Eliyahu Noach Flug ( he, אליהו נח פלוג; 1 January 1925 – 11 August 2011) was an Israeli economist, diplomat and advocate for the rights of

Holocaust survivors Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Axis powers, its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no unive ...

Biography

Flug was born in

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canti ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

to Rywka (''née'' Gliksman) and Icek Flug. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he was a resident of the

Łódź ghetto The Łódź Ghetto or Litzmannstadt Ghetto (after the Nazi German name for Łódź) was a Nazi ghetto established by the German authorities for Polish Jews and Roma following the Invasion of Poland. It was the second-largest ghetto in all of Ge ...

, from which he was transferred in 1944 to

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

. In the last months of the war he was also sent to

Gross-Rosen Gross-Rosen was a network of Nazi concentration camps built and operated by Nazi Germany during World War II. The main camp was located in the German village of Gross-Rosen, now the modern-day Rogoźnica, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Rogoźnica in ...

concentration camp and was rescued by the Allied forces while on a

death march A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war or other captives or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinguished in this way from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Convent ...

Mauthausen Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with nearly 100 further subcamps located throughout Austria and southern German ...

. In 1958, he made

aliyah Aliyah (, ; he, עֲלִיָּה ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel, which is in the modern era chiefly represented by the Israel, State of Israel ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. An economist, Flug worked in the civil service for over 30 years. He worked at the

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the finance. Lists of current ministries of finance Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Finance (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Finance and Eco ...

and later appointed as a financial advisor to the Finance Committee of the

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...

and to the Israeli embassy in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

. Flug also served as the Israeli consul to

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

. Flug was a central advocate for the rights of Holocaust survivors. In 1987 he was a founding member of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel, an umbrella organization for about 70 bodies. After his retirement from the civil service he dedicated his time to these causes, serving as president of the

International Auschwitz Committee The International Auschwitz Committee was formed by survivors of the Auschwitz death camp in 1952 for the support of the survivors and to fight racism and anti-Semitism. The committee's mission was to maintain contact with survivors on both side ...

, vice president of the

Claims Conference The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, or Claims Conference, represents the world's Jews in negotiating for compensation and restitution for victims of Nazi persecution and their heirs. According to Section 2(1)(3) of the Proper ...

and a member of the

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

executive board. For several years he served chairman of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel, reelected to the post a second time in June 2011. Noach was married to Dorota Flug (née Tugendreich), they had two daughters,

Anat Flug-Levin Anat (, ), Anatu, classically Anath (; uga, 𐎓𐎐𐎚 ''ʿnt''; he, עֲנָת ''ʿĂnāṯ''; ; el, Αναθ, translit=Anath; Egyptian: '' ꜥntjt'') was a goddess associated with warfare and hunting, best known from the Ugaritic text ...

, a psychoanalyst, and

Karnit Flug Karnit Flug ( he, קרנית פלוג; born January 9, 1955) is a Polish-born Israeli economist and government official who served as the 9th governor of the Bank of Israel from 2013 to 2018. She was the first, and to date the only, woman to hold ...

, former governor of the

Central Bank of Israel The Bank of Israel ( he, בנק ישראל, ar, بنك إسرائيل) is the central bank of Israel. The bank's headquarters is located in Kiryat HaMemshala in Jerusalem with a branch office in Tel Aviv. The current governor is Amir Yaron. ...

. Flug is the grandfather of

Boaz Levin Boaz M. Levin (born 1989, Jerusalem) is a Berlin-based writer, curator and filmmaker. In 2022, Levin was co-curator of the 3rd Chennai Photo Biennale. In 2017, he was co-curator together with Florian Ebner, Kerstin Meinicke, Kathrin Schonegg, and ...

, a writer and curator, Noa Levin, a philosopher and filmmaker, Michael Lach, a PhD student at the Weizmann institute, and Maya Lach, a psychologist. Flug died in 2011 at

Shaare Zedek Medical Center The Shaare Zedek Medical Center ( he, מרכז רפואי שערי צדק, ''Merkaz Refu'i Sha'arei Tzedek'') (lit. "Gates of Justice") is a large teaching hospital in Jerusalem established in 1902, It affiliated with Hebrew University of Jerusal ...

in Jerusalem, age 86.

Published works

Collaborations *''The History of the Israelis and Palestinians'' with

Martin Schäuble Martin Schäuble (born December 1978) is a German novelist, journalist and writer of non-fiction books. His pen name is Robert M. Sonntag. His works have been translated into several languages. Early life Schäuble grew up in the Southwest of ...

, 2007,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flug, Noach 1925 births 2011 deaths Łódź Ghetto inmates Jewish resistance members during the Holocaust Auschwitz concentration camp survivors Gross-Rosen concentration camp survivors International Auschwitz Committee members Polish emigrants to Israel Israeli economists Israeli consuls Israeli civil servants Diplomats from Łódź Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany