Belzer, Simha (Simk)

Son of Sara and Mordechai, was born on the 3rd of Tishrei, Simchat Torah in the city of Grodek-Yagilonski in eastern Galicia, to a traditional and educated family. He first studied in the “cheder” and later in high school and completed his studies there. Simcha was a member of the Hashomer Hatzair movement and after pioneering training he immigrated to Israel in 1935. Here he worked in many parts of the country – in a building in Tel Aviv, in sand dunes in Holon, in the large dam building in Sodom, in the construction of the police building on Mount Canaan Rafah. Simcha joined the Haganah and participated in the maintenance of Migdal-Tzedek and the Ibn Sid stone quarry near Haifa. In 1941 he was accepted to the Tel Aviv Law and Economics School and was one of the most serious and profound students there. In 1942 he enlisted in the British Army – a few months after a severe kidney operation and despite the doctors’ prohibition. Attached to the 468 unit was a Hebrew unit for transport, with the unit transferred to the western desert, from there to Malta and then to Italy, where he worked in the Jewish refugee camps in Italy, organized and directed the Santa Maria youth camp, The first to succeed in infiltrating Austria and dealing with refugee camps and immigration, and was active in Salzburg, which served as the center for the European Diaspora, and was a member of the son of-Shemen Workers’ Council in 1946, Thus, until his induction into the War of Independence, he joined the Electric Company in Tel Aviv, and with the UN’s announcement on November 29 he came to serve the people He served in the Israel Defense Forces and was appointed as a recruitment officer and then as an officer for payments and vacations at the offices of the Tel Aviv city police officer, Simha had a sharp mind and a warm Lev. In the end of December 1948, during Operation Horev, he went to the Negev to participate in the battle, and in order not to arouse concern in the Lev of his family, he left it to him And said that he was going on vacation. He told his friends that they were sending only the youth, and that he and his ilk were sitting in the rear. When he reached the battalion he did not reveal his true rank and appeared as a private. He was stationed and attached to a Golani Brigade unit attacked by one of the Rafah government. In this attack he fell on the night of 4 th of January 1949. His body was returned by the Egyptians five days later and he was buried in Kibbutz Gvulot on January 10, 1949. On August 11, 1949, he was transferred to rest – The military cemetery in Nahalat Yitzhak.