Zvi Asaria
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Zvi Asaria (Hebrew: צבי אסריה; September 8, 1913 – December 27, 2002) was a Yugoslav-born rabbi, Holocaust survivor, theologian, author, and post-war communal leader, who advocated for dialogue between Jews and post-war Germans.
Asaria was born as Hermann Helfgott in Beodra, in the Banat region (then part of Austria-Hungary, now Serbia). His father, Kolman, was a merchant and cantor;[1] the family was poor, with six people living in two rooms.[2] After attending a community high school in nearby Veliki Bečkerek (now Zrenjanin, Serbia), he studied at the newly founded Jewish Theological Seminary in Sarajevo before moving to Vienna in 1934 to pursue a doctorate at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University, while pursuing rabbinical training at the theological school.[3] He had to leave before finishing his degree after the Anschluss; he went to Budapest where he finished his Ph.D.,[4] and was ordained as a rabbi.[5]
War years
He was a rabbi briefly in Yugoslavia before being drafted into the Yugoslav army as a chaplain. In spring 1941 he was captured by the Germans and spent four years as a POW.[6] After a year as a prisoner, he and his Jewish comrades were sent by cattle car to a camp near Osnabruck; there he organized Jewish life for the soldiers. After several more deportations, he ended up on a 400 km. forced POW death march in the winter of 1944-45 from Meyenburg to Brandenburg; those too weak to walk were shot. He escaped captivity near the end of the war.[3] With the war not over, he went to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, recently liberated by the British. He provided spiritual guidance for survivors, arranged for burials for those that died after liberation and worked in the rescue effort. The war was still raging, and ambulances and other supplies were preferably sent to the front. When he asked for ambulances to take away the very sick, he was told there were none and he broke down, crying. He persisted, and with the help of the commanding officer, a Czech Jew, there were ten ambulances the next day.[2] "He had a striking personality and a beautiful singing voice," was popular and helped maintain morale. He was considered to be the foremost Halakhic authority in the British zone.[7]
