Frucht, Yoseph

Son of Mordechai and Hannah. He was born on February 27, 1928 in Poland and was six years old when he immigrated to Israel in 1933. With the outbreak of the War of Independence, Yoseph was one of the first recruits to defend Tel Aviv and its suburbs. He did not accept his parents’ request, which was that their only son move to a non-combat unit. Yoseph began with the navy’s landing force. In the framework of the military government he was a member of the mobile company, but after the fighting he was transferred to the “Triangle” area. As a sergeant in this company he went on patrols and ambushes against the infiltrators who penetrated the Jewish settlements. On the 29th of Marcheshvan 5721 (21.11.1949) – about three months after his marriage -Yoseph was sent on a tour of the “Triangle” border. As they passed onto the railroad tracks in the car he was driving, the engine suddenly went off and the train seemed to emerge from the trees. In his desire to prevent disaster, he tried to start the car, but in vain, and the locomotive hit the car; he was killed. Yoseph was laid to rest in the military cemetery at Nahalat Yitzhak. He left a wife.