Kalpholtz, Mordechai

Son of Yentel and Shlomo, was born in August 1925 in the city of Auschwitz, Poland and completed elementary school. In 1943 he was arrested together with his brother and transferred to the death camp. There he suffered a terrible torment. Near the end of the war he was transferred to another camp in the Czech Republic. He managed to escape and hid in a peasant’s house until the entrance of the Red Army. When they heard about the existence of a pioneering youth organization, he traveled to Germany, hoping to immigrate to Israel. Upon his arrival in Germany, he joined the “Dror” organization, named after the ghetto fighters, and after a year of training he immigrated with his group on the illegal immigrant ship “Wedwood”. The ship arrived in Israel on June 27, 1946, and the Ma’apilim were transferred to the Atlit detention camp. When Mordecai was released from detention, he embarked on a year of training in Kibbutz Yagur. He was cheerful and pleasant with parties and meetings in his evening voice. In 1947 he moved with his group to Kedma, but a few months later he moved to Kiryat Yam and worked in the construction. With the outbreak of the War of Independence and the declaration of conscription, he joined the ranks of the Jewish Brigade and joined the infantry battalion in the Carmeli Brigade. Mordechai participated in all battles of his battalion, in Ramat Yochanan, Haifa, Akko, the liberation of the Western Galilee, Jenin and more. He fell in Bireva on the 17th of Sivan 5708 (24.6.1948). The village of Birwa and the three outposts next to it were held by our forces. On the afternoon of June 23, local Kaukji and Arab forces attacked the village and forced the force that was holding it back. At night, a force from the Carmeli brigade organized and at dawn on June 24 attacked against one of the outposts, but attempts to conquer the village failed. During the day the battle continued and the Carmeli forces repelled enemy attacks on the outpost they held. At night the force was strengthened, attacked again and succeeded in conquering the village and the commandos. Mordechai was laid to rest at the military cemetery in Nahariya.