48 years after the massacre of the athletes in Munich, he will pass over the city of the Mets • At the end, the commander of the Air Force, Major General Nurkin, will land in the Dachau camp • He will carry with him in the cockpit the belt of the late Pesach Smilg, who was in the camp during the Holocaust

• Powerful armies. German plane alongside an Israeli plane // Photo: IPI

The Air Force will hold a joint exercise with the German Air Force, in Germany, tomorrow (Tuesday) for the first time. As part of the exercise, a "Memory of the Future" flight will be held today - a joint salute flight led by an "Eagle" aircraft alongside the Barak (F-16) fighter jets and two German "EuroFighter" aircraft, near the Dachau concentration camp, in memory of Holocaust victims, and above Firstenfeldbruck Airport near Munich, in memory of 11 Munich victims, members of the 1972 Olympic delegation. 

The flight will be led by Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Amikam Nurkin, who will fly an "Eagle" plane alongside German Air Force Commander Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz, and alongside the Israeli Air Force First Flight Squadron Commander, 122th Squadron Command, Lieutenant Colonel C.

At the end of the flight, at 16:00 Israel time (15:00 Germany time), an official memorial service will be held in the Dachau camp with the participation of German Defense Minister Engert Kramp-Kernbauer, Israeli Ambassador to Germany Jeremy Issacharoff, Air Force commanders and other representatives.

The ceremony will be addressed by the deputy commander of the "Valley" Squadron, Major Y., the grandson of a Holocaust survivor grandfather from the Dachau concentration camp. There will also be a recitation of "Yizkor" by Rabbi Mendel Moraiti. The ceremony will be broadcast live on IDF and Air Force platforms.

Victory of the hole in the belt

Prior to the flight, Air Force personnel approached the Yad Vashem Center, receiving several items and photographs provided by survivors and families of victims who were in the Dachau camp. On the plane, the commander of the Air Force, Major General Amikam Nurkin, will carry with him the belt of Pesach Smilag, a Holocaust survivor who arrived at the Dachau concentration camp on August 18, 1944 and survived. The belt was used by Smilag, who was deported from Lithuania to camps, including the Dachau camp, and was the only object left to him from his life before the war. 

Smilag, born in 1896, intended to study pharmacy, but World War I changed his plans and he worked in his father's farming business. During the war he was in the Chablis ghetto, from where he was sent to the Dachau daughter camp - Camp No. 11 - Oting, then to Stutthof and probably returned to Dachau. During the war, Smilag lost weight and punched another hole in his belt to continue using it. At the end of the war, Smilag weighed only 42 kg - and was sent for recovery. His brother Yaakov was with him in the camps and they both survived. In 1948 he immigrated to Israel with his wife Sarah, his brother Yaakov and his wife Paula. Smilag died in 1992. 

Comprehensive aerial practice

In addition to the belt, Air Force personnel took with them to the exercise a replica of the artwork "Death March" from the oppressor Tulz of the artist Holocaust survivor Helmut in Vol. Barra, a letter from Jacob Goldstein, an American soldier who was among the liberators, and a photograph of several objects And there by Dachau survivors and family members, including tefillin and a food bowl.

The exercise in Germany is expected to last about two weeks, and is the only international exercise that the Air Force is holding this year outside the borders of the State of Israel, in the shadow of the Corona epidemic. As part of the exercise, the Air Force will hold exercises with the German Air Force and will also practice with NATO countries various aerial descriptions as part of the "MAG Days" exercise, an international show that takes place four times a year. 

As part of the exercise, dozens of aircraft will be used to simulate scenarios of air-to-air battles and air-to-ground battles, to deal with an advanced TKA (surface-to-air missile) threat, as well as descriptions of combat in enemy territory.