Holocaust survivor Mordechai Ciechanower died at the age of 100. He dedicated his life to Holocaust education.
He led delegations of Israeli students and IDF officers on educational trips to Poland, lectured worldwide about his personal experiences, and authored an autobiography, “A Star Gleams in the Distance,” which was translated into English, German and Polish.
Ciechanover was born in 1924 in the Polish town of Maków Mazowiecki. To survive two years in Auschwitz, he worked as a roofer, repairing barracks in the camp. He was liberated from Bergen-Belsen on April 15, 1945, and later that year immigrated to Israel under a false identity, posing as a British soldier.
Senior officials from the Shin Bet and Mossad, who had attended his lectures — including former Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai — helped carry his casket. Singer Yonatan Razel performed “Shir Mispar,” a song he and Ciechanower had created together.
