Yad Vashem mourns the passing of Baruch Shub, a Holocaust survivor and partisan during WWII. Shub served as a member of the Yad Vashem Directorate and the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous Among the Nations.
Shub was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, the second child out of six in a Chassidic family. During the war, he used his degree in mechanical engineering to work for the Germans in various locations. In March 1941, his beloved sister, Zipporah, was murdered in an aktion alongside 840 other Jews, many of them children. Shub, together with other Jewish youths, established an underground resistance movement in the ghetto but were forced to abandon their activities due to pressure from their frightened families. Later on, he enlisted in the Russian Army as a paratrooper. He was part of the Russian forces that liberated Vilnius in 1944, where he learned that his entire family had been murdered during the Shoah.
After recovering from his wartime injuries, Shub decided to immigrate to Eretz Israel, which he finally reached in October 1945 after traveling through Hungary, Romania, and Italy. He was recruited to the Haganah, serving as an airplane technician during Israel’s War of Independence. Two years later he transferred to El Al, rising through company ranks to Chief Flight Engineer before his retirement 33 years later.
Throughout his life, Shub dedicated himself to Holocaust remembrance and education. He served as Chairman of the Israel Organization of Partisans, Underground Fighters and Ghetto Rebels in Israel, as well as a member of the Center Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel and the Claims Conference Board of Directors. He lectured widely on antisemitism and Holocaust denial. In 2010, Shub was selected as one of the six torch lighters for the State’s Opening Ceremony of Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem.
“Baruch was a partisan and a fighter who, throughout his life, embodied the survivors’ rebirth and commitment to building a new life for himself, his family, his nation, and his country,” said Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev. “He worked tirelessly until the end for the sake of Holocaust remembrance for generations to come. He will be greatly missed.”