Bekalchiyok (Barkai), Shmuel (“Wozwaz”)

He was born on August 9, 1929, in the city of Stolin, Minsk, Poland In 1935, he immigrated to Israel with his parents, grew up and was educated in Ramat Yitzhak, where he completed elementary school. The country throughout its length and breadth, and when he was 15, he joined the Haganah and from there moved to the Palmach, where he was a veteran of Company H. Shmuel was one of the volunteers who responded to every call. He defended the borders of Tel Aviv, accompanied caravans from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and was holding the convoy’s “Bren” machine gun. The expression of kindness and cheerfulness in his face and manner are simple, captivating and compelling in his stories. To the question, is it not too dangerous to always be among the first, he would reply: “Life is not an insurance company;” “How Yaffa it would be to see an orderly Israeli army” – that was his ambition, but he did not see it. In the last year of his life, he was in Ramat Rachel and protected the agriculture within a group of the Palmach, and acted in the defense of Gush Etzion. “I do not want you to be my friend anymore, because all my friends are falling one after the other, and you too may …” His friends knew he was determined not to fall into the hands of the enemy. “If I am killed,” he said, “Shmuel Kalchuk did not fall only” Wozvuz “(his nickname). He was among the last fighters in Kfar Etzion; And they saw him last at the post in high spirits. He was probably not captured and it seems that he lost himself to know his last bullet … Shmuel fell in Kfar Etzion on the eve of the declaration of the state, on Wednesday, May 13, 1948. On the 17th of Cheshvan 5709 (17.11.1949) To rest at the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.