Before getting aboard the Columbia, Ilan Ramon said he felt like
he was representing all Jewish people on his mission. "There's
enormous symbolism in all his life." Wausau Rabbi Dan Danson
said. "His dad was a sabra, who was born in Israel. His mom was
a Holocaust survivor, so he really encompasses a great deal of
the history and of the Israeli state." Colonel Ramon took with
him a 60-year-old drawing done by a little boy at the
Theresienstadt ghetto, a unique prison camp during World War II.
"It wasn't one of the camps, where people were exterminated."
Danson said. "The inmates at Theresienstadt were allowed to do
theater and art for that reason, it's a snapshot in the souls of
people going through the Holocaust." Col. Ilan Ramon served as a
fighter pilot during the 70s, 80s and 90s. Israel selected him
as the country's first astronaut in 1997.