Kovacs, Yaakov (Jonko)

Son of Yosef. He was born in the town of Stomara in Romania on 22 June 1917. His father died before he was born and his mother was sick; Yaakov grew up in his aunt’s home, and then moved to a Jewish educational institution in Cluj. He joined the “Hashomer Hatzair” movement and became an active member of it. In 1936, he went to training in Lunozh, joined the Aliyah Company, and in 1939 he immigrated to Israel on the illegal immigrant ship “Colorado.” His mother, who remained in Europe, perished in the Holocaust. He served as a locksmith, electrician and mechanic, and in 1941 was one of the first Palmach volunteers to serve there for three and a half years. He was particularly interested in minerals and his main hobby was collecting stones. In the Palmach camp and on the kibbutz he proved his willingness to help his friends, installed electric heaters and hand-made lamps, and in preparation for celebrations he contributed a great deal to the decoration of the dining room and the installation of the lighting. In order to dismantle eleven roads and railroads in eight places in the country, in order to detach them from the neighboring countries. On 18 Sivan, 17.6.1946, Yaakov was appended to a Palmach unit that was forced to blow up the railway bridge and the road bridge on Nahal Achziv. There was an explosion and Yaakov was killed. He was buried in a mass grave in the cemetery on the Carmel coast. Kibbutz Evron published a booklet in memory of members of the kibbutz, and in 1968 the bones of the thirteen fallen soldiers were transferred to a place where a memorial was erected.