Simcha Holtzberg

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Simcha Holtzberg (sometimes spelled Holzberg), was born in Warsaw, Poland, to Shmuel and Tziporah Holtzberg, on April 18, 1924 and died on February 13, 1994.

He was a humanitarian known in Israel as “Father of the wounded soldiers", was an Holocaust survivor who dedicated his life to visiting and helping wounded-in-service soldiers and terrorism victims in Israel. His aim was to restore the wounded to normal lives and enable them to return to society successfully. Usually, authorities do not provide for emotional care. Holzberg tried to restore the light in their hearts and the warmth in their souls.

He participated in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, captured by the Nazis and sent to different concentration camps, to finally be liberated from Bergen-Belsen, where so many had died. Simcha arrived in Israel in 1949, and became famous for his stubborn struggle against normalizing relations between Israel and Germany. He organized demonstrations every single time a high-ranking German official came to Israel.

He also established Holocaust libraries and published the poems of the Holocaust poet Yitzhak Katzenelson. He befriended the famous Rabbi Arieh Levine of Jerusalem, known as "Father of the Prisoners". The rabbi was very influential in Simcha's lifetime devotion to wounded Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers, whom he considered "the nation's holy and righteous".

Simcha died during a ceremony held in honor of the wounded in 1994.

The Israel Philatelic Federation issued a stamp in his honor on April 19, 1999, the 75th Anniversary of his birth, showing his portrait and a legend stating: "Father of the Wounded Soldiers".

There is a street in Pisgat Ze'ev, Israel, named after him.