Photographer Dan Hadani never received formal training in photography. Still, one of his earliest shots, capturing Prime Minister David Ben‑Gurion leaning over maps aboard the Israeli navy ship Eilat, instantly became part of history. “I was fortunate,” he says. “In 1951, while serving on the Eilat ship, Prime Minister Ben‑Gurion visited the naval headquarters at Stella Maris in Haifa. I happened to be in the right place, with my amateur camera and natural curiosity, and I captured the rare moment when Ben‑Gurion was briefed on the radar station’s operations."
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Dan Hadani at the National Library. "This documentation will be preserved for generations"
(Photo: Ziv Koren)
Hadani’s illustrious decades‑long career, he says, began simply as a way to earn extra income. “When I served in the navy, I photographed soldiers for five pruta (Israeli currency at the time),” he recalls. “One of the first images I sold showed Haifa residents welcoming an ice cream cart."
Now 101, Hadani’s life story mirrors the story of Israel. Born Aug. 22, 1924, in Lodz, Poland, he survived the Lodz ghetto and the Auschwitz death camp, where he endured Dr. Josef Mengele’s selections, was sent to forced labor, survived a death march and was the sole survivor of his extended family. He immigrated to Israel in 1948, enlisted in the navy, served more than 15 years and later joined the IDF spokesperson’s unit as a military press officer.
In 1964 he founded Israel Press Photo Agency (IPPA), which became a central documentary institution with millions of photos from 1965 to 2000, capturing key moments in Israeli history. The archive included work by about 200 photographers, including Hadani himself. In 2016 he donated the entire collection to the National Library.
“I always told photographers who worked with me, ‘There’s money on the floor; you just have to look for it and document it,’” he explains. “The archive I built and donated — 72,000 negatives are already online, with another 1.3 million scanned and given to the National Library — is perhaps the most important milestone in my life. This documentation will be preserved for generations."
“A maker and recorder of history”
Last Thursday Hadani, a father of two sons and grandfather of four, received special recognition. The March of the Living organization in Israel and the Shoa Survivors Rights Authority held an event in his honor at the National Library. Wearing the Medal of Revival from the Authority and escorted by his son Ron, granddaughter Yael and his caregiver, he struggled to contain his emotion. “I can’t believe I’m actually being honored in my lifetime for work spanning so many years,” he said.
Waiting in the hall was a group of photographers who had worked with him at IPPA, including Yossi Aloni, Gideon Markowitz, Jim Hollander, Rina Castelnuovo and his weekly coffee circle colleagues, among them Arie Egozi.
Hadani started the pioneering agency, which supplied photos and stories to 25 newspaper networks in Israel and abroad, at age 40 after leaving the military. “My connection with Yedioth Ahronoth began after I arranged a visit aboard Eilat for then‑editor Dov Judkowsky and owner Noah Mozes. Soon after, the Savoy Hotel bombing happened. I photographed it and sent materials to Yedioth Ahronoth, and from there our work together became routine."
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David Ben-Gurion receives an explanation from navy officer Dan Shefi about radar operations, 1951
(Photo: Dan Hadani)
At the tribute, Revital Yachin Krakowski, CEO of the March of the Living organization in Israel, said, “It’s important to remember the contribution of Holocaust survivors to the founding and development of the country, not just the suffering they endured.”
Ronit Rozin, general director of the Holocaust Survivors' Rights Authority, added: “Hadani’s vast collection tells the story of the country.” Colette Avital, chairperson of the Center Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel and CEO of the foundation for the welfare of Holocaust survivors, concluded: “Dan Hadani, you are not just a maker of history, you are a recorder of history."
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Ezer Weizman and Moshe Dayan
(Photo: Dan Hadani, from IPPA collection at National Library)
Recently Hadani also completed a personal website with Wix — dan‑hadani.com — chronicling his life’s history. Despite his advanced age, he was actively involved in building the site and adapting to new technology, including scanning 40,000 negatives — a project that took 16 years.
“I fell in love with journalism”
Photographer Ziv Koren visited Hadani at his home in Givatayim for a one‑on‑one conversation. Hadani pointed to a suitcase and asked him to open it. Inside were a German “Garmoshka” camera (which opens like an accordion), Rolleiflex cameras, and Leica and Pentax models. Koren, visibly moved, said: “You know, I have a large collection of vintage cameras in my studio that are very dear to me."
Hadani smiled and said, “You understand I was an amateur photographer. It was a hobby. I shot without even measuring the light. I never dreamed of becoming a photographer; it just happened. I fell in love with journalism."
Yet in Hadani’s remarkable archive of more than two million images, there are almost no photos documenting the March of the Living in Poland. “I’m one of those who were ashamed to talk about surviving the Holocaust,” he says. “Native Israelis called me a ‘Muselmann’ because I was very skinny, and they called me other derogatory names, so I chose to suppress that chapter of my life and move on. I decided I would never go back to Poland!"
Koren, one of today’s leading documentary photographers, emphasized Hadani’s enormous contribution to Israeli press photography. “I listen to your story — a young man who lost his entire family and survived the unthinkable in Auschwitz — sitting in front of me today with a magnificent archive of the history of the Jewish people. It complements my work as a photographer and journalist documenting wars and trauma our country has endured, and whenever I can, I join the March of the Living to capture another piece of history from the last witnesses alive. It's a privilege for me."
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The Shlosharim at the first Hasidic Song Festival (1969). From right to left: Shalom Hanoch, Benny Amdursky, Hanan Yovel
(Photo: Dan Hadani)
In their intergenerational meeting, Koren emphasized Hadani’s impact on Israeli photography. “Today more than ever, we understand the immense value of authentic documentation in a world where everything can now be generated by AI,” Koren said. “Dan’s groundbreaking vision manifested at two key moments: founding a pioneering photo agency that delivered images from Israel to the world before the age of social media and digital photography, and his vital decision to donate his archive to the National Library — turning this treasure into a national asset accessible to all."
Looking at him with his clear blue eyes, Hadani said in response: “It’s impossible to describe the difference between photography back then, which involved carrying heavy equipment, developing films in darkrooms, working with negatives and delivering pictures in envelopes to newspaper newsrooms, and today’s digital age, when everyone shoots with a smartphone. If I had to give advice to today’s photographers, frankly, I cannot. They won’t understand me or my photographic language. Everything has changed from end to end."
At the end of the meeting, Koren dedicated his book October 7 War, a photographic documentary of a painful and turbulent period, to Hadani. With a trembling voice Hadani thanked him: “On October 7 I pounded the table and told myself, ‘This is a Holocaust.’ As a Holocaust survivor who survived the worst death camp, I feel that today I am again in exile."