Gitlitz (Gitlis), Israel

Son of Sarah and Moshe. He was born in 1915 in the town of Troki near Vilna. After completing his studies at the elementary school at the age of 14, he joined the He – Chaluts ha – Tsa’ir youth movement in his hometown, Sumaliski, Lithuania. In 1933 he immigrated to Eretz Israel in the “Hashomer Hatzair” group in Lithuania-Latvia. In Israel he spent two years on the kibbutz and when his parents arrived in Israel, he moved to Tel Aviv where he worked as a construction worker for a certain period at the Electric Company in Haifa. Afterward, he moved to the Dead Sea, where he lived in Jerusalem. All the time he was a member of the Haganah. In February 1942, he enlisted in the British army and served in the Jewish transport company 462. On May 1, 1943, Israel was aboard the ship “Aryanpura”, which was on its way from Alexandria, Egypt, to Malta. The ship was attacked by German planes and drowned. 140 soldiers of the same unit drowned, and Israel with them. In the military cemetery on Mount Herzl, a ship-shaped monument was erected in memory of the missing, and next to it is a water pool with the names of the fallen engraved on the bottom. This fallen hero is a “maklan” – a hero whose burial place is unknown.