Hamerman, Yosef

He was born in 1908 in Rosnitow, Eastern Galicia, later became a merchant in Rickenberg, Czechoslovakia and one of the founders of the “Ha’oved” branch in this city, and immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1935. He worked here first in carpentry and later volunteered to guard the Carmel Forest, There was great strategic-settlement importance during the bloody riots of 1936. The road between the Carmel Forests and Haifa was in constant danger as it was prone to attacks by the Arab gangs. On August 15, 1936, he joined a car that returned from the forests of Mount Carmel to Haifa to take his rifle, which had previously been repaired. In the car were one young wife and two armed guards. In the vicinity of Damon, passengers were ambushed and when they reached one of the turns and found the road blocked with stones, they had to stop the car. At the same moment he splashed at them from the nearby woods on three sides and at a distance of about fifteen meters, a shower of shots. The two armed guards jumped out of the car and returned fire to the assailants, but three of the passengers fell in the attack and Joseph was among them. He left a wife and a daughter. His name was immortalized in the books “Lash VeMaggen” and “Blood and Fire” – the events of 1936-1937.