Subscribe to Print Edition | Thu., January 24, 2008 Shvat 17, 5768 | | Israel Time: 07:00 (EST+7) web haaretz.com   Back to Homepage Rosner's Domain Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Advertising Books Arts & Leisure Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File

Moshe Bar-Yoda holding the released data about his father. (Tomer Appelbaum) Last update - 14:02 16/01/2008 German archives' opening helps Israeli man track his father's death in Holocaust By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent Tags: Israel, German Archives  The last time 74-year-old Moshe Bar-Yoda saw his father, Avraham Kastner was about to be sent to a Nazi labor camp in Slovakia along with other residents of his Czech village. The Yad Vashem Holocaust museum archives have a record of Kastner being sent to the camp on March 27, 1942, but there the documentary trail ended. Although a witness testified before the rabbinate in 1948 that Kastner had been killed in a concentration camp during the Holocaust, Bar-Yoda, a journalist and Jewish Agency emissary, did not know any of the details and had no record of his father's death - until now. Advertisement Two weeks ago, Bar-Yoda became the first Israeli to receive information about the fate of family members via Yad Vashem since Germany's International Tracing Service at Bad Arolsen opened its World War II archives to the public at the end of November. The tracing service says it serves victims of Nazi persecutions and their families by documenting their fate through the archives it manages. The archives include more than 50 million references that contain information about more than 17 million people. Although relatives of Nazi victims had previously been allowed to examine the archives, the records are now open to researchers around the world and have been digitally transferred to the Yad Vashem archives, making it easier for family members to conduct more precise searches and find out exactly what happened to their loved ones. After searching the International Tracing Service records, Bar-Yoda discovered that his father's name appears on the list of the dead whose bodies were incinerated at the Majdanek death camp in Poland on September 7, 1942, six months after the two last saw each other. Now, Bar-Yoda said, he can finally commemorate his father's passing on his yahrtzeit the day of his death instead of on the day designated for those who do not know the day of their loved one's death. "Ater having said kaddish [the Jewish mourner's prayer] for him for 60 years on the general kaddish day on the fast of Asara B'Tevet, now I have a specific yahrtzeit," said Bar-Yoda. "And while it doesn't comfort me or make me happy, there is a kind of satisfaction here, that I can move forward." Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev said Bar-Yoda's tale shows how the newly expanded collection of records can help the families of Holocaust victims. "This story demonstrates how the tens of millions of documents collected by the Yad Vashem archives, in conjunction with the millions of new documents that have recently arrived and will arrive from the International Tracing Service archive in Germany over the next two years, will be able to help individuals fill in the picture about the fate of their loved ones in the Holocaust." Yad Vashem had previously received many documents from the International Tracing Service, but will be bolstering its collection over the next two years. Bar-Yoda had looked through the Yad Vashem archives, which include microfilm of some 20 million documents received from the tracing service at the end of the 1950s. However, the Majdanek document did not reach the Bad Arolsen archives until the mid-1960s. Family members of Holocaust victims can request information on the fate of their loved ones at www.yadvashem.org. More Jewish World news and features Bookmark to del.icio.us   The father of the victim Father of terror victim slams Olmert for letting PA try the killers. And you're out German hip-hop artist thrown off reality show over Hitler salute.   