Professor David Bankier dies at 63

Scholar was head of Yad Vashem's International Institute for Holocaust Research.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Professor David Bankier 311 aj (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Professor David Bankier 311 aj
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
David Bankier, a prominent Holocaust scholar and head of Yad Vashem's International Institute for Holocaust Research, has died after a lengthy illness. He was 63.
Bankier earned his Ph.D. in Jewish History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His doctoral thesis focused on German society and Nazi anti-Semitism. He later taught at universities in Britain, the United States, South Africa and South America.
Bankier published numerous scholarly studies, including a book titled:"The Germans and the Final Solution: Public Opinion Under Nazism."
YadVashem Chairman Avner Shalev called Bankier "a gifted lecturer, and ahuman being of outstanding integrity, brilliance and humility."
Bankier, who was divorced, is survived by three children.