Nachum, Yosef

Yosef, the only son of Sarah and Moshe Nachum, was born on March 23, 1931 in Damascus, the capital of Syria, and attended the Alliance school there. In 1944 his father died and Yosef began to work as an assistant dentist to support his mother. In 1946 he participated in the defense of the Jewish quarter in Damascus during the riots on the occasion of the expulsion of the French from Syria and in he learned that the police suspected him of helping illegal immigration. Yosef made aliyah with some friends arrived in Israel on August 16, 1946. After a few months his mother arrived from Damascus, and he with his mother in Tel Aviv’s Hatikva neighborhood. From the beginning of December 1947, with the outbreak of the War of Independence, he stood guard over the school neighborhoods despite his mother’s vigorous resistance, after which he could no longer conceal his dangerous activities. In February 1948, he was recruited to serve in the “Kiryati” Brigade and participated in operations against the rioters in Tel Arish, Salameh and Yazur, and was one of the first intruders to take part in the occupation of the Zrifin camp and in the other battles and operations in the Judean Lowlands.
On the night before the first truce, after returning from a short vacation in Tel Aviv, Yosef left the Zrifin camp to participate in the battle. The commander of the squad was injured and Yosef went to his aid. He saw that he was killed and at the same time Yosef was also wounded in the shoulder. He bandaged his wound and wanted to continue fighting, but then Yosef was hit by a bullet in the head. He requested of his friends that they leave him and continue the battle, and that if he dies, they should say his goodbye to his mother and his friends.Yosef died on the 4th of Sivan, June 11, 1948. He was laid to rest at the Nahalat Yitzhak Military Cemetery.