Monce, Eliyahu (Lico)
Eliyahu, son of Rivka and Avraham Monce, was born in 1928 in Mexico City, Mexico. Private Eliyahu Monce fell in battle on 26 Adar 5748 (April 6, 1948), while he was helping the victims of the Castel attack. He was twenty years old when he fell. He left behind his parents and seven brothers and sisters. On the day after the battle, when the Arab forces left the Castel to participate in the funeral of their commander, the Palmach took control of the outpost and captured it without a battle, and then began locating and collecting the bodies. Three of them were not identified and buried as anonymous. They were buried in Ma’ale Hachamisha and later transferred to the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. In 2004 an investigation of the Unit for Locating Missing Persons began and it was learned that his body was buried in the military section of Mount Herzl with the bodies of thirty-six additional fighters. When informed that his body had been found, his brothers testified that until the day of her death their mother believed that her son had survived. His brother Joseph said that because they believed he was missing, they never said Kaddish. Following the findings of the investigation, on Tuesday, November 30, 2010, a ceremony was held to unveil a monument to the three unknown victims, during which the “anonymous” tombstone was replaced by the name of Eliyahu Monse.
