Simultaneous memorial ceremonies were held in Israel and Norway Sunday for the victims of a plane crash in Norway 60 years ago, in which 27 children from Tunis and three adult chaperones were killed. A wreath from the King of Norway was laid at the Norwegian ceremony, while the ceremony in Israel was held at Moshav Yanuv and was attended by Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin.
Nissim Taito, director of the World Organization of Tunisian Jews, told Arutz Sheva that the attendance of the Knesset Speaker at the memorial, for the first time ever constituted a payment of a moral debt which Israel owed to the crash victims and their families.
The Tunisian children were in the care of Israeli Aliyah authorities and were scheduled to immigrate to Israel. However, a tuberculosis epidemic hit north Africa at the time and some of the children contracted the disease. A decision then was made to take them to a youth camp in Norway for recovery and for learning Hebrew.
The children boarded two Dakota transport planes and took off from Tunis to Norway. “One of them landed safely and the other got caught in a fierce snow storm and crashed due to human error,” Taito recalled. “The map showed one of the mountains as being 146 meters high when in fact it was 346 meters high. It was a simple typographical error.”
“The pilot descended to an altitude of 340 or 330 meters because of the storm and crashed into the mountain. 27 children and their three chaperones were killed. After a 36 hour search, one of the children was found alive. He made Aliyah to Israel. A few years ago he passed away, leaving six children.”
For 60 years, Taito said, Israel has done nothing for the memory of the children who perished. “They only spoke about the Tehran children [Holocaust refugees who had fled Europe into Russia and reached Israel through Tehran] but this is a completely different event.”
The World Organization of Tunisian Jews has asked the Minister of Education to have schools teach children about the tragedy. They also intend to ask Minister of Religions Yaakov Margi and ask that he recognize the event as part of the heritage of Sephardic Jewry.