Daniel Gold with his father shortly after WWII

Over the last 3 years NZ Friends of Israel has collaborated with the Jewish Federation of New Zealand to bring Holocaust survivors to speak to New Zealand High School students.

Work is well underway on this year’s tour.

Professor Daniel Gold is this year’s Holocaust survivor.

Daniel Gold was born in Šiauliai, Lithuania in 1937. In 1941, the Germans occupied Lithuania, and the Jews of Šiauliai were enclosed in a ghetto. In 1943, “Aktions” were carried out in all the ghettos aroundLithuania. All the old and weak people, and also the children were rounded up and sent to their deaths. Parents tried to hide the children, but only a very few remained undetected. Among them were Daniel and few of his cousins. In the summer of 1944, just a few days prior to the liquidation of the ghetto and the dispatch of all survivors to concentration camps, his aunt and uncle escaped, taking with them their two sons, another cousin and Daniel. They found refuge with a Lithuanian peasant family, where they lived in hiding, under extremely cramped conditions, until their liberation by the Russian army in late fall of 1944. In 1946, Daniel was reunited with his father in Germany after his father was liberated from Dachau concentration camp by the American army in 1945. Daniel’s mother perished.

In 1952, Daniel and his father left Europe for Israel. There, Daniel’s life story took a remarkable turn. He served in the Israeli Air Force as a pilot during the Six Day War, the War of Attrition, the Yom Kippur War, and the first Lebanon War. He served as a reserve pilot for several decades. At a later stage in his life, Daniel joined the academia, attaining the position of a Professor of Medical Microbiology. Although retired for the last eight years, he continues to teach medical students on a voluntary basis. Likewise, he also served voluntarily for several at the Israeli police as a traffic policeman

Booking

Daniel will visit schools in your region and address students between Wednesday August 6 until Thursday August 28.

Please find below the datesthat Daniel will be visiting your area:

Auckland: 6-7 August

Queenstown: 7-8 August

Christchurch: 10-11 August

Dunedin: 12-13 August

To book please contact

Idit Forester
office@jfnz.org.nz
Ph (09) 529 5549

We suggest you allow 45 minutes for Daniel to address your students and an additional half an hour for questions and discussion time.  We are flexible and will do our best to suit your schedule.

We encourage schools within local regions to liaise with other nearby schools in a central auditorium in a school or alternative venue in your area.  If you are planning to do this, let us know and we can put you in touch with other interested schools who may be able to join you.

Cost: $4 per student plus a booking fee of $25 booking fee per school.  A minimum of $75 per session (including booking fee).  Limited sponsorship is available for those students who are unable to meet this cost.

Your venue will need to have a PA system and facilities for projecting a PowerPoint slideshow.

Bringing a survivor from Israel involves significant costs, if you are able to financially support the project make a donation using PayPal: contact@nzfoi.org or contact us directly via email on the same address.