Erlich, Yeshayahu

Son of Esther and Eliezer, was born on October 10, 1917 in the city of Zwierce, Poland, and was educated in the spirit of Torah and Chasidism. He studied in a “cheder” and in a Polish school, and in his youth he began working as a painter to help support his family. When his parents moved to the city of Bedzin, he joined the “Hashomer Hadati” nest and became one of the active counselors. Yeshayahu was drafted into the Polish army and with the outbreak of the Second World War, he was again drafted, was wounded, but managed to escape from his captors and returned to his town. He organized the underground youth movement, whose task was to spread Torah and knowledge of the country among the youth. At the same time, he made sure to provide the children with vital needs in the ghetto. He was deported to Auschwitz and there, too, he continued underground in his Zionist activity and participated in the plan to blow up the crematoria. After the war, for a time he worked for the US Army and helped find traces of Nazi party activists. Despite his good physical condition and the chances of obtaining entry permits to the United States, he gave up his work in order to immigrate to Palestine. Yeshayahu arrived in Israel on the “Yordei Hasira” boat, was caught and exiled to Cyprus, and during the deportations he was among the forceful opponents of British soldiers, and continued his training in Cyprus. He was a member of the Palmach class of the kibbutz and took part in patrols in the area and afterwards, after completing a course for commanding officers. At the same time, he was also a work sorter and invested his energies in carrying out the fortifications and digging the conduits. He used to tell his friends: “There will be no Hebrew state without an army, and we are soldiers of Israel.” On the 4th day of Iyar 5708 (13.5.1948), the last day of the battle of the Gush before its fall, upon the outbreak of the enemy’s armor to the village, Yeshayahu fell, leaving behind a wife and a daughter who was born after his death. On the 25th of Chesvon, November 17, 1949, he was transferred to eternal rest, together with the rest of Gush Etzion, in a mass grave in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

For complete memorial, see Hebrew biography.