Guzman, Chaim

Chaim, son of Rachel and Shmuel Guzman, was born on February 4, 1927, in Tel Aviv. He was a member of the Hanoar Haoved movement and later a counselor. When he was 16 years old, he was a work manager responsible for 40 Arab workers in the Government Public Works Department, where he worked for the Electric Company. He participated in courses and training on behalf of the Haganah, and in December 1947 he enlisted in full service, participated in repelling the first attack on Kibbutz Yechiam and in other operations in the Western Galilee Mountains.
On 16 Adar II, March 27, 1948, at noon, a convoy of seven vehicles and 90 people left Nahariya to deliver supplies. The first armored vehicle managed to break through and reach Yechiam but the rest of the vehicles were ambushed. The convoy fought until the evening and under cover of darkness some of them managed to escape, but about half of them fell in battle. The bodies of four members of the convoy were found only two days later, including Chaim. According to a friend who escaped, Chaimka was one of the last four to survive, and until the last moment he rejected the offer of his friends to commit suicide as long as there was a spark of hope to stay alive. Chaim was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Nahariya.