Gross, Meir (Willy, Shaul)

Son of Alexander was born in 1925 in Osgorod, Czechoslovakia. His parents fled Hungary, where they were born, because they were Communists. They gave their baby to the orphanage of the Jewish community in Osgorod and they fled to the Soviet Union. From this orphanage the baby was sent to an orphanage of the Jewish community in Debrecen, Hungary, where he studied until he was fourteen years old, and was then sent to study at a teachers’ seminary in Budapest. Before he completed his studies, the Germans invaded Hungary and he was sent to forced labor in the town of Bor, Yugoslavia, until his release by Tito’s partisans. Meir returned to a seminar in Budapest and was ordained for teaching. In 1946, when he was already a teacher, he headed a group of Jewish students who made their way to Eretz Israel. On their way to France and Paris, Meir joined the Lehi underground and was nicknamed “Shaul.” In May 1948 he arrived in Eretz Israel and was drafted into the 11th Battalion of the Oded Brigade. (10.7.1948) fell in the course of his duties, from fragments of bombs that were dropped that day from enemy planes. The next day he was laid to rest at the military cemetery in Rosh Pina. His commander eulogized him by saying that Meir was devoted to his job and courageous.