Izraeli songwriter, poet and writer Chaim Hefer was born on the 14th Heshvan 1925. He joined the Palmach in 1943, took part in smuggling “illegal immigrants” throughSyria andLebanon and was their chief songwriter. He was awarded the Israel Prize, a prize awarded to outstanding citizens, in 1983.
He was the assistant director of Promise To Masada and narrated numerous other films. The film depicts the agricultural development of settlements located in the Judean Desert and along the Dead Sea.
The gates of the Warsaw Ghetto were closed in November 1940. All Jews were required to live in the ghetto and only Jews who worked in forced labour for the Germans outside the walls, were permitted to leave the ghetto. Approximately 450,000 Jews lived in the ghetto in extremely overcrowded and difficult hygienic conditions. Many died from disease and mal-nutrition, many others were deported and sent to concentration camps from the summer 1942 until the ghetto was liquidated in spring 1943.
Scenes of the ghetto can be seen in the film Von Horvot Bis Zum Heimland (From Ruins Till Destruction, which was uploaded this week to the Spielberg Archive’s virtual cinema site.
