Furstenberg, Abraham
Son of Yehudit and Michael, was born in 1924 in Kalisz, Poland. When he was 12 years old, he was deprived of his father and forced to go to work, to help the family’s agriculture. Avraham attended a Polish government school and suffered greatly from antisemitic attacks. In World War II he disguised himself as “Aryan” in order to provide his mother in the ghetto with her needs. On a day he worked in the city and at night he returned to the ghetto. When he was caught by the Germans, he identified himself as a Pole and was sent to forced labor in Germany. He spent the war as a Polish agricultural worker in Germany. When he discovered his Jewishness, he was saved from death by virtue of his excellence at work and continued to work among the Germans until the arrival of the Russian army. After the war, he wandered on his way to Eretz Israel until he reached the refugee camp in Udine, Italy. Where he joined an agricultural group of Hashomer Hatzair. Shortly afterwards, in March 1946, he immigrated to Israel with his friends on the illegal immigrant ship Wingate. He received his training at Kibbutz Gan Shmuel, where he was liked by his friends as a cheerful boy and a dedicated and good worker. On 15 October 1947, he volunteered for the Palmach and was devoted to defense and security affairs, and was involved in important activities of “purchasing” weapons from the British army camps. Among the Arabs, Avraham took part in the liberation of the city of Haifa and was later transferred to the Galilee, served in the Yiftach Brigade and took part in the battles there.For the anticipated invasion of Lebanon, the fighters of Yiftah conquered Malkia in order to block this invasion route to the Galilee, (May 15, 1948) when a sniper bullet hit him and killed him. He was laid to rest in the cemetery in Maoz Haim. The kibbutz issued a booklet in his memory.
