Atar, Ezra

Son of Victoria and Menashe, was born on March 23, 1929, in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. Where he attended high school and knew Arabic fluently, as well as English and Hebrew. He was a member of the Zionist clube in the underground and his home served as a place for Zionist gatherings and a meeting for emissaries of the Zionist movement from Eretz Israel. In 1946 he immigrated to Israel via Syria with the help of the Bericha movement of the Haganah. In Israel he worked as a laborer at the “Central Mashavir” in Haifa. Ezra joined Hanoar Haoved and in the evenings continued his studies at the “Ma’aleh” school. He continued to persuade his parents to liquidate their businesses and immigrate to Israel, and they arrived in Haifa two days after the beginning of the Arab attacks and joined the refugees as their son, who moved from his apartment in an Arab house in the border area. Because of the need to help arrange the family, he was released from full conscription until April 1948, and in the meantime he went out every night for training and guard services, and his parents said that he was going to study or to deal with the affairs of his association. When the extension was over, he said goodbye to his parents, calmed them down and went to the post. Ezra participated in the battles of the Arab conquest of Haifa. Immediately after the occupation, he was on the third floor of a house in the lower city. Friends came to visit him, and one of them dropped his rifle on explosives that remained in the room. The material exploded and Ezra was burned in the fire that broke out in the room. When he tried to save himself from danger, he jumped out of the window and his arms were broken and he was rushed to the hospital. When his father came to visit him and burst into tears at the sight of him, the boy encouraged him: “Better than me have fallen, I may still rise.” But after seven days, on the 24th of Nissan 5708 (May 2, 1948), he died of his wounds. He was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Haifa.