Two Hostages, Including Holocaust Educator, Murdered in Gaza

Two Israeli hostages were declared Monday to have been murdered in Hamas captivity in Gaza: Alex Dancyg, 75, a Holocaust educator from Kibbutz Nir Oz; and musician Yagev Buchshtav, 35, from Kibbutz Nirim.

Dancyg was a dual Polish and Israeli citizen who had spent his life building bridges between Poles and Israeli Jews. He worked for Yad Vashem, Israel’s famous Holocaust memorial, which issued a statement mourning his death.

Kibbutz Nir Oz added:

With great sorrow, Kibbutz Nir Oz announces the murder of Alex Dancyg while hostage in Gaza, and after suffering months of torture. His body remains held captive.

Alex was 76 years old, and his birthday was marked yesterday. He was a member of Kibbutz Nir Oz. Father to 4 children, and grandfather to 12 granddaughters and a grandson.

Alex dedicated his life’s work to educating people about the Holocaust, and improving Jewish-Polish relations. In addition, he also worked for many years cultivating the fields of the kibbutz. He is an Israeli-Polish dual national.

Alex’s memory will be forever in our hearts, as a man bridging different worlds – from literature and humanism to the land and agriculture, from Israel to Poland, from the Holocaust to National Resurrection.

May his memory be a blessing.

The circumstances of the men’s deaths are unclear. “Hamas in March claimed that Buchshtav had died due to lack of food and medication, and Dancyg had been killed by Israeli fire. The claims have not been confirmed by the IDF,” the Times of Israel noted.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.