Kreisman, Yaakov (Bobby)

Yaakov (Bobby), son of Ethel Esther and Herman Kreisman, was born in 1925 in the city of Hatsseg in southern Transylvania, Romania. From his childhood he aspired to immigrate to Palestine. One day he was caught in the street and taken to forced labor, and a year later, when the Nazis were expelled from Romania, he returned home wounded and tired. After a short recovery, he married his girlfriend Elsa and the two of them, together with other young men and women, set out on the “Bricha route”, which ran through Hungary and Austria to Italy. They immigrated to Israel, were apprehended and sent to Cyprus, where his daughter was born. He trained the detainees in the Cyprus camp and in February 1948, he immigrated to Israel with his small family. Yaakov worked hard in various jobs and when he found an apartment in Haifa, he moved his family there, enlisted and served in the Carmeli Brigade. He took short training and was later attached to one of the infantry battalions and took part in all the battles and activities in the Galilee. On a tour of the outpost near Manara, he fell with his friends on 25 Av, August 30, 1948, and only nine days later their bodies were found. Yaakov was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Rosh Pina.