David Bankier, prominent Holocaust scholar, dies

JERUSALEM - David Ban-kier, 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 PhD 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." Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev called Bankier "a gifted lecturer, and a human being of outstanding integrity, brilliance and humility." - AP