Lieberman, Yosef

Son of Hassia and Issachar. He was born in 1911 in Pinsk, Poland, to a traditional Zionist family. After finishing elementary school and the state gymnasium in Pinsk, he continued his studies at the Warsaw University. Following harassment of Jewish students at the university by anti-Semitic students, he stopped his studies, returned to his home and in 1934 immigrated to Eretz Israel. During the 1936 riots he joined the Haganah and with the establishment of the security fence in the north he volunteered and was one of its founders. He served in the “Night Squads” under the command of Orde Wingate and filled other security posts. After the outbreak of the Second World War, he enlisted in the infantry units of the British Army and attained the rank of sergeant in the Third Battalion. With the establishment of the Jewish Brigade in September 1944, his battalion joined in, and in its ranks he was sent to the Italian front. On 28 Nisan, April 11, 1945, he was killed in a battle on the Gabio mountain across the Senio River by German sniper fire. He was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Ravenna, Italy. His name is commemorated in the book “The Jewish Brigade.”