Fishman, Zvi

Son of Ganendel and Moshe, was born in 1927 in the city of Feldhaz, Hungary. Grew up in a religious environment and finished elementary school. Was very strong in his body, and while his family was taken to extermination, he was transferred by the Nazis to a labor camp and enslaved, until his great power was diminished and the date of his liquidation was set. Zvi managed to escape at the last minute with a few friends, but all of them remained alive. Finally he arrived on his way to a German village, just as the first American tank entered. The liberators picked him up, took him to a hospital, and there he recovered. On his way to Palestine, he was interned in camps in Austria, Italy and Cyprus, where the illegal immigration ship “Four Freedoms” was brought to Cyprus. In 1947 he arrived in Israel at the age of 20. He spent several months in Kfar Etzion until he moved to Jerusalem and began working as a plumber. At the outbreak of the War of Independence he was one of the first recruits, trained in Arza and was attached to a religious unit in the Jerusalem Brigade. During Operation Nachshon, the breakthrough to Jerusalem was among the defenders of the vital Castel regime. This regime was subject to heavy attacks by the Arab forces, and one of them was killed by their commander, ‘Abd al-Qader al-Husseini. In order to find the body of their commander, the Arabs carried out a heavy attack and the defenders of the Castel were forced to retreat. This battle fell on the 28th of Adar 5708 (1948). He was buried with his friends in a mass grave in Ma’aleh Hahamisha. On the 19th of Kislev 5714 (19.11.1953) he was put to rest at the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.