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Coles, Gershon (Gerhard)

Coles, Gershon (Gerhard)


Son of Helena and Ludwig, was born on January 20, 1920, in the city of Stolp, the Pomeran region of Germany. Until 1936, he attended a real school, and in the same year immigrated to Eretz Israel as part of Youth Aliyah. He joined the youth group in the Geva group and stayed there for two years. From his youth he discovered a great talent for sculpture and Geva was sent to Jerusalem to study at Bezalel. He studied until 1941, stopped school and joined the police. Gershon served as a guard in Haifa and the surrounding area. He joined the Matzuva group, but because of his passion for art and his desire to study in it systematically, he left the group in 1946 together with his wife. In Jerusalem he studied with the sculptor Brandenburg, who admired his talent. From Jerusalem he moved to the Borochov neighborhood near Tel Aviv and continued to study with the sculptor Trude Chaim. Despite his difficult living conditions, he and his wife would be able to study as an artist and save their wages so that he could study in Europe. In his diaries, his aspirations and doubts were expressed, to an artist who struggles for his work and sees all that surrounds the same material for its expression. He was naturally quiet, self-contained and seeking justice. He earned his living as a color. Immediately upon the outbreak of the War of Independence he enlisted, but due to his stomach ulcer he was not immediately sent to battle. He spent only three months serving in the Israel Defense Forces in the Carmeli Brigade. He took part in the “Dekel” campaign to purify the central Galilee and conquer Nazareth, and fell in battle in the Birwa area on 4 July 1948. He was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Nahariya. Many paintings and sculptures: heads, figures of working men, men and women, animals, and two of his sculptures glorify the garden in his group.

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