Benjamin, Yaakov (Ernest)
Yaakov, son of Mata and Herman Benjamin, was born in 1927 in Nuremberg, Germany and studied in the Jewish elementary school.
He and his father, like any Jew in Germany of that time, were given the name “Israel”, but when the family immigrated to Israel in 1939, his parents gave him the Hebrew name Yaakov. He studied orthopedics and specialized in prostheses. He was gifted with a musical sense and wonderful hearing, and from a tune he had once heard he could play the piano and accordion. He served in the British Army, in the medical unit. Yaakov was the only Jew among the British, and was respected for his loyalty to the British army. He stood up respectfully in times of tension between the British army and the Yishuv, lending understanding to his British friends about the Jewish cause, and some of them continued to exchange letters with him after their return to their country.
At the outbreak of the War of Independence he enlisted and served in the Carmeli Brigade as a radio operator and liaison and participated in the liberation of Haifa. Yaakov participated in the conquest of Tira, Betzet, A-Zib and Acre. On the night of the 11th of Tammuz 5708 (18.7.1948), the day before the announcement of the second truce, on a motorbike mission from Rosh Pina to Mishmar Hayarden, he was killed in a collision and was taken to eternal rest in the military cemetery in Rosh Pina.
