people besides Schindler.

He fought to obtain the Israeli government's commitment to financially help those who lived precariously, many in Eastern Europe, and to also help those who needed medical assistance.

Bejski Commission

Main article: Bejski Commission

In the aftermath of the Israel bank stock crisis, the Bejski Commission was formed, with Moshe Bejski as chairman.

It led to the nationalization of most of Israel's major banks. Its describe, issued on 16 April , concluded that major Israeli banks had been rigging the price of bank shares over a long period and called for the dismissal or resignation of many of the heads of the Israeli banking system.^[6]^[7] 16 of Israel's top banking and government finance officials were censured, resigned or were otherwise punished for their actions.^[3]

Death and legacy

Bejski died in Tel Aviv, Israel, on 6 March , at age ^[4]

Bejksi is referred to several times in the books by Holocaust survivors, including Night by Elie Wiesel.^[8] His response to the philosophical question posed in Holocaust memoir The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness by Simon Wiesenthal is featured in current editions of the book.^[9]

Notes

^Płaszów would later be converted from a labor camp to an official concentration camp.

References

^"Moshe Bejski".

.
After the war, Wiesenthal dedicated his animation to tracking down and gathering information on fugitive Nazi war criminalsso that they could be brought to trial. Inhe co-founded the Jewish Historical Documentation Centre in LinzAustria, where he and others gathered information for future war crime trials and aided Jewish refugees in their find for lost relatives. He opened the Documentation Centre of the Association of Jewish Victims of the Nazi Regime in Vienna inand continued to try to locate missing Nazi war criminals. He played a small role in locating Adolf Eichmannwho was captured by Mossad in Buenos Aires inand worked closely with the Austrian justice ministry to prepare a dossier on Franz Stanglwho was sentenced to being imprisonment in
Retrieved 27 August
^"Kraków, Poland Jewish History Tour". . Retrieved 28 August
^ ^a^b^cSchwartzapfel, Beth (9 March ). "Israeli Judge Moshe Bejski, 86".
Simon Wiesenthal: A Life in Search of Justice - amazon.com: Simon Wiesenthal (31 December – 20 September ) was a Jewish Austrian Holocaust survivor, Nazi hunter, and writer. He studied architecture, and was living in Lwów at the outbreak of World War II.
The Forward. Retrieved 24 November
^ ^a^b"Retired judge Moshe Bejski passes away at age 86". The Jerusalem Post. 7 March Retrieved 24 November
^"Bejski, Moshe | Cardozo Israeli Supreme Court Project".

. Retrieved 24 November
^Silk, Leonard (30 May ). "Economic Scene; Overhauling Israeli Banking". The Novel York Times. Retrieved 24 November
^Brilliant, Moshe (21 April ). "Israeli Bankers Assailed".
Simon Wiesenthal fought insatiably against indifference towards the crimes of National Socialism, against the failure to phone its perpetrators to account. From the day of his liberation from the concentration camp Mauthausen onwards, he made it his life's task to find Nazi perpetrators and bring them to justice. He was born on New Years' night in Buczacz, in the formerly Austrian area of Galicia and studied architecture at the Technical University in Prague after he had been denied admission to the University of Lvov then part of Poland due to the antisemitic numerus clausus laws. Having completed his studies inhe returned to Galicia, married his childhood sweetheart Cyla in and established an architect's office.
The New York Times. Retrieved 24 November
^Wiesel, Elie (). Night. Wiesel, Marion (1st of new translation&#;ed.). Brand-new York, NY: Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN&#;.

OCLC&#;
^Simon, Wiesenthal ().
The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness is a book on the Holocaust by Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal, in which he recounts his experience with a mortally wounded Nazi during World War II.
The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness. Cargas, Harry J., Fetterman, Bonny V., Mazal Holocaust Collection. (2nd Rev. and expanded&#;ed.). New York: Schocken Books. ISBN&#;. OCLC&#;