Bodner, Benjamin-Ze’ev (“Penny”)

Son of Meir and Chaya-Meza. Born on March 30, 1928 in Tarnow, Poland, grandson of grandson of Tosafot Yomtov, he was eleven years old when the Second World War broke out and only four classes were completed in the elementary school. He was then imprisoned in the ghetto together with his family among the other Jews of Tarnow. The mother and his younger brother moved to Lvov, where they hid for a while as Christians until they were finally discovered and sent by the Gestapo to the Bălţi extermination camp. On the train to the camp they separated Benjamin from his mother and brother, but they decided to jump off the train. Benjamin jumped and fled in spite of the shots – the guards but his mother and brothers did not do so and their tracks disappeared. On the way, Benjamin was caught a few times but managed to return to Lvov and from there to Tarnow. He met with his father and lived with him until the liquidation of the ghetto, and then in 1943, managed to escape the enemy claws and reach Hungary on foot. After wandering and suffering, the father was transferred to a sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland; The son-in-law, Benjamin Ze’ev, decided to send the refugees to Israel before his turn, because in the past he suffered greatly. In February 1944, he arrived in Eretz Israel in the framework of Youth Aliyah, where he studied at Mikveh Israel and graduated from the Palmach, where the British surrounded a number of agricultural sites in the country, including Givat Brenner. He managed to evade the hands of the policeman, who was in the framework of the Palmach in the kibbutzim of Yagur, Ma’ale Hachamisha and Ramat Rahel. At the outbreak of the War of Independence he was a guide to heavy weapons. After taking a course in Netanya, he held various responsible positions. At first he was a company commander until he reached the rank of company commander. Was among the conquerors of Beersheba and the infiltrators into Egyptian territory. He was humble, few things, modest in his ways and a devoted friend. His agony in the Diaspora made his spirit and his desire for revenge harden. On the last day of Pesach 5709 (20.4.1949), in a battle near Bet Guvrin, he fell and was brought to eternal rest in the military section of the cemetery in Rehovot.