Prof. Baruch Kaplan, an 85 year old Holocaust survivor, received a refund Wednesday for tuition fees he paid Hebrew University in 1939. The check was presented to him by Hebrew U President Prof. Menachem Megidor and Rector Chaim Rabinovich.
The Polish-born Kaplan graduated with honors from the Hebrew "Gymnasia" (High School) in Bialistok and was accepted to the Hebrew University's School of Chemistry. However, the Nazis invaded Poland in September 1939 and his plans to leave Europe were put on hold. He volunteered to the Red Army and fought the Nazis for four years. In April 1945 he was severely wounded and his leg was amputated. After the war Kaplan studied chemistry in Moscow. He became a researcher and was Chief Scientist in the Rare Metals Institute.
In 1990, the graduates of Bialistok's Hebrew Gymnasia organized a reunion in Tel Aviv fairgrounds and located Kaplan, thus dispelling a rumor that he had been killed in the Bialistok Ghetto Rebellion. In 1992 he made aliyah to Israel together with his wife, his daughter, her husband and two grandchildren.
He has made a habit of sitting with his Gymnasia buddies in a Tel Aviv café on the corner of Ibn Gabirol and Kaplan streets, every Monday. 15 years later, he says sadly, there are few of them left: "Recently another one of us passed away. There are only four remaining."
After the war Kaplan studied chemistry in Moscow. He became a researcher and was Chief Scientist in the Rare Metals Institute
He turned to the Hebrew University when a childhood friend told him that some Holocaust victims were being paid money that they were owed, and receiving property that they had bought but failed to claim.
"I sent a letter to the University and they immediately called me," he said. They decided to give me the money back for two years of studies and suggested I give it to a students' scholarship. I decided to give it to one of my great granddaughters when she goes to study."