Shlomo Shafir

Shlomo Shafir (born April 11, 1924 in Berlin-Schöneberg ; † May 8, 2013 in Tel Aviv , Hebrew שלמה שפיר ^{? / I} ) was an Israeli journalist , historian and editor-in-chief of the magazine of the World Jewish Congress , Gesher. He was active in the Zionist underground in the Kaunas ghetto and later in the Kaufering IV concentration camp command , a satellite camp of the Dachau concentration camp . As editor and responsible publisher of the Hebrew underground magazine "Nitzotz" (German: 'the spark') he played an important role in the Zionist resistance against National Socialism .

youth

Shlomo Shafir was born in 1924 as Selimar Frenkel in the Schöneberg district of Berlin . The main residence of the family was in Eydtkuhnen , East Prussia (now Chernyshevskoye ), where Frenkel grew up. He was raised by his father and his grandmother, since his mother, Esther Frenkel, née. Berkmann, was seriously ill with encephalitis . The father, Hermann Frenkel , was a co-owner of a forwarding company. Selimar Frenkel later moved to Kaunas , the then capital of independent Lithuania , where he attended the renowned Hebrew Grammar School in Schwabe as a highly gifted student from 1936. The Hebrew language, which he had already started to learn at the age of seven, became an important instrument of his Zionist engagement. In June 1941, after the Sovietization of Lithuania as a result of the Hitler-Stalin Pact , he had to take his Abitur at a state middle school in Yiddish . The end of Lithuania's independence meant that in the capital Kaunas, which had been captured by the Soviet Army since 1940, Soviet law came into effect and prohibited Hebrew lessons in Jewish schools.

Zionist underground movement "Irgun Brith Zion" and Zionist underground newspaper "Nitzotz" (1944–1945)

Photo of the members of the Irgun Brith Zion in the Kauen ghetto, 1943. Selimar Frenkel standing in the center back

From the beginning, Frenkel was active in the underground movement “Irgun Brith Zion” (IBZ), founded in 1940, in which predominantly young Zionists were politically and culturally involved. Most of the members represented a moderate socialist course, but religious supporters of Bne Akiwa and individual right-wing national revisionists also gathered in the IBZ. In the Kauen concentration camp (originated from the Kaunas ghetto) and later in the Dachau-Kaufering concentration camp, Frenkel was a member of the anti- Nazi resistance and of the IBZ Nitzotz underground newspaper . This secretly published and handwritten newspaper in Hebrew appeared in the Kaunas ghetto and later, under the most difficult conditions, in the Dachau-Kaufering camp. She dealt with the future in the Land of Israel, the crimes against the Jews and the political consequences of them (including restitutions and dealing with war criminals). Five of the total of 42 Nitzotz specimens were saved thanks to the help of the Luxembourg priest Abbé Jules Jost, interned in Dachau, and a Spanish prisoner. They can be found today in Yad Vashem and are available in English translation.

From Kaunas to Dachau and Kaufering (1944–1945)

When the Red Army ended the German occupation of Lithuania in June 1944, the Kauen concentration camp was dissolved on July 14, 1944. Frenkel was then transported with the Jews who had survived via the Stutthof concentration camp to the Dachau subcamp Kaufering, while another train brought other prisoners to Auschwitz. In Kaufering, Frenkel took over editorial responsibility for the further appearance of Nitzotz despite the most adverse circumstances. He described these circumstances with the words: “The living conditions in the huts and tents, which absorbed the moisture in autumn and winter, were much harsher than in the ghetto, and it was difficult to imagine that it would be after twelve hours of forced labor and in addition a kilometer long walk would be possible to undertake any Zionist activity. "

In November 1944 he was transferred from Kaufering II to the Kaufering I camp, where he met his father again and living conditions were better. There he devoted himself to the resistance with a lot of energy, despite the permanent danger of his life: In addition to his work for Nitzotz , he organized meetings with Zionist-minded fellow prisoners from Kaunas and held memorial hours , lectures and discussions in Hebrew. His activities, which would have been punished immediately with death if discovered, went undetected.

