Bat-Sheva Dagan facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Bat-Sheva Dagan
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Dagan in 2016
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| Native name |
בת שבע דגן
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| Born | Izabella (Batszewa) Rubinsztajn 8 September 1925 Łódź, Poland |
| Died | 25 January 2024 (aged 98) Bat-Yam, Israel |
| Resting place | Zefat, Israel |
| Occupation | Psychologist, teacher, author, speaker |
| Education | B.A. educational counseling, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1963 B.A. psychology, Columbia University |
| Subject | Holocaust literature for children and young adults |
| Notable awards | Woman of the Year in Education, 2008, Yad Vashem |
| Spouse | Paul Dagan |
| Children | 2 |
Bat-Sheva Dagan (Hebrew: בת-שבע דגן; 8 September 1925 – 25 January 2024) was a brave Polish-Israeli woman. She was a Holocaust survivor, a teacher, an author, and a speaker. She was born in Łódź, Poland. In 1940, she and her family were forced to live in a ghetto in Radom.
In August 1942, her parents and a sister were sent away and died in a terrible camp called Treblinka. Bat-Sheva managed to escape to Germany. But she was found, put in prison, and sent to Auschwitz in May 1943.
She spent 20 months in Auschwitz. She survived two very difficult, forced marches. British soldiers finally freed her in May 1945. She was the only one in her family to survive the war.
Bat-Sheva and her husband later moved to Israel. There, she became a kindergarten teacher. She also earned degrees in educational counseling and psychology. She wrote books, poems, and songs for children and young adults. These works helped explain the Holocaust in a way that children could understand. She also created special ways to teach about the Holocaust to young people. Many people see her as a leader in teaching children about the Holocaust.
Contents
Her Early Life
Izabella (Batszewa) Rubinsztajn was born on September 8, 1925. Her hometown was Łódź, Poland. Her father, Szlomo-Fiszel Rubinsztajn, owned a textile workshop. Her mother, Fajga, was a seamstress. Bat-Sheva was the eighth of nine children. Her family believed in Zionism, which supports a Jewish homeland. She went to a Polish school. She was a middle school student when World War II began.
Before the war, one of her brothers moved to Palestine. Her other brothers and a sister fled to the Soviet Union. The rest of her family moved to Radom. In 1940, two ghettos were created in Radom. She and her family were held in the "large ghetto."
During World War II
While in the ghetto, Batszewa joined a secret Jewish youth group. It was called Hashomer Hatzair. Her leader, Shmuel Breslaw, sent her on a dangerous mission. She used fake papers to go to the Warsaw Ghetto. Her task was to get a secret newspaper. She had to bring it back to Radom.
In August 1942, the "large ghetto" was closed down. Batszewa's parents and older sister were sent away. They died in the Treblinka extermination camp. She and her younger sister, Sabina, were moved to the "small ghetto." The sisters decided to try to escape separately. Sadly, Sabina was shot and killed while trying to escape.
Batszewa managed to escape. She reached Schwerin, Germany. She used false papers to get a job as a maid. She worked in a Nazi household. After a few months, she was discovered and arrested. In May 1943, she was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. There, she was tattooed with the number 45554.
In the camp, she found her cousin. Her cousin worked as a nurse in the prison hospital. She helped Batszewa get a job there. When Batszewa became very sick with typhus, her cousin secretly gave her medicine. Later, Batszewa worked in a group called "Canada." They sorted items taken from people who were brought to the camp. She and seven other women in her group created a secret newspaper. They wrote it on small strips of paper. They would read it to each other on their day off.
In January 1945, the Red Army was getting close to Auschwitz. Batszewa was forced to leave on a deadly march. She was moved to the Ravensbrück and Malchow camps. She survived another forced march to Lübz. British soldiers finally freed her on May 2, 1945. She was the only one of her siblings to survive the war.
After the War
After being freed, Batszewa traveled to Brussels. There, she met her future husband. He was a British Army soldier. He helped her get a visa to Palestine. She moved there in September 1945. In Israel, she and her husband changed their last name to Dagan. They lived in Holon and had two sons.
Dagan studied to become a teacher. She worked for three years as a kindergarten teacher. She taught in Tel Aviv and Holon. Her husband died in 1958. After that, she received a scholarship from the Ministry of Education. She studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1960 to 1963. She earned her bachelor's degree in educational counseling. In 1968, she studied for two years in the United States. She earned a bachelor's degree in psychology at Columbia University.
When she returned to Israel, Dagan managed the kindergarten section. This was part of the psychological services in Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality. She created special ways to teach about the Holocaust. These methods were for children and young adults. She also taught at her old school, the Shein Teachers Seminary. She gave talks about the Holocaust in the United States, Canada, and the Soviet Union. In Israel, she became very active in remembering the Holocaust. She spoke at Yad Vashem and at colleges. In the 1990s, she started writing books for children about the Holocaust.
Dagan passed away in Bat-Yam, Israel, on January 25, 2024. She was 98 years old.
Other Important Activities
In the early 1980s, Dagan worked for the Jewish Agency. She went on missions to the United States, Canada, Mexico, England, and the Soviet Union.
Dagan visited Auschwitz five times after the war. In January 2016, she gave a special gift to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. It was a tiny good luck charm. She said she hid it in her straw bed in Auschwitz the whole time she was there. The charm was a pair of small leather shoes, about 1 centimetre (0.39 in) long. Another female prisoner, a German Jew, made it. She gave it to Batszewa and said, "Let them carry you to freedom." In January 2020, Dagan spoke at a ceremony at Auschwitz. It marked 75 years since the camp was freed.
Her Books and Poems
The poems I learned in Auschwitz motivated me to write children's books about the Holocaust. And I wrote with the idea that children's books need a happy ending, because I didn't want to rob the children of their faith in mankind.
Dagan wrote five books about the Holocaust for children and adults. Some of her books have been translated into other languages. She also wrote poems and songs. Her first two books came out in 1991 and 1992. They were What happened during the Holocaust: Rhymed tale for children who want to know and Czika, the Dog in the Ghetto.
In 2010, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum republished Czika, the Dog in the Ghetto. They also republished If Stars Could Talk. These books came with lesson plans for classroom discussions. Dagan said she wrote about the Holocaust for children to "preserve the mental health of the child." She added, "The stories have a happy ending in order not to rob them of their faith in mankind."
In 2010, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum also published a collection of Dagan's poems. It was in Polish and called Imagination: Blessed Be, Cursed Be: Reminiscences from There. Dagan wrote these poems after the war. They described her experiences as a teenage girl prisoner in Auschwitz. She also included poems written by other prisoners in Birkenau. She had memorized these poems. The collection was first published in Hebrew in 1997. It has also been translated into English. Dagan also wrote children's songs about the Holocaust.
Awards and Honors
In 2008, Yad Vashem named Dagan "Woman of the Year in Education." This was for her important work in teaching children about the Holocaust. She was also named an "Outstanding Member" of the City of Holon. In 2012, she was honored as one of the torch lighters. This happened at ceremonies marking Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Images for kids
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Dagan in 2016
