Joseph Harmatz
Joseph Harmatz | |
---|---|
Born | January 23, 1925 Rakishok, Lithuania |
Died | September 22, 2016 (Aged 91) Tel Aviv, Israel |
Joseph Harmatz (
Early life
Born into a prosperous family in
Nakam
After the war, Harmatz became part of Nakam (Hebrew for Revenge), a group of 50 former underground fighters led by Abba Kovner that was dedicated to efforts to avenge the deaths of the six million Jewish victims of Nazi extermination efforts in the Holocaust. Harmatz told The Observer in 1998 that the goal of Nakam was the death of as many Germans as possible, with the group planning "to kill six million Germans, one for every Jew slaughtered by the Germans", acknowledging that the effort "was revenge, quite simply. Were we not entitled to our revenge, too?"[1]
Harmatz and his associates targeted
An earlier attempt to poison the water in a number of German cities failed after Kovner was arrested by British forces on a ship on which the poison had been hidden, and had been thrown overboard to prevent its capture. According to his son, Harmatz was thankful in retrospect that the plot to poison the water supplies in German cities had failed, saying that it would have harmed efforts to create an incipient State of Israel and would have led to charges of moral equivalence between actions of Germans and Jews. Another effort to kill Nazi war criminals on trial at Nuremberg failed when the group was unable to find any U.S. Army guards willing to participate.[1]
Later life
After emigrating to Israel in 1950, Harmatz worked to aid Jews resettling from countries around the world.[1] From 1960 to 1994, he headed World ORT, a Jewish non-profit organization that promotes education and training in communities around the world.[5]
A resident of Tel Aviv, Harmatz died on 22 September 2016, at his home at the age of 91. He was survived by two sons.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Roberts, Sam. "Joseph Harmatz, Who Led Jewish Plot to Kill Germans After World War II, Dies at 91", The New York Times, September 29, 2016. Accessed October 21, 2016.
- ^ Freedland, Jonathan. "Revenge", The Guardian, July 25, 2008. Accessed October 21, 2016.
- ^ via Associated Press. "Poison Bread Fells 1,900 German Captives In U.S. Army Prison Camp Near Nuremberg", The New York Times, April 20, 1946. Accessed October 21, 2016. "Nineteen hundred German prisoners of war were poisoned by arsenic in their bread early this week in a United States camp and all are "seriously ill," United States headquarters announced tonight."
- ^ Associated Press in Tel Aviv (31 August 2016). "Failed Jewish Holocaust survivor plot to kill Nazis still a mystery after 70 years". Retrieved October 21, 2016.
- ^ Jweekly, March 27, 1998. Accessed October 21, 2016.