Liberation and the first years afterwards (1945–1948)

Selimar Frenkel was freed together with his father on April 29, 1945 in the Dachau camp. Hermann Frenkel survived the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp for only three weeks and was buried in the forest cemetery in Dachau. After the war, Selimar Frenkel was one of the founders of the "Histadrut Ha-Zionit Ha-Achida" (United Zionist Organization) and in December 1946 was a delegate of the 22nd Zionist World Congress . Nitzotz also appeared after the war and was now the only Hebrew mouthpiece of the survivors as a two-week publication (Hebrew: 'She'erit Ha-Pletah'). It first appeared in the DP camp in Landsberg and later, until 1948, from Munich. During this time Frenkel was not only editor of “Nitzotz”, but also of the party newspaper of Poale Zion (German: 'Das Wort'). He also worked as an executive member of the “United Zionist Organization” and later also of the Mapai in Germany.

At the end of May 1947 he married Mina, née Kaminski. After her liberation, Mina returned to Soviet Lithuania for a few months. There she saved an almanac from the prewar period in which young members of the IBZ (Ma'apilim), to which she belonged, had written down memories and excerpts from the Nitzotz . The almanac that is now kept in Yad Vashem is the only original documenting Nitzotz's early days .

His life in Israel (1948–2013)

In April 1948, shortly before the establishment of the State of Israel , the young couple decided to immigrate to Israel ( Aliyah ). From that point on, Selimar Frenkel adopted the Hebrew name Shlomo Shafir. He studied history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and graduated with an MA in 1961.

After his military service, Shafir worked for the Davar newspaper , one of the largest newspapers in Israel and an organ of the Israeli labor movement. For this newspaper he went from 1964 to 1968 as a correspondent in the USA. During this time he also wrote his doctorate at Georgetown University in Washington, DC , which he completed in 1971 with the work The Impact of the Jewish Crisis on American-German Relations, 1933-1939 with a PhD in history.

From 1974 to 2005, Shafir was also editor-in-chief of the quarterly magazine of the World Jewish Congress , Gesher . In his historical publications he dealt in particular with the German-Israeli relationship, more precisely, the relationship between German social democracy , the Jewish world and Israel as well as the relationship triangle USA - Israel - Germany since 1945. Shafir is the author of two monographs and a large number of scientific articles in edited volumes and journals in English, German and Hebrew (see bibliography). In 1982 he received the Federal Cross of Merit for his contribution to improving relations between Israel and the Federal Republic. Since 1996 Shafir has been working as a research assistant at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Israel, where he wrote expert reports on the political situation as an advisor.

Works (selection)

