Gideon Greif

Gideon Greif

Gideon Greif (Hebrew: גדעון גרייף‎; born 1951 in Tel Aviv) is an Israeli historian who specializes in the History of Holocaust Period and especially with the History of the Concentration and Extermination Camp Auschwitz, and the research on the Jewish "Sonderkommando" in Auschwitz.[1]

Education

From 1965 until 1969 Gideon Greif attended Municipal High School (Gymnasium) in Tel Aviv. Later, from 1974 to 1976 he attended Tel Aviv University where he got his Bachelor's degree in Jewish History, studying the History of the Land of Israel. Between 1976 and 1982 he did his Masters degree in Jewish History at Tel Aviv University. Beginning in 1996 until 2001 he studied in Austria at the University of Vienna Modern History for which he obtained his PhD.

Main Positions

Honorary Post

Between 1980 and 1984 Gideon Greif was Chairman of the first official organization of children of Holocaust survivors in Israel "The Second Generation of Holocaust Survivors".

Pedagogical Projects

In the year 1993 until 1997 and 2005 Gideon Greif was the initiator and manager of three-weekly seminars in further education for Polish pedagogues and staff of the state museums in Auschwitz (see Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum), Majdanek (see Majdanek State Museum) and Stutthof, former Nazi German concentration camps in occupied Poland. Since 1993 he is the manager of educational projects for teachers (in various countries, also in the United States and Canada) as well as its initiator. Moreover, since 1994 until the present he is the manager of two-weekly seminars in Germany in further education for German pedagogues. Also since 1994 until now he leads educational projects with students at various high schools in Germany, Austria and Poland.

On the educational level, Dr. Greif is lecturing intensively in High Schools, Colleges and Universities all over the world, in countries like Germany, Poland, The USA, Australia and Denmark. In Germany alone about 116,000 Gymnasium students have listened to his lectures in the recent decade, mostly on Auschwitz and on other Holocaust related topics.

Advisory Positions

Since 1991 Gideon Greif has been responsible for the planning and development of exhibitions, films and educational resources at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland where he is also an advisor to the management of the museum at various conferences and pedagogic projects as well as a translator for museum materials and for Israeli visitors of Auschwitz.

Since 1995 he has also worked for the "Survivors of the Shoah" (Visual History Foundation) in Los Angeles where he plans and manages further education seminars for the scientific staff of the foundation, in particular for interviewers of Holocaust survivors. Moreover from 1999 until the present he has been a member of the American international advisory council of interviewers at the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation in New York.

Publications

Publications (partial list)

"Freddy Hirsch- an educator and social leader during the Holocaust" (Hebrew), in: Emdot – Am, Medinah, Torah, Vol. 5, edited by Moshe Rachimi, pp. 81 –97, Rechovot 2013.

Dr. Greif completed recently his book on "Jakitto – the boy from Thessaloniki in Auschwitz", which will be published soon in Israel. "Jakitto" (nickname of Jacob Maestro), was deported to Auschwitz in March 1943. He worked there at the "Arbeitseinsatz", a position which enabled him to help many Jews, to get better "Kommandos" (Working sq­ s), thus saving their lives.

Radio Documenatries

Dr. Greif initiated the documentary Radio-broadcast "Thessaloniki - Auschwitz", which reconstructed the annihilation of Greek Jews in Auschwitz, The documentary also depicted their life prior to the deportations to Auschwitz in their homeland, Greece. For producing the documentary, Dr. Greif went with twenty survivors and their children to Greece, to their place of birth, and then to Auschwitz, where each of them reconstructed his fate in the camp. Some of the survivors were victims of the so-called "medical experiments", others were in the "Sonderkommando", one was in the Auschwitz-Orchestra, and some were prisoners in Buna-Monowitz. This documentary, broadcast in "Galey Zahal", won the "Sokolow Prize" for best documentary program on the Radio and was accompanied with a documentary film.
The History of the Zionist Movement (editor & interviewer; 12 chapters,1980)
The Yellow Star - History of the Shoah (editor & interviewer; 67 chapters, 1981–1983)

Where was the Sun? - Central Documentary program for Yom Hashoah (chief editor and interviewer, 1984–1993)

I wanted to live - Ruth Eliaz's testimony (editor & interviewer; 1986)
I have been there (series of documentaries, on various topics, editor; 1986–1989)
Saloniki – Auschwitz – The Life and Death of a Jewish Community - was awarded with the „Sokolov-Price for Journalism", as best documentary of 1988. (editor & interviewer; 1987)
The Sonderkommando people of Auschwitz-Birkenau - Testimony of Yehoshua Rosenblum (editor & interviewer; 1987)
The March of the Living – the first live broadcast ever from Auschwitz-Birkenau (1988, 1989, 1992)
50 years after the Reichskristallnacht - Live broadcast with eyewitnesses and historians (editor & interviewer; 1988)

Film Documentaries

Theatre Play

Exhibitions

Dr. Greif was the scientific advisor and historical consultant of the exhibition "With Me Here Are Six Million Accusers" which marked the 50th anniversary of Adolf Eichmann's trial in 1961, inaugurated April 11, 2011, at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem.[2] The exhibition describes Eichmann's Career at the SS, his personal responsibility for the deportation of millions of Jews to the ghettos and extermination camps, his attempts to hide after the war and the operation of his discovery and seizure in Argentina in 1960. The exhibition aims to prove that Eichmann was not the "Murderer behind the desk", but an fanatic foe of the Jews, who was determined to send them to their deaths.[2]

Dr. Greif is now preparing with Peter Siebers an historical-architectural exhibition under the title "The Other Planet – Topography of Auschwitz", which will reconstruct each and every building existing in Auschwitz from 1940 to 1945. This exhibition is a result of a co-operation with a German architect, Mr. Peter Siebers. The exhibition will be inaugurated on November 2014 in Koeln, Germany, in the previous Gestapo headquarters. The exhibition materials will simultaneously be published in book form.

International Conferences and Symposia

Dr. Greif participated in the International Conference on the ":Sonderkommandos and Arbeitsjuden", organized by Prof. Philippe Mesnard and Prof. Frederic Crahay, heads of "Fondation Auschwitz" in Brussels, Belgium. The conference, with the participation of renowned scholars from all over the world, took place in Brussels in May 2013. Dr. Greif's topic was: "The importance of the research on the Sonderkommando to the understanding of the Final Solution in Auschwitz-Birknau".

Special Projects

Dr. Greif initiated in 2006 the project of the "Authentic Box Car", which is now standing on the Ramp of Birkenau, not far from the main entrance to the camp, as an eternal memory to the hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews, murdered by the Germans in the Gas Chambers of Birkenau in 1944, and dedicated to the memory of Hugo Lowy.

References

  1. ↑ Royle, Trevor (October 27, 2002). "They helped the Nazis murder their fellow Jews now these Holocaust victims' grim secret has been unveiled on film". Sunday Herald. p. 2. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Exhibit showcases Eichmann, 50 years after trial. Associated Press via Kyiv Post (11 April 2011). Retrieved 27 June 2014.