Goleman, Jacob

Son of Sarah and Tzemach. He was born on December 9, 1916 in Warsaw, Poland, to a Jewish family with a Zionist national spirit. He studied at the “Tarbut” elementary and high school in Warsaw, and after he was examined and received a matriculation certificate, he enlisted in the Polish army and graduated with the rank of sergeant. In 1938 he was liberated and in January 1939 he immigrated to Palestine on the illegal immigrant ship Parita. In December 1940, Kuba (nicknamed by his friends) was drafted into the British Army and attached to Transport Unit 462, which participated in the war in the Western Desert. On 2.4.1943 he sailed with about three hundred soldiers of his unit and with soldiers of other units on board the ship “Arinapura” from the port of Alexandria. The destination of the voyage was Malta, and the purpose was to help the Allies in the invasion of Sicily. On the afternoon of April 1, 1943, a German aircraft carrier attacked a convoy of ships headed by the “Aryanpura”. The ship sustained two direct hits and within minutes began to sink into the sea. Along with the sinking ship were also one hundred and forty soldiers of the unit 462. Jacob was among them. In the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, a ship-shaped memorial 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.