Israel’s Oldest Holocaust Survivor Dies at 107

Yehuda Aharon Vidafsky, believed to be Israel’s oldest Holocaust survivor, has died at the age of 107, Israeli media and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum said on Monday. Vidafsky, who was born in Poland in 1919, died on Sunday, according to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Israeli media. Israeli President Isaac Herzog expressed his condolences to Vidafsky’s “wonderful family.”

Widawski survived, among others, the Auschwitz concentration camp. Most of his family was killed during the Nazi occupation. He emigrated to Israel in 1950. From 1978 onward, he worked on restoring Jewish graves in Poland. He also helped identify and mark more than 3,000 graves, according to a statement from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. The Israeli president stressed in a post on X that Widawski’s life was “an admirable testimony to the triumph of life, memory and a new beginning.” The Nazis killed some 6 million Jews in Europe during the Holocaust. The relevant government agency reported in April that around 109,000 Holocaust survivors still lived in Israel.