Former chief editor of Politiken, Herbert Pundik is dead. He had achieved what he wanted, telling friend.
The former editor-in-chief of the Danish newspaper Politiken for 23 years, Herbert Pundik, is Sunday night slept quietly in his home. He was 92 years old.
But he had a long life, seen and done so much, he was satisfied, says Anders Jerichow, who is mellemøstkorrespondent of the Danish newspaper Politiken, and for many years has been a good friend to Pundik.
He felt like a survivor. He was ready for it to be over.
He had done what he could as a political activist. He would not look at life and the political developments around like a spectator up from the third row. He would even be with to affect it – both as a critic and journalist, he says.
Herbert Pundik was for several years foreign correspondent of the Danish newspaper Politiken, which among other things cast a Cavlingpris of themselves. From 1970 to 1993 he was editor-in-chief.
– He always had an eye for how he could change things, and how he could help people who needed help. It was such that he served as editor-in-chief, and as many of the other roles he had.
– He thought to himself, what can I do to change things. He was always prepared, and his door was always open, says Anders Jerichow.
Pundik was shaped by his jewish ancestral past. In 1907, fled his father’s family to Copenhagen from Ukraine. In 1943, Herbert Pundik, because the family during the Second world War again had to take flight. This time to Sweden.
And it is according to Anders Jerichow especially the experience that has marked Pundiks life.
In October 1943, he was in high school, where the headmaster suddenly enters and asks Pundik to get outside. Pundik would have to hurry home to her parents and say that they should stay home the next night, because the train would deport the jews.
In that moment, he felt he had been made a refugee in his own country. His lesson from the experience was that you need to act. He appreciated for the rest of his life, that there were some danes, who had acted in the moment, he says.
Herbert Pundik had two countries. Israel and Denmark. When he was editor-in-chief of the Danish newspaper Politiken, he travelled back from Tel Aviv to Copenhagen.
10 days per month he was in Tel Aviv with his children and wife, Sussi, and the remaining days he was in Copenhagen.
– He was an international man because he belonged in multiple places. He was a bridge between Israel and Denmark, and a primary interpreter of Israel for Danish politicians.
His home in Tel Aviv was a meeting place for politicians on a visit in Israel and could put up a debate, says Anders Jerichow.
Herbert Pundik founded the newspaper Politiken’s freedom prize, which is still awarded to this day.
He has had his own office at the newspaper Politiken in all years. Every weekend, he delivered columns to the newspaper until in the autumn where the disease hit.
/ritzau/