Ben-Yaakov (Greenhut), Zvi

Zvi Son of-Yaakov (Greenhut), son of Sarah and Yaakov Greenhut, was born on February 22, 1922, in Bratislava, Slovakia. When he was six years old, he lost his mother and his father remarried. He was sent to study at the yeshiva, but when his family’s economic situation deteriorated, he was forced to leave the yeshiva and began to work in textiles to help support the household. He immigrated to Eretz Israel in April 1939. At the end of October 1944 the Germans occupied Banska Bystrica and Zvi and his comrades headed a group of forty-five Jews to the mountains. After many hardships, encounters and battles of contact with the enemy, most of the members of the group were captured and placed in prison, and Zvi among them. Zvi was killed by the Nazis in his captivity, and the day of his death and his burial place were unknown. He left a wife and daughter who was born while on mission. This fallen hero is a “maklan” – a hero whose burial place is unknown.