Freisler, Menachem

Son of Rachel and Solomon, was born in 1929 in one of the cities of Romania to parents who are observant and religious. During the Second World War, his father’s house was destroyed and the boy was taken to a labor camp on Russian soil. He succeeded in escaping from there and joining the partisans. He was an active fighter in the Nazis until the day of the liberation, 9.5.1945. Then he returned to Romania and found no one from his family alive. Here he decided to immigrate to Israel. He joined the illegal immigrants of the ship “Chaim Arlosoroff”, who left Romania, was captured by the British and sent to Cyprus. He was arrested in Cyprus for about thirteen months until he was permitted to immigrate to Israel in 1948. When he immigrated to Israel, he settled in Tkuma and joined the Hapoel Ha-Mizrachi movement. As a veteran partisan and an excellent sniper (they said that every bullet hit his target), he played his part in defending the attacked wells of Yitzhak. He despised dangers and insisted that he not retreat. On the 15th of Tammuz 5708 (July 15, 1948), when the members were unable to hold the position and the commander demanded that he leave the place, he refused and remained where he fell: “I want to fight for my people and my country,” he said. On May 15, 1952, he was transferred to eternal rest in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.