Freund, Joshua

Son of Hirsch and Ida. He was born on February 8, 1906 in Poland. As a child he moved with his parents to Hungary, then to Austria (Vienna) and Belgium. In Belgium he studied a profession and married a wife, and there his only son was born. In 1935 he immigrated with his family to Eretz Israel. And worked in various jobs as an agricultural laborer. As an outbreak of World War II, he enlisted in the Army Corps of Engineers to give his share in the war against Nazi Germany. As part of his unit, he served in Greece and Crete, and after the dismantling of the unit he underwent a course for the operation of heavy machinery. His unit stood out as one of the best. He was active in every national initiative in the ranks, and at parties held in the unit he delighted the participants in Jewish folk songs. He fulfilled his duties in the unit to the satisfaction of his superiors. In the winter between 1943 and 1944, his unit was sent to Syria to renovate the road system. On 29 Iyar, May 22, 1944, while training Indian soldiers at work, he died in an accident. He left a son. His memory was immortalized in a grove his friends planted in his name in “The Forest of the Soldier.” His name was also immortalized in a memorial booklet for our comrades that was issued by the Tractor Company in the British Army. An investigation conducted in 2017 found that his resting place was in Beirut, Lebanon.