• The Impact of the Jewish Crisis on American-German Relations: 1933–1939. Pt. 1 & 2, Ann Arbor, Mich. UMI 1971. (Zugl .: Washington, DC, Georgetown Univ., Diss., 1971)
• American Diplomats in Berlin [1933–1939] and their Attitude to the Nazi Persecution of the Jews. In: Yad Vashem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and Resistance. 9 (1973), pp. 71-104.
• George S. Messersmith: An Anti-Nazi Diplomat's View of the German-Jewish Crisis. In: Jewish Social Studies. 35/1 (1973): 32-41.
• Taylor and McDonald: Two Diverging Views on Zionism and the Emerging Jewish State. In: Jewish Social Studies. 1977, 39/4: 323-346.
• American Jewish Leaders and the Emerging Nazi Threat (1928 – January 1933). In: American Jewish Archives. 31/2 (Nov 1979), 150-183.
• Asia wants peace between Israel and Egypt: A chat with Histadrut Secretary-General Y. Meshel on his return from the Asian Free Trade Unions Leaders Summit. Tel Aviv 1979.
• Nazi Guilt and Western Influence. In: Forum on the Jewish People, Zionism and Israel. 36: 99-107 (1979).
• Roosevelt. His Attitude Towards American Jews, the Holocaust and Zionism, [Sl]: World Zionist Organization, 1982.
• Rooselvelt - his Attitude Towards American Jews, the Holocaust and Zionism. In: Forum on the Jewish People, Zionism and Israel. 44, pp. 37-52 (1982).
• Gesher: ktav-ʻet li-shʼelot ḥaye ha-ʼuma, ḥoref - ʼaviv [5] 742, shana 28; hanhala ha-yisreʼelit shel ha-qongres ha-yehudi ha-ʻolami (= The Israel Executive of the World Jewish Congress). Jerusalem 1982.
• Julius Braunthal and his Postwar Mediation Efforts between German and Israeli Socialists. In: Jewish Social Studies. 1985, 47 / 3-4, pp. 267-280.
• with Bernard Avishai: The Tragedy of Zionism: Revolution and Democracy in the Land of Israel. (Book Review) In: Jewish Social Studies. 48/2 (1986), Spring, pp. 183-184.
• Yad Musheteth: יד מושטת: הסוציאלדמוקרטים הגרמנים ויחסם ליהודים ולישראל בשנים Yad musheṭet: ha-Sotsyaldemoḳraṭim ha-German-Baim ṿe-Yiśteim. The Germans the Jews and Israel, 1945–1967), Tel-Aviv 1986.
• Germans and Jews: From Pogrom Night to the Present. In: Union monthly journal . Vol. 39 (1988), H. 10, pp. 577-591. (PDF; 177 kB) ISSN  0016-9447
• Kurt Schumacher's relationship to the Jews and the question of reparation (The Attitude of Kurt Schumacher Towards the Jews and the Issue of Reparation). In: Willy Albrecht (Ed.): Kurt Schumacher as a German and European Socialist: Documentation of an international conference in the Kurt Schumacher Education Center of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Bad Münstereifel from March 6th to 8th, 1987. Political Education Department of Friedrich -Ebert-Stiftung , Bonn 1988, pp. 168-187. (= Materials for political education)
• Kurt Schumacher, the Jews. In: The grandstand. Journal for the Understanding of Judaism. 28/112 (1989), pp. 128-138.
• An outstretched hand? Early American-Jewish contacts with German Social Democrats in the post-war period. In: International scientific correspondence on the history of the German labor movement. (IWK), June, 1989, Vol. 25, Issue 2, pp. 174-187.
• The SPD and reparations to Israel. In: Ludolf Herbst, Constantin Goschler (Hrsg.): Reparation in the Federal Republic of Germany. Munich 1989, pp. 191–205, 428. (Series of the quarterly books for contemporary history. Special issue), ISBN 3-486-54721-6 .
• Raphael Patai: Nahum Goldmann: His Mission to the Gentiles. (Book Review) In: American Jewish Archives. 1989/41, issue 2, p. 233.
• The View of a Maverick Pacifist and Universalist: Rabbi Abraham Cronbach's Plea for Clemency for Nazi War Criminals in 1945. In: American Jewish Archives. 42/2 (1990), pp. 147-154.
• Ha-'nitzotz 'she-lo kaba. (The 'Spark', that was not Extinguished). In: Kesher. no. 9 (May 1991), 52-57. (Hebrew, with English abstracts)
• Henry Morgenthau and his Involvement in Rescue in Germany and Errata Israel [in Hebrew with English Summary, title translation]. In: Yalkut Moreshet. No. 51, Tel-Aviv Nov. 1991, pp. 35-49. [On Henry Morgenthau Jr.'s Activities in the 1940s and 1950s]
