Greenberg, Julian

Julian, son of Golda and Eli Greenberg, was born in 1921 in Bucharest, Romania. During the Second World War he was sent to forced labor with the Nazi occupiers and after the Russians’ victory he was liberated, left Romania and traveled with his brothers to Germany. He joined the “Haoved” kibbutz and stayed there for about a year. Afterward he moved to Italy, worked in his profession and joined the Achdut Ha’avoda movement. In Italy, he met with emissaries from Israel and urged them to take him to a training camp of the Haganah and train there for a certain period of time. On 15.5.1948 he immigrated to Israel on the ship “Argentina”, immediately went to the military camp at Tel Litvinsky, and enlisted in the newly formed 7th Brigade. He continued his military training and was sent to the Latrun front. In one of the battles he was wounded in the leg, refused to remain in a hospital and demanded that he be returned to combat duty. The 7th Brigade was assigned to break through the road to Jerusalem, which was blocked by the legion of Latrun. Near the exit, the brigade’s fighters encountered stronger enemy forces. On 15 Iyar, May 24, 1948, in the battle for the outposts south of Latrun, Julian was wounded in his shoulder and kidneys. For hours he lay in anguish but when the first aid workers arrived, he died. On the 11th of Adar 5702 (28.2.1950) he was laid to rest in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.