Karsel, Yechiel-Michael

Son of Leah and Abraham, was born on 29.5.1926 in Zabotow, Galicia, Poland, where he received his first education in the Hebrew kindergarten. In 1932 he immigrated to Israel with his parents, who settled in Kfar Hess and worked in agriculture. He was one of the best students in the local school, loved by his teachers and friends. Yechiel-Michael successfully completed 10 classes, but did not withdraw his hand from work. In the morning he studied, and in the afternoon he helped his parents’ farm. Even before he was 15 years old, Yechiel-Michael once wrote in one of his letters: “This year I will stay at home and work, and in another year all my classmates will be drafted. In 1942, at the height of the war against the Nazis, Yehiel-Michael, who was still under the age of 16, left his parents’ home and joined the British army, where he served for over four years. Was in a transport unit in Egypt, on the Libyan front, and in the famous camouflage company of the Eighth British Army, which broke through the El Alamein front. In 1943 he moved to the Italian front and served the illegal immigration. Day and night he led illegal immigrants. He traveled all the way through Italy, until he was wounded by fatigue in a traffic accident. In early 1946 he was discharged from the army. Moved to the Hagana service in his village and in the area and was appointed head of a local youth company. After the United Nations General Assembly resolution of 29 November 1947 on the division of the country into two states and the outbreak of the War of Independence in its wake, he served in the Alexandroni Brigade and defended his village, near the Arab castle, on the “Triangle” border. On May 4, 1948, on the eve of the declaration of the state, his department set out to attack the village of Tira. In an assault on the village, the platoon encountered ambushes and many of its members fell. Yehiel-Michael was injured in the first ball. The burial place of Yehiel-Michael is unknown. A monument was erected in his memory in the military section of Tel Mond and in the Garden of the Missing on Mount Herzl. This fallen hero is a “maklan” – a hero whose burial place is unknown.