• The World Jewish Congress and its relationship to post-war Germany (1945–1967). In: Menorah. Yearbook for German-Jewish History. 3: 210-237 (1992). ISSN  0939-5563 , ZDB-ID 10223629
• American Jews and Germany After 1945: Points of Connection and Points of Departure, Cincinnati 1993. (= American Jewish Archives)
• The American Jews and Germany - an ambilavalent relationship. In: Law and truth bring peace. 1994, pp. 251-266.
• Postwar German Diplomats and Their Efforts to Neutralize American Jewish Hostility: The First Decade. In: YIVO Annual. 22/1 (1995), pp. 155-201.
• Record of a great Jew. Nahum Goldmann on his 100th birthday. In: grandstand. Journal for the Understanding of Judaism. 34/134 (1995), pp. 62-70.
• with Simona Kedmi (Ed.): At the Crossroads: World Jewry Faces its Future. Institute of the World Jewish Congress, Jerusalem 1996.
• The American Jewish Community's Attitude To Germany: The Impact of Israel. In: The Journal of Israeli History. Politics, Society, Culture. 18 / 2-3 (1997), pp. 237-255. ISSN  1353-1042
• American Jewish Leaders and the Emerging Nazi threat (1928 – January 1933). In: Jeffrey S. Gurock (Ed.): America, American Jews, and the Holocaust. (= American Jewish History 7). Routledge, New York 1998, pp. 99-134.
• Ambiguous Relations: The American Jewish Community and Germany Since 1945, Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives. Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Mich. 1999, ISBN 0-8143-2723-0 .
• The mood is getting better: America's Jews and Germany. In: grandstand. Journal for the Understanding of Judaism. 38/151 (1999), pp. 122-132. ISSN  0041-2716
• The role of American-Jewish organizations in the trilateral relationship. In: Helmut Hubel (Ed.): The trilateral relations between Germany, Israel and the USA. Erfurt 2001, pp. 53-76. (State Center for Political Education Thuringia) ISBN 3-931426-47-5 .
• with Simona Kedmi: The Jewish People at the Treshold of the New Millennium. World Jewish Congress. [Gehser Symposium] Plenary Assembly .; Jerusalem Institute of the World Jewish Congress, 2001.
• From demarcation to cautious dialogue: American Judaism and post-war Germany. In: Detlef Junker, Philipp Gassert , Wilfried Mausbach, David B. Morris (eds.): The USA and Germany in the Age of the Cold War 1945–1990: a manual. Volume 1: 1945-1968. Stuttgart / Munich 2001, pp. 833-847.
• Constantly Disturbing the German Conscience: the Impact of American Jewry. In: Dan Michman (Ed.): Remembering the Holocaust in Germany, 1945–2000; German Strategies and Jewish Responses. Peter Lang, New York 2002, pp. 121-141.
• From Negation to First Dialogues: American Jewry and Germany in the First Postwar Decades. In: Detlef Junker, Philipp Gassert, Wilfried Mausbach (eds.): The United States and Germany in the Era of the Cold War, 1945–1990: A Handbook. Volume 1: 1945-1968. Cambridge University Press, New York 2004, pp. 550-558.
• The Twisted Road Toward Rapprochement: American Jewry and Germany Until Reunification. In: Detlef Junker, Philipp Gassert, Wilfried Mausbach (eds.): The United States and Germany in the Era of the Cold War, 1945–1990: A Handbook. Volume 2: 1968-1990. Cambridge University Press, New York 2004, pp. 474-482.
• The Rise and Fall of the Social Democratic Press in Europe. Reprint from Kesher, no.35, Winter 2007. (in Hebrew)
• Helmut Schmidt: his relationship with Israel and the Jews. In: Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.): Yearbook for anti-Semitism research. 17, Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2008, pp. 297–321. The digitized version has been available on the 'compass-infodienst.de' portal since February 2009.
• Nahum Goldmann and Germany After World War II. In: Mark A. Raider: Nahum Goldmann: Statesman without a State, Suny Press, Albany. Chaim Rosenberg School of Jewish Studies, the Chaim Weizmann Institute for the Study of Zionism and Israel, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 2009, pp. 207-231.
• Willy Brandt, the Jews and Israel. In: Yearbook for Research on Antisemitism. 19 2010, ISBN 978-3-940938-92-3 , pp. 379-404.
• The Quandt Family: Wealth, Responsibility, and Silence. In: Yad Vashem Studies. 40/2 (2012), pp. 195-215.

