Just before taking off to the Hague to represent the State of Israel in the lawsuit filed by South Africa for alleged war crimes, former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak was presented for the first time with a touching historical document found in the Central Zionist Archives of the World Zionist Organization.
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Barak was deeply moved to learn about the existence of an archival file named after his father, Zvi Barak, containing numerous personal documents and a series of letters he wrote by hand to various Zionist figures. Aharon Barak had never seen this document before and was not exposed to its contents until now. The letter, written in the summer of 1945, is addressed to his friend Chaim Berlas, head of the Rescue Committee in Istanbul, and it mentions his son Aharon, who was then an 8-year-old child.
The document speaks of the father's longing - who stayed in Europe during the Holocaust to rescue Jews - to come to Israel to take care of his wife and son. Eventually, two years later, in 1947, Zvi Barak arrived in Israel with his wife. Before the outbreak of the war, Zvi Barak served as the head of the Israeli Land Office in Lithuania. Despite having the authority to approve immigration certificates for himself, he chose to stay behind to continue assisting Jews.
With the establishment of the Kovno Ghetto, the family joined him, enduring three years there. Zvi's wife and young Aharon managed to escape the ghetto and survive thanks to the help of a local Lithuanian who hid them in his home. Zvi remained in the ghetto but later managed to escape. After the Russian army liberated the area in October 1944, the family reunited and migrated from Lithuania to Romania and then to Italy.
In the summer of 1945, while waiting with his family for immigration licenses to Israel, Zvi Barak wrote to his friend Chaim Berlas, head of the Rescue Committee in Istanbul: "I turn to you, and to whom else should I turn if not to you? Help me! Send licenses for me and my family (wife and an 8-year-old child)." The letter, preserved in Barak's file, reflects their dire situation after the war: "It's already the fifth month that I've been wandering on the road. I'm sure you'll do everything as you've done until today. Extend a helping hand to a brother, as is your way in life. Yours, Zvi Barak."