Martyrdom & Resistance, January/February 2003

ID Transcript mare2903_01 "Vol. 29-No. 3 ISSN 0892-1571 January/February 2003-Shevat/Adar 1 5763 ColumbiaVoyage of Remembrance Is Destroyed in Flames; The Ill-Fated Space Shuttle Is a ""Mirror of the Holocaust"" 4 CT^he tragedy brings a wrenching end to a painting A whose story mirrors the modern history of European Jews."" Yochi J. Dreazen reported the disaster for the Wall Street Journal, focusing on the painting that was borrowed from Yad Vashem and lost on the Columbia with Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, killed on February 1 along with six other astronauts, when the space shuttle disintegrated over Palestine, Texas. The painting, Moon Landscape, was the work of a Jewish teenager imprisoned at Theresienstadt and killed at Auschwitz. The 14-year-old, Petr Ginz, left all his art at Theresienstadt. After moving to Israel, the family donated the paintings to Yad Vashem. Son of a Holocaust survivor, Colonel Ramon contacted Yad Vashem to carry a Holocaust-related item into space. Yehudit Shendar, the Yad Vashem curator, told Dreazen, ""It [Moon Landscape] seemed like a perfect fit. I remembered the drawing, and I was thinking of a young Jewish boy who was imprisoned by the walls and still had the strength to imagine a landscape far away."" Ms. Shendar added: ""I thought that Petr's soul would meet Ilan in space. I never thought the merger would be in death."" In fact, the Yad Vashem Museum had planned a celebration honoring Petr and Ilan, scheduled as speakers, Ilan and Petr's sister. The painting was to be hung next to a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) certificate testifying to the journey. Instead a special showcase opened at the Historical Museum at Yad Vashem on February 4 in honor of Ilan and Petr. Reflected Avner Shalev, chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate, ""Not only was Ginz murdered at Auschwitz, but his sketch reflects the vision of how the earth would look from the moon. Ginz was also a talented author who, like Ramon, demonstrated an affinity for the sciences."" ""Ramon's choice to take the drawing (and other artifacts) with him shows the significant role the Holocaust played in his identity as a Jew and as an Israeli. Also featured in the showcase are photos of Ramon and Ginz, and from Yad Vashem's Hall of Names the Page of testimony for Petr Ginz filled out by his sister and Page of Testimony filled out by Ramon's mother for a family member. Writes Warren S. Leary for the New York Times, ""At the concentration camp, Petr dreamed of faraway places and drew a picture of what the Earth would look like when viewed from mountains on the moon."" Colonel Ramon's principal duty was operating a twin-camera instrument from the Israeli Space Agency and Tel Aviv University. The purpose was the study of dust storms and effects of their particles on climate. This study also served as another link for remembrance that carried a Torah Scroll into space. Han's assignment was monitored by Prof. Yehoy- ahin Yosef, a professor of planetary physics at Tel Aviv University. Prof. Yosef survived Bergen-Belsen. While interned, he had a secret bar mitzvah ceremony in the presence of the entire barrack. He shared a barrack with the Chief Rabbi of Hoi- Book Reviews 2-4,15 Survivors' Corner 5 Report from Yad Vashem: The Ilan Ramon I Knew 8 Legacy of Abba Eban 8 Campus and Classroom .10 Kristallnacht Commemorations 13-14 land, who prepared the youth for the bar mitzvah and lent him a Torah Scroll to study and read at the ceremony. (Continued on page 9) IN THE NEWS YOM HASHOAH MILESTONES 27 Nissan 5763-2003, this year on April 29, is well advanced in the planning of Yom Hashoah V'Hagvurah programs across the globe. The remembrance season this year will be an occasion of milestones. Fifty-year milestones are on the agenda for Yad Vashem: the establishment of the Israeli Remembrance Authority and the setting of 27 Nissan for Yom Hashoah V'Hagvurah. April 19, 2003 commemorates the historical model of Jewish resistance - the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. In 1943 the uprising coincided with the start of Passover. This year, the 60th anniversary, April 19 marks the first day of Hoi Hamoed. The prototype of Yom Hashoah V'Hagvurah observances in the U.S. is the Young Israel of Forest Hills. This year will be its 40th anniversary. CALL FOR CENTRAL ARCHIVE A call for a central archive at Yad Vashem of all Holocaust-era documents was issued at a four-day conference at the Israeli Remembrance Authority, (seepage 8) A worker at Yad Vashem Holocaust museum places a name tag under the photo of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon as he prepares an exhibition in Jerusalem. A copy of a drawing by fourteen-year-old Auschwitz victim Petr Ginz, pictured right, depicting a view of the earth from the moon, was carried aboard the space shuttle Columbia by Ramon. The picture, part of the Yad Vashem Museum collection, was drawn during Ginz1 incarceration in the Theresienstadt ghetto, and requested by Ramon, whose mother is an Auschwitz survivor, and whose grandfather and other family members perished in Nazi death camps. Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon perished when the space shuttle Columbia broke up before landing.(AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma) "