Baruch, Joseph (Hans)

Son of Miriam (Irma) and Israel (Alfred) was born on October 9, 1925, in Vienna, the capital of Austria, where he studied in an elementary and high school. In 1940, after the outbreak of World War II, he immigrated to Israel as part of the Youth Aliya. His parents were killed in the Nazi inferno. During his first year in Israel he studied at the Yavneh School in Haifa. Then he was in the religious youth village and learned the baking. For a year he worked as a baker in Hadera. During that time he was a member of the Palmach and participated in all his activities and training. Joseph participated in battles in northern Italy and was transferred to the Netherlands and Belgium. There he learned that his only sister, who converted to Christianity, had survived and was in England. He succeeded in reaching her, but after she did not respond to his pleas to return to Judaism and come with him to Eretz Yisrael, he left her with a broken Lev, and he relates that he is the only surviving survivor of his family. After the war he returned to Israel and worked in a bakery in Rehovot and later in Ramat Rachel. Said to study at the university, passed the matriculation exams, and just enrolled in the Faculty of Sociology and Political Economy – immediately volunteered for active service in defense of the country. Yosef participated in the battles in Jerusalem and was among the members of the “Halachah” division, Palmach and Hachash fighters who were sent as reinforcements to Gush Etzion after the great attack on the Bloc on January 14, 1948. The fighters left Hartov on the night of January 15-16 And they were unable to reach Gush Katif in the evening, and at dawn the department was discovered by villagers in the area of ​​the villages of Beit Natif, Jaba and Surif, who called the Arabs of the area to the area and surrounded the platoon. On one of the hills (the “Battle Hill” today) and fought with the masses of Arabs until they all fell in battle on the day of the 15th of Shevat 5708 (16.1.1948). Yosef was brought to a mass grave in Kfar Etzion. On the 17th of Cheshvan 5710 (17.11.1949) he was transferred to the eternal military cemetery at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.