Mordecai Paldiel | |
|---|---|
| Markus Wajsfeld | |
 Antony Polonsky, Paldiel, Wojciech Kozłowski, Jenni Frazer | |
| Born | March 10, 1937 Antwerp, Belgium |
| Alma mater | Hebrew University (BA) Temple University (MA; PhD) |
| Spouse | Rachel Mizrahi (m. 1966) |
| Children | 3, including Siggy Flicker |
Mordecai Paldiel (born Markus Wajsfeld, March 10, 1937) [1] is a lecturer at Stern College (Yeshiva University) [2] and Queens College in New York.
Paldiel was born into a Hasidic family of Szlomo Wajsfeld, a diamond trader originally from Miechów near Kraków, and Hinde ( née Labin) from Uhnów (now Ukraine) as one of their five children before World War II. Thanks to a Catholic Priest who was able to smuggle them across the border, [3] the family fled from Nazi occupied Belgium via France to Switzerland in 1940 when he was 3 years old. [1] Later after the war the family emigrated to New York. [4]
"When you have stories of people who acted contrary to that and said ‘I’m going to save lives, even at risk to myself,’ you should talk about these people too. The good deeds should rub off on you too." [5]
He received a bachelor of arts from Hebrew University and a master of arts and PhD in Religion and Holocaust Studies from Temple University in Philadelphia. Paldiel is the former Director (1984-2007) of the Department of the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. He has written several books devoted to the subject including The Path of the Righteous: Gentile Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust published in 1993 by the KTAV Publishing House. [3]
Paldiel married Rachel Mizrahi in 1966 in Israel. The couple has 3 children, son Eli and daughters Sigalit "Siggy" and Iris.
His eldest daughter Siggy Flicker is a relationship expert and television personality who appeared on the Bravo reality television series The Real Housewives of New Jersey from 2016 to 2018.
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the survivors; honoring Jews who fought against their Nazi oppressors and gentiles who selflessly aided Jews in need; and researching the phenomenon of the Holocaust in particular and genocide in general, with the aim of avoiding such events in the future. Yad Vashem's vision, as stated on its website, is: "To lead the documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust, and to convey the chronicles of this singular Jewish and human event to every person in Israel, to the Jewish people, and to every significant and relevant audience worldwide."
Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a commune in the Haute-Loire department in south-central France.
Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches was a Portuguese consul during World War II.
During World War II, some individuals and groups helped Jews and others escape the Holocaust conducted by Nazi Germany.
Righteous Among the Nations is an honourific used by the State of Israel to describe all of the non-Jews who, for purely altruistic reasons, risked their lives in order to save Jews from being exterminated by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. The term originates from the concept of ger toshav, a legal term used to refer to non-Jewish observers of the Seven Laws of Noah.
Jan Zwartendijk was a Dutch businessman and diplomat. As director of the Philips factories in Lithuania and part-time acting consul of the Dutch government-in-exile, he supervised the writing of 2,345 visas for Curaçao to save Jews from the Holocaust during World War II. In 1997, Yad Vashem recognised him as Righteous Among the Nations.
Henri Reynders (Dom Bruno) (24 October 1903 – 26 October 1981) was a Belgian priest credited with saving 400 Jews during the Holocaust.
Yvonne Feyerick Nèvejean was one of the leaders of an organisation that helped hide Jewish children in Nazi-occupied Belgium during World War II. She was instrumental in hiding about 4000 children, many with Catholic families and institutions. After the war she was honoured inside and outside Belgium. In 1965, she was designated as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem, and in 1996 a stamp was issued in Belgium bearing her image.
The citizens of Poland have the highest count of individuals who have been recognized by Yad Vashem as the Polish Righteous Among the Nations, for saving Jews from extermination during the Holocaust in World War II. There are 7,177 Polish men and women conferred with the honor, over a quarter of the 27,921 recognized by Yad Vashem in total. The list of Righteous Among the Nations is not comprehensive and it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of Poles concealed and aided tens of thousands of their Polish-Jewish neighbors. Many of these initiatives were carried out by individuals, but there also existed organized networks of Polish resistance which were dedicated to aiding Jews – most notably, the Żegota organization.
Polish Jews were the primary victims of the Nazi Germany-organized Holocaust in Poland. Throughout the German occupation of Poland, Jews were rescued from the Holocaust by Polish people, at risk to their lives and the lives of their families. According to Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, Poles were, by nationality, the most numerous persons identified as rescuing Jews during the Holocaust. By January 2022, 7,232 people in Poland have been recognized by the State of Israel as Righteous among the Nations.
Jan and Anna Puchalski were a Polish husband and wife who lived in the village of Łosośna in north-eastern Poland on the outskirts of Grodno during the Nazi German occupation of Poland. Together, they rescued Polish Jews from the Holocaust, including escapees from the ghetto in Grodno before its brutal liquidation. The Puchalskis were posthumously bestowed the titles of Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in June 1986. Their medals of honor were presented to their surviving children at a ceremony in Jerusalem on June 14, 1987, during which Irena Puchalska-Bagińska, Zdzisław, son of Sabina Puchalska-Kazimierczyk, Władysław Puchalski and Krystyna Puchalska-Maciejewska planted a tree in the Garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem.
Matylda Getter (1870–1968) was a Polish Catholic nun, mother provincial of CSFFM - Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary in Warsaw and social worker in pre-war Poland. In German-occupied Warsaw during World War II she cooperated with Irena Sendler and the Żegota resistance organization in saving the lives of hundreds of Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto. She was recognized as one of Polish Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem. for her rescue activities.
Marianne Cohn, was a German-born French Resistance fighter.
Jan van Hulst was a Dutch engineer who was active in the Dutch resistance during the Second World War. He was instrumental in preventing Jews from being deported and killed during the Holocaust, and is recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.
Refik Veseli was an Albanian photographer and formerly a co-founder of the Albanian Institute of Monuments. He was decorated along with his family by the state of Israel as Righteous Among the Nations for saving Jews during the Second World War.
Gavra Mandil (1936–2006) was a Yugoslavian born Israeli photographer and educator, one of the first photographers of advertising and fashion in Israel, chairman of the Photographers Association, a photography teacher, founder of the Studio Gavra School of Photography.
Henryk Rolirad was a Polish food–systems engineer who was recognized as a Righteous among the Nations for saving Jews during World War II.
Hubert Isaac Pollack was a German Jew whose clandestine activity prior to the Holocaust enabled him and his associates to save a large number of Jews. After his immigration to Israel he served in the Hagana and the Israeli Defense Forces.
Johanna Eck was a German woman who saved four people during the Holocaust. She was honored as one of the Righteous among Nations.
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