02:07, 6 August 2014

Yakov Etinger, one of the founders of "Memorial", dies

Yakov Etinger, one of the founders of the Society "Memorial", the author of the book "From Holocaust to Beslan", died at 84, the "Memorial" has reported.

"Yakov Yakovlevich Etinger had never forgotten the horrors of totalitarianism; he was an active public figure and publicist. In 1988, he was one of the organizers of the Society 'Memorial' and was a member of its first working board. He was a courageous and kind man and a reliable friend," the website of the "Memorial" wrote on August 5.

Yakov Ettinger was born on August 12, 1929. During the Holocaust, he lost his father and mother. Then, he lost his foster father in the so-called "Doctors' Plot", and his foster mother was arrested under the same case. Yakov Ettinger himself was a prisoner of the Minsk ghetto and the Vyatlag (Vyatka Forced Labour Camp), said the "Memorial".

Yakov Ettinger was a Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, honorary member of seven foreign academies, and the author of several books, including a collection of essays "From Holocaust to Beslan".