Grosfeld, Chaim (Hermann)

The only son of Zehava and Moshe Yoel was born on the 2nd of Kislev 5711 (November 2, 1924) in the city of Dusseldorf, Germany, and attended an elementary school in his city. On the fall of his father Haim entered the Haganah while he was a student in the elementary school. He would tell his mother that he was going to the movies, and in fact went out to guard in very dangerous places. Haim studied at the Yavneh Reali School in Haifa and was a good student. Aware of the difficult financial situation of the family, he did not demand a heavy fee for his mother, and upon completion of the elementary school he undertook to support the family. He worked at the Hadar-Carmel Committee in Haifa, at the Water Institute. He was a member of Hashomer Hatzair and continued his career as a member of the Histadrut. When he was 17, he enlisted in the British Army, despite his mother’s opposition and efforts to release him. During his service he smuggled illegal immigrants and transferred weapons to the Haganah, and was even punished. In 1944 he was discharged from the British army and worked in an electrical battery factory. He married a wife and moved to Tel Aviv. But his activities in the Haganah did not relent. The Hagana service took the best of his time to such an extent that he could not devote himself to supporting the family, but his role was important to him in his personal affairs and in the peace of the home. The annihilation of European Jewry and the murder of his father gave him rest, and he did not stop with a sense of vengeance. When the War of Independence broke out, he was among the first to enlist. He served in the Givati ​​Brigade, first as a motorcycle operator and later as a police officer and a guard at Tel Nof and Hulda. He participated in the battles for the Castel and the road to Jerusalem and Operation “Yoav” for the breakthrough to the Negev. . When his relatives asked him not to go into battle, arguing that he was the only son, he answered that the officer had given him an order and had to fill it. Haim fell in the battle on Julikat on the 19th of Tishrei, 5709 (19.10.1948) with many of his company and was put to rest at the military cemetery in the village of Warburg. Left a daughter.