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Fittel, Kalman (Kalima)

Fittel, Kalman (Kalima)


Son of Helena and David, was born on July 10, 1911, in the city of Petersburg, Russia. In 1917 he went to Finland with his parents and brother, and from there to Zopot near Danzig. Kalman attended elementary and high school and joined the “Tchelet Lavan” Zionist youth movement (“Blau-Weiss”). He completed his high school in Danzig in 1933 and was ordained an engineer. In 1934 he married his girlfriend, who aspired to build their future in the Land of Israel. After a long internship they were issued a “permit” and immigrated to Eretz Israel in October 1935. Because of difficulties in getting along as an engineer he tried his luck at various jobs and eventually learned to set up and repair electric refrigerators and together with a friend opened a repair shop. In 1936 he had a daughter. In 1940, he enlisted in the Engineers Corps in the British Army, served in Egypt and Italy and reached the rank of sergeant (sergeant). As a member of the Haganah since 1935, he fulfilled his duty at all times and in the War of Independence served in Jerusalem in the Etzioni Brigade. Kalman fell on the way to Mount Scopus on April 13, 1948. The road to Mount Scopus passed through the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, and when the war broke out, the movement was allowed to mount convoys secured by the British army. In 1948, a convoy left Mount Scopus after the British promised the road was open and safe, and the convoy encountered an Arab ambush in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and hundreds of Arabs hurled heavy gunfire at it. For many hours the convoy members fought and tried to prevent the Arabs from approaching the vehicles, fire from our positions in the city and Mount Scopus, as well as armored vehicles In the afternoon, the Arabs managed to set fire to two buses on their passengers, and only late in the evening did the British intervene and rescue the survivors from the trapped vehicles. To rest in a cemetery in Sanhedria.

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