Chaim, Yosef (Pepo)

Son of Charlotte and Abraham, was born on 22.6.1927 in Istanbul, Turkey. When he was three, his parents left Turkey and moved to Germany on their way to France. In France he lived until the age of 16, visited high school, excelled in his studies and his teachers and friends liked him. In 1943, when the Nazis invaded Vichy France, he returned with his family to Turkey, and a few months later immigrated to Palestine. Three weeks after arriving in Israel his father died, and he was forced to stop his studies and support his mother and younger brother. In the evenings he learned and managed to acquire the Hebrew and English languages. He was very active in the Hagana and rose to the rank of commander of a class, excelled in his courage and went to every place of danger. In one of the severe attacks on Neve Yaakov (in the Jerusalem hills) he volunteered to take a stretcher to one of his wounded men and then hit the ball and died two hours later, on the 17th of Adar 5748 (March 28, 1948). He was buried in the Sanhedria cemetery in Jerusalem. Three months later his younger brother David also fell. On the 13th of Elul 5711 (13.9.1951) he was put to rest at the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.