Gottlieb, Shlomo

Son of Leah and Jacob, was born on October 21, 1897, in the city of Czernowitz, which at that time belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1926, Shlomo immigrated to Eretz Israel with his wife Netti. The couple settled in Haifa and Shlomo was an employee at the Public Works Department of the Mandate government. He designed and installed the first electric water pump in Israel for the Italian Hospital in Haifa and he planned the electricity system of the Lod airport and all the electrical systems of the fifty-four police stations established by the British throughout the country. In 1932 he moved with his family to Jerusalem. On April 3, 1948, on his way to work, Shlomo and his two children were abducted by Arabs. Five days later, the children were released with the help of the Red Cross and returned to their home. About twenty days later, the Red Cross approached the liaison agency with a proposal to release Shlomo and replace him with an Arab who was held captive by the Hagana forces and that it was prepared to enter into negotiations for the exchange of prisoners. The negotiations continued until the British left Jerusalem, but on that day, on the 9th of Iyar, May 17, 1948, Shlomo died as a result of the heart disease he was suffering from. It is believed that he was buried in a mass grave in a Muslim cemetery near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. His name was engraved on the monument erected in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in memory of those who perished in the Jewish Quarter and the memory of soldiers who fell in the battle for Jerusalem and were buried in the Mount of Olives.