Press Service of AzIs
Ahead of the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory, the international association of Izrael-Azerbaijan (AzIs) and the press club of the community house of the municipality of Jerusalem organized an evening of commemoration of Jews-veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Today 15 veterans, natives of Azerbaijan, live in the capital of Israel.
The anchor of the evening was the head of the press club, Roman Gerschson. Alex Wechsler, a journalist, political scientist, military-political observer, implemented his unique original project at the First Radio of Israel: a series of shows ’17 Moments of Victorious Spring’ about the Great Victory over fascism. These are 17 interesting programs about Jews – marshals and generals, soldiers and officers, Jews who were awarded Heroes of the Soviet Union. Wechsler dedicated the work to his parents Julia Steiner and Colonel Jacob Wechsler, who met each other on a battlefield in 1944.
Wechsler told at the evening about 500 Jews – generals and commanders of the Red Army. These were 329 Jewish generals, one marshal of the Soviet Union – Rodion Malinovski, 20 admirals, more than 200 company commanders of the Red Army (Jakir, Gamarnik, Stern), 80 percent of the military advisors of the USSR under the Spanish republican government were Jewish; and Jews who were intelligence officers.
Alex spoke about General Jacob Kreiser and General Vladimir Kolpakchi, Lieutenant Generals Skvisrki, Gurevich, Rafilovich, Dashevski, General Dragunski who was called ‘David Go!’, Zeitlin, Hazelevich, Krivosheyin, a twice Hero Lieutenant General Jacob Smushkevich, who was shot…
Alex Wechsler spent his childhood in Azerbaijan – at frontier outposts, in Lenkoran, and Baku. He preserved his love of this warm land for all his life. He spoke about his compatriots – General Vannikov, who was three times Hero of the Soviet Union, and General Yuri Berkal, who gave the first order in the Great Patriotic War at 4 a.m. on June 22nd 1941.
Members of the press club welcomed Alex Wechsler warmly and presented him with a jar of cornel jam, which was popular in Azerbaijan; Wechsler wrote about the jam in his unique book headlines ‘My Country, My Nation, My Family.’
Lev Spivak, the Director General of AzIs, noted that Alex Wechsler’s great work was especially important in our days, when people tried to rewrite the history of World War II; he gave Wechsler a personalized watch of Association No1.
