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Bilaus (Bialauss), Jacob

Bilaus (Bialauss), Jacob


Son of Shoshana and Shmuel (Sam) was born on 28.8.1928 in Brody, Galicia, Poland. Until his 13th year, when the Russo-German War broke out, he received regular education like the rest of his age. The family fled to Russia, and reached Mariupol (near Rostov), ​​where the Nazis caught up with it. From the massacre in Mariupol, where some 10,000 Jews were exterminated, few survived, including Jacob. He disguised himself as a Christian and walked two hundred miles on foot until he managed to reach the Russian lines again, and from there he continued to Siberia. With the agreement between Stalin and Szykorski on the establishment of a Polish army among the refugees, he joined the Jewish soldiers in the Polish army and arrived in Palestine in 1942, and found refuge in the home of his relatives in Tel Aviv who cared for his education. Jacob could not continue peace in times of war and volunteered at the first opportunity for the British army and was attached to the Jewish Brigade (the Brigade). At the end of the war he managed to reach the country of origin and managed to save from the remains of Polish Jews and bring them to Israel. His last period of service was spent in Egypt. Upon his release he returned to Tel Aviv. He worked as a laborer at the Tel Aviv port until his turn came for the third time to volunteer for the War of Independence and served in the Givati ​​Brigade as a company commander. Jacob fell on the 17th of Adar 2, 5708 (28.3.1948) between Mghar and Tel Nof and was brought to rest at the military cemetery in Rehovot. He did not have time to see his father, who was also saved from the inferno and settled in the United States.

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