Hohenberg, Gedalyahu

The son of Rivka and Yosef-Haim was born on January 27, 1928, in the city of Chemnitz, in the state of Saxony, Germany, and was educated in the kindergarten of the local Zionist Association. “He studied at the schools of his parents’ homes in Ramat Hasharon, Petah Tikva, and finally in Kfar Sirkin, excelled in his studies and behavior, and at the recommendation of his teachers he was accepted to the Ahad Ha’am Gymnasium in Petah Tikva. In his parents’ home he forced him to work in the afternoons and he did his homework in the evening, but he was still among the students During his studies he was active in the “HaNoar HaOved” branch in Kfar Sirkin and in Gadna. When the operations in his branch were halted, he continued in the Petach Tikva branch. In the Gadna, he served as a lieutenant colonel and in his dedication to his role served as a model for his students. During the Second World War, he became friends with the soldiers of the Allies who camped near Kfar Sirkin, and even with the African soldiers. He learned to speak with them in their own language and liked everything, while trying to learn from them army orders for the use of the Hagana and the Hagana. In the seventh grade, the students were required to take the exams and enlist in the Jewish Brigade, and when the conscript in Tzrifin refused to accept him because of his youth, he volunteered for two years at the Petah Tikva station and spent a year as a guard at Beilinson Hospital. Army and service, in order to convey the information to his commanders in the Hagana In the summer of 1946, during the British siege on Givat Hashlosha, to search for weapons, he entered the agriculture through the siege ring and under their nose When the War of Independence began, he ignored the tears of his mother and the attempts of relatives and friends to use his right as an only son to be released from combat service. To the Alexandroni Brigade and participated in battles and sabotage in the areas of Jaffa, Tel Aviv and the Sharon. Gedaliah finished a weapons course, took part in the battles in Latrun, took the wounded on his shoulders, and once passed out of exhaustion in the great effort to reach the collection station with a wounded man. He was sent to a squad commanders’ course, graduated with honors, and his commanders recommended that he leave for a course for naval commanders. He pleaded with his commanders to return him to combat service, but because of his expertise in weapons, he was appointed a regimental rifle. While carrying out his duties as a machine gunner in the camp between Beit Lid and Netanya, he was killed by a bullet on the day of Tu B’Shvat 5709 (October 18, 1948). He was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Netanya.