Robert Büchler
Robert Jehoschua Büchler (born January 1, 1929 in Topoľčany , ČSR ; † August 14, 2009 in Lahavot Haviva , Sharon Plain , Israel ) was a Slovak-Israeli historian , peace activist and member of the International Buchenwald-Dora Committee .
Life
Robert Büchler was born to Jewish parents in 1929 in the western Slovak town of Topoľčany. In 1942, 57 of his relatives had already been deported to Auschwitz and murdered.
He himself was taken to Auschwitz with his parents and sister in 1944 . On January 23, 1945, after a death march, he reached Buchenwald concentration camp , where he was housed with more than 900 other children and adolescents in children's block 66 of the “Little Camp”. Shortly before the camp was liberated, he was sent on another death march, but on which he was able to escape near Eisenberg .
He then returned to his western Slovak homeland. Of his family, only one aunt and one uncle survived the Holocaust .
In 1949 he emigrated to Israel. There he founded the kibbutz "Lahavot Haviva" together with around 100 other survivors from concentration camps .
As a historian and archive director, he devoted himself to research and documentation of the Shoah . He wrote numerous articles about his experiences and wrote research papers on the history of European Jews . Büchler was one of the first to work on the history of children's block 66 in the Buchenwald concentration camp . The history of this block had received little attention for decades. In the 1980s, Büchler had given the memorial's archive his memory report on Block 66.
From the 1960s he was a member of the “International Buchenwald-Dora and Commands Committee”. Before his death he was its longest serving member. Since 1995, Büchler has been involved in the inmate advisory board of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation .
Honors
- Order of Merit of the Free State of Thuringia , awarded on April 8, 2009 for outstanding commitment to remembrance and reconciliation.
“With his incorruptible straightforwardness and his moral authority, Robert Büchler was in many parts of the world a sought-after discussion partner, advisor and a great role model. His lifelong commitment and his extraordinary services to memory and reconciliation have earned Büchler the respect of many people. Membership in the prisoner advisory board of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation is just one of many examples of his commitment to keeping memories alive in the spirit of reconciliation. "
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Obituary of the Thuringian Parliament
- ↑ a b c Salzburger Nachrichten (August 18, 2009): Buchenwald survivor and historian Büchler dead ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed September 4, 2009
- ^ Report from the Thuringian State Chancellery
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Büchler, Robert |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Büchler, Robert Yehoshua |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Slovak-Israeli historian, Buchenwald survivor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 1, 1929 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Topoľčany |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 14, 2009 |
| Place of death | Lahavot Haviva |