Gerdowski (Chaim Brenner), Gershon

Son of Aryeh. He was born in Sobalk, Poland. After immigrating to Eretz Israel in 1930, he joined the Betar movement and later joined the ranks of the Irgun, and in 1941 he took a commanders’ course and served as head of a group in the Tel Aviv district. During the Second World War, he was fired from his position and lost his rights due to his refusal to comply with a British army enlistment order, and began working for the Israel Front Fund, a fund whose funding was devoted to funding Etzel activities. His room, where he lived with another Irgun member, served as a place of operation and a storeroom, and one day, Gershon was sent to work in Petah Tikva and then to Jerusalem where he returned to work In the “Front of Israel” column under the name “Haim Brenner.” One day Gershon was arrested as a suspect in belonging to the Irgun, he was held in Latrun and from there he was deported with another 251 detainees to Sudan. Gershon liked his friends to arrest and discover. He was handsome, intelligent, cheerful, and full of joy. He devoted his spare time to drawing and engineering, hoping he would one day pay off in architecture. For about a year, Gershon was under arrest as Haim Brenner until the police discovered that he was Gershon Gradovsky of Tel Aviv, who disappeared from his room about three years ago and was wanted by it. He was returned to Israel and sentenced to 15 years in prison for possessing weapons. He first sat in the Jerusalem prison, where he fascinated his friends with his interesting lectures on geography. He was then transferred to Akko Prison. On the 4 th of May 1947, when the Acre fortress was breached, Gershon was among the escapees and managed to reach one of the cars. On the way of retreat, a strong fire was fired upon them. The occupants of the car jumped out of it and tried to make their way while the commander of the operation, Dov Cohen, “Shimshon,” covered them. In the process Gershon Gradowski was injured and fell. He was brought to eternal rest in the cemetery in Shavei Zion. His memoirs were published in the books “Remembering Eternity” and “Those Who Have not Won.”