Shlomo Shafir
Shlomo Shafir (1924–2013) was an Israeli journalist and historian. His work included the underground Hebrew-language publication Nitzotz, circulated in the Kovno Ghetto and Dachau concentration camp; the Israeli Labor Party newspaper, Davar; and other Hebrew, German, and English language writings. Shafir was born in Germany as Selimar Frenkel. During the Second World War, he was a prisoner in the Kovno Ghetto and was subsequently transferred first to Stutthof and then to Dachau concentration camp. After World War II he emigrated to Israel. In the 1960s he was stationed in Washington D.C. as the US correspondent for the  newspaper "Davar". In later years he served as the foreign affairs editor of Davar and the editor of the journal of the World Jewish Congress, Gesher. Youth. Shlomo Shafir was born in 1924 as Selimar Frenkel in Berlin, in the district of Schöneberg. His family's principal residence was in Eydtkuhnen, East Prussia (now Chernyshevskoye), where Frenkel grew up. He was educated by his father and his grandmother because his mother, Esther Frenkel, née Berkmann, was seriously ill with encephalitis. His father, Hermann Frenkel, was co-owner of a shipping company. Later, Selimar Frenkel moved to Kovno (Kaunas), then the  capital of independent Lithuania. Beginning in 1936, he attended the Schwabe Gymnasium, a renowned Hebrew-language school, where he was a highly gifted student. The Hebrew language, which he had begun to learn at the age of seven, would become central to his conception of Zionism. Beginning in 1940, due to the Hitler - Stalin Pact and the Soviet re-occupation of Lithuania, Kovno was subject to Soviet law, which prohibited Hebrew-language education in the Jewish schools. As a result, Frenkel had to take his final examinations at a public school, in Yiddish, in June 1941. Zionist underground movement " Irgun  Brit Zion " and Zionist underground newspaper " Nitzotz " (1944-1945). Frenkel was active in an underground movement, "Irgun Brit Zion" ( IBZ), founded in 1940 under Soviet rule. IBZ was a Zionist youth organization. Most of its members favored a moderate socialist approach, but the organization also included religious followers of Bnei Akiva as well as several Revisionists, who were more right-wing. In June 1941, with the Nazi invasion of Lithuania, Kovno's Jews were confined to the Kovno Ghetto. Much of the ghetto's population was killed early on, and in June 1943, the remainder were subjected to reorganization of  the ghetto as the Kaunas concentration camp. During this period, Frenkel was a member of the anti -Nazi resistance and helped to publish IBZ's underground newspaper, Nitzotz " ". The 42 issues of Nitzotz were written in Hebrew and circulated secretly to the members of IBZ and to the organization's sympathizers. Their articles discussed the future of the land of Israel and the political consequences of the crimes committed against the Jewish people; the authors demanded restitution, war crimes tribunals, and international support for a Jewish state. Frenkel would later resume publication of Nitzotz in Dachau-Kaufering concentration camp, making  it the only known Hebrew-language journal to survive the concentration camps. From Kovno to Dachau Kaufering (1944–1945). The main camp of the former Kovno Ghetto was liquidated in July 1944, following the Soviet re-occupation of Lithuania in June. Together with other surviving residents of the ghetto, Frenkel was transported through Stutthof to a Dachau satellite camp, Kaufering; another train brought prisoners to Auschwitz. In Kaufering, Frenkel assumed editorial responsibility for the continued publication of" " Nitzotz, under abject conditions. He later described these circumstances: "The living conditions in the huts and tents, which absorbed moisture in autumn and winter , were much harder than in the ghetto, and it is hard to imagine how it was possible to undertake any Zionist activity after a one-kilometer march and twelve hours of forced labor" In November 1944, Frenkel was transferred from Kaufering II to Kaufering I, where he was reunited with his father and the living conditions were somewhat better. In Kaufering I, he devoted himself fully to the resistance at great personal danger. In addition to his work for" Nitzotz " he organized meetings with fellow Zionists from Kovno and organized memorials, lectures, and discussions in the Hebrew language These activities  would have been punished immediately with death had they been discovered. The Dachau-Kaufering issues of " " Nitzotz were destroyed after circulation to avoid detection, but Frenkel managed to hide copies of five issues within the concentration camp. Before liberation, those issues were smuggled to safety, with the assistance of a Luxembourg priest who was interned in Dachau, Abbé Jules Jost, as well as a Spanish prisoner. Today, they are in Yad Vashem. An English translation was published in 2009 by Syracuse University Press. Liberation and the first years thereafter (1945–1948). On April 29, 1945, Selimar Frenkel and his father were  liberated from Dachau concentration camp. Hermann Frenkel survived only three weeks and was buried in the Woodland Cemetery in Dachau. After the war, Selimar Frenkel helped to found the "Histadrut Ha - Zionit Ha - Achida" (United Zionist Organization). In December 1946, he served as a delegate to the twenty-second World Zionist Congress. " Nitzotz " was published biweekly after the war and was the only Hebrew-language mouthpiece of the survivors (Hebrew :, She'erit Ha - Pletah'). It was subsequently published in the camp for Displaced Persons in Landsberg and later, until 1948, out of Munich. During this period, Frenkel served not only as  editor of " Nitzotz " but also of the party newspaper of " Poale Zion". In addition, he served as an Executive Member of the United Zionist Organization and later of Mapai in Germany . In May 1947, Frenkel married Mina Kaminski. After liberation, Kaminski had returned for several months to Soviet Lithuania. There she rescued an almanac from the pre-war period, in which young members of IBZ (Ma'apilim), a group to which she had belonged, had collected memories and excerpts of " Nitzotz ". The almanac, which is now housed at Yad Vashem, is the only original document describing the early days of " Nitzotz   . Life in Israel (1948–2013). In April 1948, shortly before the founding of Israel, Frenkel and Kaminski immigrated to Israel (aliyah). From this point on Selimar Frenkel adopted the Hebrew name Shlomo Shafir. He studied history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and graduated in 1961 with an MA. After his military service Shafir worked for the newspaper Davar  ", one of the largest newspapers in Israel and the organ of the Israeli labor movement. From 1964 to 1968, he served as a correspondent for Davar to the United States. During this time he also pursued graduate studies at Georgetown University in  Washington, D.C., and in 1971 he was awarded a PhD in history. From 1974 to 2005 Shafir also served as editor-in-chief of the quarterly journal of the World Jewish Congress, " " Gesher. His historical publications explored the German-Israeli relationship, particularly between German social democracy Social Democratic Party, the Jewish world, and Israel, as well as relations between the United States, Israel, and Germany since 1945. Shafir is the author of two monographs and a large number of scholarly articles in anthologies and journals in English, German and Hebrew (see bibliography ). In 1982 he was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz for  his contribution to the improvement of German-Israeli relations. Since 1996, he worked as a research associate of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Israel, where he wrote as an expert adviser on the political situation.