Ezra (Calili), Eliyahu

Son of Rina and Nissim. Was born in 1922 in Hebron to a family that had lived there for many generations, and after the events of 1929 were deeply rooted in his memory, the family moved to Jerusalem, but returned to visit Hebron several times, and these visits deepened his national and Zionist consciousness. When he was a student at the Tachkemoni school in Jerusalem, he joined the Beitar youth movement and was active in its ranks, and at the age of 17 he joined the youth movements and served in Beit Nabala, Rosh Ha’ayin, Haifa, Jerusalem, Petach Tikva and other towns. After serving for a year and a half in Netarot, he wanted to enlist in the British army, but his friends dissuaded him from doing so, and he joined the Irgun and served in various positions in Haifa, Netanya and Ramat Gan. In the summer of 1945 he was arrested by the British Intelligence and transferred to the detention camp of Latrun. During his stay in detention, he continued his studies and took an active part in the life of the camp. On December 20, 1945, he was exiled with a group of 55 prisoners to the Sembel deportation camp in Eritrea. On the 15th of Shvat (17.1.1946), when he approached the fence of the camp, he was shot by a sentry of the Sudanese Guard, who was responsible for guarding the detainees. He was brought by his friends to the gate, screaming alarmingly for a doctor. Then a barrage of shots was fired at the camp by the Sudanese soldiers who were called to the fences and Eliahu was killed. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Asmara. After the establishment of the State of Israel, his bones were transferred to Jerusalem first to the Sheik Badar cemetery and in 1979 to the military cemetery on Mount Herzl.He was immortalized in “Memories Forever”, the memorial book for fallen soldiers of the Irgun Zvai Leumi and in the book “Those Who Have not Won.”