Secondary literature (selection)

• Inge Günther: Angela Merkel hits the right note in the Knesset - some Israelis enjoy being close to the Chancellor. In: Stuttgarter Zeitung. March 19, 2008, p. 3.
• Inge Günther: The Shoah fills us with shame. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. March 19, 2008, p.
• Inge Günther: The right tone - Angela Merkel copes well with her difficult appearance in front of the Israeli parliament and emphasizes the special relationships between Germans and Israelis. In: Badische Zeitung. March 19, 2008, p. 3.
• Marc-Christoph Wagner: From Enemy to Allies / German-American Relations in the Cold War. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. July 24, 2001, p. 7 (abroad)
• Oliver Schmolke: Winding paths of a difficult dialogue. Shlomo Shafir on German-Jewish-American relations. (Review of Shlomo Shafir's book "Ambiguous Relations", 1999). In: Der Tagesspiegel. 17072, June 5, 2000, p. 9. (Political Literature)
• Gisela Dachs : Review in brief. (Review of Shlomo Shafir's book "Ambiguous Relations", 1999). In: The time. 43, October 21, 1999, p. (Literature supplement).
• Michael Wolffsohn: Germans, Jews and America. (Review of Shlomo Shafir's book "Ambiguous Relations", 1999). In: The world. September 18, 1999, p. 8. (Political Book)
• Inge Günther: 50 years of the UN resolution to partition Palestine. In: Frankfurter Rundschau. November 29, 1997, p. 3.

Web links

• Literature by and about Shlomo Shafir in the catalog of the German National Library
• Catalog raisonné by Shlomo Shafir in the US Holocaust Memorial Museum

Individual evidence

1. ↑ As part of the “Israel Documentation Project”, Shlomo Shafir told his life story in a video interview lasting over an hour in 1995 in Hebrew. This cinematic autobiography is available on the website of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. A five-minute short version offers targeted access to the six chapters of the Hebrew interview, which can be accessed here ( memento of the original from October 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
2. ↑ The operators of the website "northern Jerusalem" in Kaunas offer a current exterior view of the former Jewish high school.
3. ↑ "On October 1st, 2007 Shlomo Shafir gave a lecture in front of the DIG Berlin and Potsdam" "From Dachau to the united Germany - a personal view of our country" .
4. ↑ Edith Raim (ed.): Survivors of Kaufering. Biographical sketches of Jewish former prisoners. Materials on the Kaufering subcamp complex. Metropol, Berlin 2008, p. 119.
5. ↑ The Spark of Resistance in Kovno Ghetto and Dachau-Kaufering Concentration Camp, edited and with an introduction by Laura Weinrib, translated by Estee Weinrib. Syracuse University Press, 2009, p. 13.
6. ↑ Translation of the five "Nitzotz" editions of Estee Shafir Weinrib, in: The Spark of Resistance. Pp. 87-151.
7. ↑ The Spark of Resistance. P. 42.
8. ↑ Shlomo Shafir: Ha- "Nizoz" she-lo kawa. In: Kesher. 9 (May 1991) [Heb.], Pp. 52-57.
9. ↑ The Spark of Resistance. P. 43.
10. ↑ Raim (ed.): Survivors of Kaufering. P. 119.
11. ↑ The Spark of Resistance. P. 36 f.
12. ^ Shlomo Shafir: The Impact of the Jewish Crisis on American-German Relations, 1933–1939. Dissertation . Georgetown University, Ann Arbor, Michigan 1978.