Moshe Bejski

Moshe Bejski (Działoszyce, 29 December 1921 – Tel Aviv, 6 March 2007) was an Israeli judge and President of "Yad Vashem"'s Righteous Commission.

Moshe Bejski was born in the village of Działoszyce, near Kraków, Poland, on December 29, 1920. When he was young he joined a Zionist movement that organized the move of young Polish Jews to Palestine to build a new nation in the promised land. Shortly before the German invasion of 1939, he had to temporarily give up his Zionist dream because of a serious heart disease which prevented him from leaving with his fellow youths.

In 1942, all Jews were deported. The Bejski family was dislocated. Moshe's parents and sister were shot soon after they were separated. Moshe, along with his brothers Uri and Dov, ended up in the work camp of Plaszow. The Commander there, Amon Goeth, was a complete sadist. He enjoyed using the prisoners for target practice from the room of his bedroom, as is depicted in Spielberg's movie Schindler's List.

Moshe succeeded in dodging the guards during a shift outside and ran from the camp to vainly seek refuge from his Polish neighbors whose children had just been his schoolmates and playmates. Only a delivery boy, a peer of his from a Cracow firm, offered him hospitality; albeit, in very uneasy and dangerous conditions. The malevolence of the neighbors ended up pushing him out.

Moshe felt an obligation to go back to the Plaszow camp, where he found Uri and Dov again. He eventfully got to be placed on the famous list for Oskar Schindler's factory. That is how the three Bejski brothers managed to be saved and were freed by the Red Army in May 1945. When the brothers discovered the tragic fate of their parents and sister they decided to emigrate to Israel.

Moshe was able to begin a new life in the place of his dreams that he hadn't been able to reach when he was a boy, but his Zionist dream soon clashed with the hard reality. His brother Uri was killed by a Palestinian sniper on the day the Jewish State was recognized by the UN. Moshe's dream to become an engineer clashed with the necessity to work to pay for his education. After making many sacrifices he was able to graduate with a degree in Law with a thesis on human rights in the Bible. He became one of the most reputable lawyers in Tel Aviv. To support the newly born Israeli State, Moshe chose to become a magistrate and eventually became the most prestigious member of the Constitutional Court.

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