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For Where Man is
BY MOSHE KATZ
CEO
ISRAELI KRAV INTERNATIONAL
May 19, 2026, Israel
Yehiel De-Nur testifying at the Eichmann Trial, Jerusalem, 1961
For where man is, there is Auschwitz.
These enigmatic and terrifying words were spoken by a man who went by several names. He was born Yehiel Feiner in Sosnowiec, Poland. He was a brilliant rabbinical student in the acclaimed academy Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin (Jeszywas Chachmej Lublin) of Lublin, Poland, he was taken to Auschwitz where he became prisoner 135633. After the war, in Israel, he became Yehiel Di Nur (Aramaic for of the light), but he also remained and retained his prisoner name Ka-Tsetnik 135633.
The word Ka-Tsetnik קאַצעטניק is, in the Yiddish dialect that was spoken in the camps, a prisoner or inmate (derived from "ka tzet", the pronunciation of KZ, the acronym for Konzentrationslager).
After the war hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors tried to rebuild their lives, some by forgetting and moving on, some by writing about it, some never left the camps, their bodies were free, but their souls remained in the camps. When Feiner left the camp, he took his prisoner uniform with him. He looked at the dead and made a promise, I will not forget you, I will not let the world forget what happened. He kept that vow, he wrote books. He would starve himself, put on his prisoner uniform, go to an isolated area and write for days. Darkness would overcome him, he was not writing about the past, he was reliving it.
For years no one knew his true identity, only the name Ka-Tsetnik 135633. However, when he was asked to testify at the trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann, he had to appear under his own name, and the world finally knew the man behind the books.
He spoke...
I do not see myself as a writer who writes literature. This is a chronicle from the planet Auschwitz. I was there for about two years. The time there is not the same as it is here, on Earth. (...) And the inhabitants of this planet had no names. They had no parents and no children. They did not wear [clothes] the way they wear here. They were not born there and did not give birth ... They did not live according to the laws of the world here and did not die. Their name was the number K. Tzetnik.
After saying this, De-Nur collapsed and gave no further testimony.
To him, he was not an individual, but a nameless representative for all those who names have been forgotten, he did not exist for himself. He was the promise, not to forget, but later on it became a warning as well.
In one of his treatments in Holland, under the influence of LSD, he returned to the camp and once again saw the Gestapo officer. And suddenly he felt that both of them were men, and that the positions could have been reversed. The guard and the prisoner both became manifestations of man. And man is capable of great evil.
Then it was clear to me that Auschwitz is not another planet as I thought before. Auschwitz was not created by the devil, nor by God, but by man ... Hitler was not a devil. You could enter a kindergarten; among fifty children there was one child named Adolf Hitler. He was a man...
The tragedy is that Auschwitz still in exists, as a concept, as an evil force within mankind. As a Krav Maga instructor I travel the world and I hear and see the violence. The South American drug cartels commit inhuman acts of violence, but yet by definition they are not inhuman, they, like Hitler, were once little boys in kindergarten. For where man is, there is Auschwitz. South Africa, Brazil, part of the USA, unspeakable crimes, but yet if we do not speak, we will not prepare.
Finer, Dinur, Prisoner 135633 spoke. He spoke, so that we shall learn what happened. He said when he came out of the camps he wondered how the world was unchanged? How was this possible? He became the voice of the voiceless but also the soul that warned the world of the dangers lying within it.
But the world, still does not hear. Hear my words that I might reach you. Sounds of Silence.
Moshe Katz, 7th dan Black Belt, Israeli Krav Maga. Certified by Wingate Institute. Member Black Belt Hall of fame, USA and Europe.
Understand the Israeli Fighting Mentality - Israel a Nation of Warriors by Moshe Katz
What is the cultural background of Krav Maga? What makes it unique? What makes the Israeli military so effective? Why are Israeli security systems used all over the world?
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What weapons and military strategies did our Biblical ancestors use?
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All that and more in this unique book.
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