Ben-Yosef (Pinchawski), Shlomo

Son of-Nechama and Moshe, was born in Tel Aviv on 8 October 1930. He graduated from the Bialik Municipal elementary school and began working in weaving and paving, and in 1943 he joined the Irgun underground and was discovered With military and organizational talents and enlisted comrades in the underground. His official name in the Irgun was Lieutenant Harari, but his comrades in the unit added his nickname “Shlomka.” As a commander, he was not only meticulous, but also an exemplary spirit of action and courageous to admit his mistake to all his men. Especially against the Arabs, damaging their bases and defending the southern neighborhoods of Tel Aviv in the winter of 1948. In the enemy’s fire he crawled over his stomach and managed to lay the explosive charge under the house from which they had fired at the Jewish neighborhood. When British soldiers unexpectedly arrived at the house where his unit had been stationed, he managed at the last moment to begin the work of loading beams and to engage his friends as well. Shlomo went to the positions outside his turn and once accepted a friend’s request to take his place during the night at an extreme position in the Shapira neighborhood opposite Abu Kabir. When he returned from the morning, a sniper hit him in the stomach. He overcame his pains and asked his friends in the position that they had not had time to visit him. After three days of fighting his pain, he died of his wounds on 26 Adar II 5708 (April 6, 1948) and was brought to eternal rest in the military cemetery at Nahalat Yitzhak.