Zvi Zimmerman

MKs


Date of birth = birth date|1913|01|02
Place of birth = Skała, Austria-Hungary
Year of Aliyah = 1944
Date of death = Death date and age|2006|06|10|1913|01|02
Place of death =
Knesset(s) = 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th
Party = Gahal
Former parties = General Zionists, Liberal Party
Gov't roles =

Zvi Henryk Zimmerman ( _he. צבי הנריק צימרמן, born January 2, 1913, died June 10, 2006) was a Zionist activist, jurist, and Israeli politician. He is also known for his cooperation with Henryk Sławik to save Jews during the holocaust.

Biography

Zimmerman was born in 1913 in Skala on the River Zbrucz in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (today in the Ukraine), the son of Benjamin (Alter) Zimmerman and Zlata Pessia (Babe) Bitterman. He attended a secular high school and studied law at the Jagiellonian University. At the age of thirteen he became a devoted Zionist. He was a member of the Youth Movement of the General Zionists, Chairman of Kedima (the Zionist Student Union in Krakow) and Deputy Chairman of Kedima's national organization, and Deputy Chairman of the Zionist University Graduates.Cite web
title = Zvi Henryk Zimmerman
work = Skala Research Group
accessdate = 2008-05-20
url = http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/SkalaPodol/ZviZimmerman.html]

He spent most of the war in the Kraków Ghetto. In the spring of 1943, after the ghetto was liquidated, he was taken to the Plaszow camp. He escaped and made his way to Budapest in October 1943. There, he met Dr. Henryk Sławik, the leader of the Polish Civic Committee for Relief for Refugees. The Polish government in exile (based in London) authorized the cooperation, which was possible thanks to the help of the Hungarian authorities - including Dr. József Antall Sr. (the father of future prime minister of Hungary József Antall), the head of Department IX of the Ministry of Interior Affairs (responsible for refugees of all nations), and Countess Szapary. Sławik provided Zimmerman a stamp with which he confirmed documents and forms the refugees had to fill out and then submitted them to Sławik. Along with the official stamp of the Polish Civic Committee, this signature on an official form enabled Polish Jews to obtain "Aryan" passports.Cite journal
title = Henryk Slawik - a Polish Wallenberg
journal = Trybuna
accessdate = 2008-05-20
date = 2002-05-24
url = http://www.forum-znak.org.pl/index-en.php?t=przeglad&id=1322] About a hundred Jews were thus saved.Cite journal
volume = Nov./Dec. 2002
issue = 235
title = A Documentary to memoralize the heroic life of Dr. Henryk Slawik: The Polish Raoul Wallenberg, in the making
journal = New Cracow Friendship Society Newsletter
accessdate = 2008-05-20
url = http://www.newcracowfriendshipsoc.org/nov.dec.2002.htm]

In 1944 he immigrated to Palestine. From 1951 to 1959 he was a member of the Haifa City Council. In 1959, he was elected to the Fourth Knesset for the General Zionists (which later merged into the Liberal Party), and was a member of the Internal Affairs and House Committees. He was re-elected to the next three Knessets for Gahal and served on the Labor-Welfare and Finance Committees. In the Seventh Knesset he was Deputy Speaker of the Knesset. From 1983 to 1986 he served as Israel's ambassador to New Zealand. In 1961 he testified as a witness in the trial of Adolf Eichmann.Cite web
title = Eichmann trial - The District Court Sessions
work = The Nizkor Project
accessdate = 2008-05-20
url = http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf/transcripts/Sessions/Session-062-02.html]

After his term in Wellington ended, he returned to Israel. Following the fall of the Iron curtain, he decided to visit Poland and Hungary in order to pay back his debt to Sławik and Antall. he found out that they were both killed by the Nazis. He published an announcement on the Cracow Przekrój weekly and has thus contacted Sławik's daughter.Cite news
title = Unsung Hero
work = Warsaw Voice
accessdate = 2008-05-20
date = 2004-01-28
url = http://www.warsawvoice.pl/view/4635/] Thanks to Zimmerman's efforts, Sławik was awarded the Righteous Among the Nations title by Yad Vashem in 1992.

Zimmerman died on June 10, 2006.

Bibliography

*Cite book
publisher =
isbn = 9789652225085
last = Zimmermann
first = Zvi
title = Between the hammer of the Knesset and the anvil of the Party
location = Tel-Aviv
date = 1994he icon
*Cite book
isbn = 9657238145
pages = 278
last = Zimmermann
first = Henryk Zvi
title = I Have Survived, I Remember, I am a Witness
date = 2004

References

External links

*Cite web
last = Zimmermann
first = Henryk Zvi
title = Dr. Slawik - Was He a Polish Raoul Wallenberg?
accessdate = 2008-05-20
url = http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/Slawik.htm
*Cite news
last = Zimmermann
first = Henryk Zvi
title = There Are Good People...
work = Warsaw Voice
accessdate = 2008-05-20
date = 2004-01-28
url = http://www.warsawvoice.pl/view/4634