Meir, Ze’ev (Otal)

Son of Charlotte and Baruch-Berthold. Born in 1915 in the town of Lade in southern Germany to a family of merchants, he attended a trade school and took religion lessons. At the age of sixteen he went to work as a trainee in a cigarette factory, He immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1935 and arrived in the “Ha-Kovesh” group in Kfar Sava, shortly after moving to Ramat HaKovesh and working in the orchard and as a wagon driver. He was modest in his manner and kindness, a constant smile on his lips, A year after his arrival in the kibbutz, Ze’ev joined the field company and was one of the activists in the security affairs. In 1941, Kibbutz Ramat Hakovesh received a telephonic instruction from the Yishuv institutions to recruit a member of the artillery unit of the British army. Ze’ev responded without hesitation and enlisted the next day. In the army, he spent many years with his unit, and during his free time he studied physics, electricity, Hebrew and English. In time he was assigned the role of driver and was later sent to a mechanics school where he excelled in his studies. During all the years that he was cut off from his kibbutz, his connection to it did not weaken and during his visits he showed interest in every detail of the agriculture and spent many hours with the children. With the establishment of the Jewish Brigade in September 1944 he joined his unit and in its ranks moved to Italy. On 14 Tevet, December 30, 1944, he traveled to the camp to supply water to the camp, and his car was overturned. He died of his wounds that day. He was laid to rest in Salerno, Italy. His name was immortalized in the book “The Jewish Brigade.”