Fried, David

Son of Esther and Mordechai, was born in 1928 in the city of Uzhhorod in Transcarussia, Czechoslovakia. After graduating from elementary school, he decided to study frameworks in order to immigrate to Israel. World War II disrupted his plans and he had to do hard work to help the family. In early 1943 he was sent to the Warsaw ghetto. During his stay in the ghetto he participated in the activities of the secret Zionist organization. In November 1943, he and his brother were sent to the Auschwitz extermination camp. Miraculously, the two managed to escape from the furnaces and were transferred to the Kaufering concentration camp near Munich. Where his 14-year-old brother, who had often fallen ill, had to be cared for. In 1945 he was released together with his brother by the American army. His sister, who emigrated to the United States, objected to the plan to immigrate to Israel and obtained entry permits for her two brothers for the United States. He arrived in Israel with his group on May 23, 1948, and after two weeks of training he went to battle as a soldier in one of the Palmach’s Harel Brigade battalions. David participated in the battles of Latrun, Tzuba, and Radar, and in the settlements near Mount Castel. His ambition was to go to the kibbutz together with his comrades in battle after the war. He fell on the 19th of Av, 5708 (August 24, 1948) when he was hit by an enemy bullet in one of the outposts near the Castel. He was laid to rest in the military cemetery at Nahalat Yitzhak.