Hoffman, Shaul-Aryeh

Son of Feiga and Yehiel, was born on September 20, 1924, in the town of Tiechova, Carpathian Russia. He studied in the “cheder” and completed a public elementary school. At the age of 14 he had already wanted to immigrate to Israel, but his pious father objected. When his parents and brothers were taken to the ghetto and from there to extermination camp, he fled to Hungary, went underground with other young men who had prepared Aryan papers to save themselves and save other Jews from deportation and extermination. After World War he passed the routes of escape and immigration, married a wife, and on October 19, 1947 he arrived in Israel and began working in the orchards of Petach Tikva. Shaul joined the Haganah forces on April 15, 1948, about a month before his daughter was born. He served in the Givati ​​Brigade and participated in battles in the Negev. In preparation for the resumption of hostilities after the first truce, Operation An-Far was planned to break through the Negev. However, the Egyptians violated the truce and attacked it on the night of July 7-8, 1948, seized several outposts and disrupted the plan. As part of the operation, our forces attacked the night of July 8-9, and the Givati ​​forces occupied the outpost of Ibdis, northeast of the Negev. In the following days, the Egyptians carried out repeated heavy attacks on the outpost and Givati ​​fighters, with stubborn defense, repulsed the attacks. In these battles, on July 14, 1948, Shaul was hit by an enemy shell and a few hours later died at the hospital in Bilu. He was laid to rest at the military cemetery in Rehovot.