Historian, guardian of Holocaust memory, expert at the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem, advocate of Polish-Jewish dialogue Alex Dancyg, who was imprisoned by Hamas for several months, is dead. The information about his death was confirmed by, among others, the Israeli social organization Forum of Families of Hostages and Missing Persons, as well as the Israeli army. The 76-year-old was kidnapped on October 7 last year from the southern Israeli kibbutz Nir Oz located on the border of the Gaza Strip. The information about the death was based on intelligence data. The circumstances of his death in Hamas captivity are currently being investigated.
Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Institute, hailed its employee as “a dedicated and loyal partner in our mission to support and advance meaningful Holocaust remembrance and education in Israel and around the world.” “Dancyg has successfully integrated his Israeli and Jewish identities, as well as his Polish birthplace, into teaching about World War II, as well as the Holocaust,” Yad Vashem board chairman Dani Dayan said in a statement Monday.
W 2023 r. Alex Dancyg He was honored, among others, by the Polish Council of Christians and Jews with the title of Man of Reconciliation and in March 2024 he received the Special Jan Karski Eagle Award.
Born 76 years ago in Warsaw, and living in Israel since 1957, Alex Dancyg has been explaining Poland to Israelis and Israel to Poles for decades. He trained guides accompanying young Israelis on their journeys to Poland, organized contacts between young people from Israel and their Polish peers, created a Hebrew guide to Poland, taught Polish teachers, museum workers and priests, and visited Polish schools. He facilitated meetings, supported and inspired people who work for Polish-Jewish understanding in both countries.
As a member of the kibbutz, Alex Dancyg was involved in irrigation – slowly changing the desert into a place where life appears. The famous Catholic publicist Janusz Poniewierski noticed that this is a symbolic image of his activity in the field of interpersonal and international relations. Because a drop wears away the stone.
Dancyg, like his entire kibbutz Nir Oz, maintained good neighborly relations with the Gaza Arabs. He believed that peace was possible. On October 7, 2023, after the massacre on the kibbutz, he was kidnapped by Hamas.
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