Friedenfeld, Avraham-Meir

Son of Rachel and Zvi, was born on the 7th of Adar II 1921 in the city of Wieliczka, Poland. As a member of a well-educated and conservative family of merchants, he was educated in a national-religious spirit, in the Hebrew language and literature. He studied at a “yeshiva” and in a Polish primary school, and later in a commercial school. From 1936 he was a member of the “Hashomer Hadati” movement, active in the branch and participating in national summer camps. With the outbreak of the Second World War, he escaped from his city and joined the “Lamerhav” movement in Bialystok. With her friends he wandered from Vilna to Ponevezys, where they organized as a training group. From there he passed through European and Asian Russia and Japan, to a ship that surrounded the hemisphere, passed on the Cape of Good Hope, and through the Suez Canal reached the Mediterranean and made aliya on August 8, 1941. After a brief stay in Tel Aviv, he volunteered in 1942 for the Bafs. He served in Israel and in Egypt, and with the foundation of the Jewish Brigade he joined it and as a trained officer he was promoted to corporal. He fought in Italy against the Germans. At the end of the war, he was transferred to Belgium and brought the news of the Land of Israel to the refugees of the Holocaust with his friends. He treated them and worked for their immigration to Israel. During his travels in Europe he succeeded in penetrating Poland, where he was born, and there he realized that his extensive family had been murdered by the local Poles and the Nazis and had even succeeded in finding their main murderer and avenging their revenge. Treated with devotion to refugee children, and two of them took a personal care and managed to transfer them to Israel. He worked hard to find their parents and after he found their father, he also transferred him to Israel. Self-sacrifice and deep enthusiasm were his main characteristics. In one of his letters to the Society, he wrote: “I do not claim excessive idealism, but something must be given for the good that life affects us.” And indeed he enjoyed this good in his travels in Europe: the blessing of art, the good book, and the spiritual sciences. Upon his discharge from the British army in 1946, he joined Kfar Etzion and worked in the orchards, then in the cowshed. In this village he found the corner of his beloved homeland, devoted himself to its development, was active in the company, and dealt with the new immigrants who taught them Hebrew with great vigor. During the siege of the Gush he made friends with an English corporal, which provided the bloc with fuel, a vital commodity in his defense. Avraham-Meir took care of the dairy and supplied it with supplies, despite the conditions of the siege and the dangers involved. He took part in the entire defense system, entrenched himself and demanded “to hold on to the place at all costs, with real fingernails …” despite the doubts that were revealed among Gush members. He was appointed commander of the position and at the time of the fierce attack on the bloc he was promoted to the commander of the northern section of Kfar Etzion. In the last attack on the third of Iyar 5708, he showed some feats of heroism, which according to the evaluation of the remains of the battle would have earned him the title of “Hero of the Last Battle.” Under a deadly firefight he moved from the northern end to the southern end of the village by carrying the “Fiat” The armored vehicles bursting into the agriculture on this side, Avraham-Meir acted as the commander of the section, maintained close contact with his positions by listening to his forces and sent them to the weak places, providing ammunition and food to his men, The only tank that was abandoned by the retreating wounded, and there he also treated the wounded The Fiat fell to the ground in order to sabotage the enemy’s armor, and on the afternoon of May 13, On the 17th of Cheshvan 5710 (17.11.1949), he was brought to rest with the rest of the Etzion Bloc in a mass grave in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.