1.   Does anyone know ... 03:37  |  Morris Valentine 16/01/08   2.   Reply for Morris. 08:53  |  Linni Tisch 16/01/08   3.   Valentine senior 09:11  |  sh 16/01/08   4.   reply to Linni 09:23  |  Freddy 16/01/08   5.   To # 1 - Morris 09:35  |  Robert 16/01/08   6.   Freddy 10:01  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 16/01/08   7.   #1, Morris Valentine 10:03  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 16/01/08   8.   protection of individuals 11:29  |  shoshana 16/01/08   9.   To Morris about the ITS Tracing service 12:22  |  gabi 16/01/08   10.   Maybe it is the reflection... 12:25  |  Edith 16/01/08   11.   morris 13:20  |  Axel 16/01/08   12.   Archiv was open for 60 years 14:04  |  Dav 16/01/08   13.   with each massacre of Palestinian, another "holocaust" story 15:19  |  nobodysacred 16/01/08   14.   Why Germany kept the archives closed 15:49  |  Jonathan S 16/01/08   15.   TO NOBODY SACRED 16:31  |  Nicole 16/01/08   16.   Palestine "versus" Holocaust 16:50  |  ruben siedner 16/01/08   17.   #14 is Absolutely Correct !!! 17:39  |  Henryk 16/01/08   18.   To L Tisch (#2) 17:40  |  Morris Valentine 16/01/08   19.   To sh (#3) 17:43  |  Morris Valentine 16/01/08   20.   To Robert (#5) 17:46  |  Morris Valentine 16/01/08   21.   #1 Germans: Poets and Philosophers 17:48  |  Henryk 16/01/08   22.   jonathan S the usual liar 17:49  |  Axel 16/01/08   23.   To CJK (#7) 17:56  |  Morris Valentine 16/01/08   24.   To Shoshonna (#8) 18:03  |  Morris Valentine 16/01/08   25.   To Gabi 18:09  |  Morris Valentine 16/01/08   26.   To Axel (#22) 18:17  |  Morris Valentine 16/01/08   27.   #22 Gernanophilia 18:37  |  Henryk 16/01/08   28.   # 26 morris 18:43  |  Axel 16/01/08   29.   The truth about the Bad Arolsen archives 19:06  |  Jonathan S 16/01/08   30.   More Information 19:08  |  CG 16/01/08   31.   To Axel (#26): "Your kind"? 19:24  |  Morris Valentine 16/01/08   32.   To Hendryk (#27) 19:38  |  Morris Valentine 16/01/08   33.   Neither arrogant nor submissive.. 20:05  |  Andreas 16/01/08   34.   To Andreas (#33) 20:38  |  Morris Valentine 16/01/08   35.   # 27 henryk 21:27  |  Axel 16/01/08   36.   Re post #14: Is this true? 21:39  |  Morris Valentine 16/01/08   37.   # 31 morris 21:56  |  Axel 16/01/08   38.   #35 To Axel 22:09  |  Henryk 16/01/08   39.   # 35 Axel: Reality is always seen from a perspective 22:16  |  Andreas 16/01/08   40.   I beg your pardon, Andreas 22:39  |  Axel 16/01/08   41.   # 36 henryk 22:51  |  Axel 16/01/08   42.   To Morris #34 22:59  |  Andreas 16/01/08   43.   #36 : Axel and slander 23:26  |  Henyrk 16/01/08   44.   # 40 Axel 23:31  |  Andreas 16/01/08   45.   # 36 morris 23:34  |  Axel 16/01/08   46.   To Axel (#37) 23:39  |  Morris Valentine 16/01/08   47.   To Andreas (#42) 23:55  |  Morris Valentine 16/01/08   48.   To Axel: one good thing ... 00:40  |  Morris Valentine 17/01/08   49.   Yom HaShoah in a thousand years 02:37  |  Scharker Yid 17/01/08   50.   # 43 henryk 10:56  |  Axel 17/01/08   51.   # 44 Andreas 11:01  |  Axel 17/01/08   52.   To Axel (#51) et al: some reflections 17:20  |  Morris Valentine 17/01/08   53.   #52 Germanophobia 19:01  |  Henryk 17/01/08   54.   axel 02:51  |  sWeis Melbourne 18/01/08   55.   To No. 1 etc. Why only now? 21:33  |  k. 18/01/08   56.   Don`t let facts get in your way 15:15  |  Shahama 19/01/08   57.   Tracking Holocaust victims 15:29  |  Bruce Mullen 19/01/08

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