Yitzhak Arad Yitzhak Arad ( ) ( né Itzhak Rudnicki ) ( born November 11 , 1926 ) , is an Israeli historian , retired IDF brigadier general and a former Soviet partisan who has served as director of Yad Vashem from 1972 to 1993 . Early life and war experiences . Arad was born Itzhak Rudnicki on November 11 , 1926 , in what was then Święciany in the Second Polish Republic ( now Švenčionys , Lithuania ) . In his youth , he belonged to the Zionist youth movement " Ha - No ' ar ha - Tsiyyoni " . During the war – according to Arad ' s 1993 interview with Harry J . Cargas – he was active in the ghetto underground movement from 1942 to 1944 . In February 1943 , he joined the Soviet partisans of the Markov Brigade , a primarily non - Jewish unit in which he had to contend with antisemitism . Apart from a foray infiltrating the Vilna Ghetto in April 1943 to meet with underground leader Abba Kovner , he stayed with the Soviet partisans until the end of the war , fighting the Germans , taking part in mining trains and in ambushes around the Narocz Forest of Belarus . " The official attitude of the Soviet partisan movement was that there was no place for Jewish units " acting independently , said Arad . Historian Mark Paul explains that Arad ( then Rudnicki , aged 18 ) , belonged to a partisan unit which was part of the Voroshilov Brigade based in Narocz forest , involved in punitive missions against other partisan groups whom they considered as enemies . The Voroshilov brigade partisans were representing Soviet interests in the region and followed the NKVD directives in numerous " Revenge " actions . Noah Shneidman estimates that there were at least 300 Jewish partisans in it , one - fifth of its numerical strength . Piotr Zychowicz ( Rzeczpospolita ) , points out that according to evidence in possession of the Lithuanian court system , Arad joined the NKVD at the end of 1944 , and became active in combatting the anti - Communist Lithuanian underground . He participated in the NKVD destruction of Tigras brigade of the Lithuanian Liberation Army . In his interview Arad insisted that he was not on the NKVD payroll , thus contradicting the documentary evidence presented by Rytas Narvydas from the Genocide and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania . He was allegedly dismissed from the NKVD ranks for his undisciplined behaviour . However in the same interview it is clearly stated that the documents allegedly demonstrating the participation of Arad to the criminal actions ( that would have happened while the war was still ongoing ) are being kept secret and are not available to the public . A number of actions of the partisan units that Arad belonged to and that could be considered war crimes are described in a book written by Arad himself " The partisan " ( 1979 ) , like shooting Armia Krajowa officer ( p . 162 ) or a Lithuanian policeman ( p . 155 ) , taken as prisoners of war , burning down of houses during a punitive action against a Lithuanian village that organized self - defence against partisans and was armed by Germans ( p 158 ) . In December 1945 , Yitzhak Arad immigrated illegally to Palestine , on the Ha ' apala ( Aliyah Bet ) boat named after Hannah Szenes . In Arad ' s military career in the IDF , he reached the rank of brigadier general and was appointed to the post of Chief Education Officer . He retired in 1972 . Academic career . In his academic career as a lecturer on Jewish history at Tel Aviv University , he has researched World War II and the Holocaust , and has published extensively as author and editor , primarily in Hebrew . His current research deals with the Holocaust in the USSR . Dr . Yitzhak Arad served as the director ( Chairman of the Directorate ) of Yad Vashem , Israel ' s Holocaust Remembrance Authority , for 21 years ( 1972 – 1993 ) . He remains associated with Yad Vashem in an advisor ' s capacity . War crimes accusation by Lithuania . In June 2007 , Lithuania asked Israel to question Arad on suspicions of war crimes . The chief prosecutor of Lithuania suspected that Arad had served in the NKVD and had been involved in executions of Lithuanian civilians and members of the anti - Soviet resistance movement in 1943 - 1944 . Israel refused the request , and called it " nothing short of outrageous " . Arad denied the accusation , claiming that the allegations are a vendetta for his listing of atrocities committed by Lithuanian collaborators . Nevertheless , Lithuanian prosecutor Rimvydas Valentukevicius told AFP that the suspicions were based on Arad ' s own memoirs and documents obtained from the Lithuanian Genocide and Resistance Research Center . Lithuania has also never prosecuted one of its own citizens for crimes against the Jews during the Holocaust . The General Prosecutor ’ s office dropped the criminal investigation regarding partisan activities of Arad in September 2008 , citing lack of evidence . Names . He was born Itzhak Rudnicki , later adopting the Hebrew surname Arad ( ) . During World War II , he was known as " Tolya " in the underground and among the partisans .