Kaponi, Rachamim – Yigal

Son of Rachel and Shmuel was born in 1921 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. After completing his studies in a real gymnasium, he began studying in the medical faculty, but he stopped his studies in 1941. He belonged to the Hashomer Hatzair movement. In 1944, he immigrated to Israel and began working as a medical orderly at the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. The road to Mount Scopus passed through the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and upon the outbreak of the war the movement was allowed to mount convoys secured by the British army. On the morning of April 13, 1948, a convoy left for Mount Scopus after the British promised that the road was open and safe, and the convoy encountered an Arab ambush in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and hundreds of Arabs torched it. Two buses, an ambulance and a escort vehicle were ambushed, and for many hours the convoy fought to prevent the Arabs from getting closer to the vehicles, which were fired from our positions in the city and Mount Scopus. And did nothing to help, despite the appeals to them The buses full of passengers. Just at dusk British intervened and rescued the survivors trapped vehicles. Among the victims was a Rachamim. Was laid-rest at the cemetery Sanhedria Jerusalem.