Neumann, Bernard (Barak)

The only son of Sophia and Zindel Hacohen was born on 28.2.1926 in Stary-Sambor, Poland. When he was six years old, he was circumcised by his father and was raised by his mother to love Israel and the Land of Israel. In his city, he completed 7 grades in an elementary school and studied Hebrew in private lessons. From his childhood he aspired to immigrate to Palestine. At the outbreak of World War II and after the Nazi invasion of Poland, he fled with his mother to Russia. Where he worked hard in agriculture, but accepted it with love, seeing it as training for Palestine. At the end of the war he returned from Russia to the city of Stettin, Poland, in 1946. He joined the kibbutz and with him moved to Germany. In Bergen-Belsen he studied electrical engineering in a technical school and served as a policeman in the Jewish police. He volunteered for the Hagana and immigrated to Israel on August 8, 1948. He spent five days alone with his mother in the immigrant home and left for Jerusalem. He immediately enlisted in the Israeli army and served in Company A in the “Moriah” battalion. Loved the country and wrote about it in letters with love and admiration. But only seven weeks lived in the land of his dreams. Bernard fell in a shooting battle in Jerusalem on 28 October 1948. He was buried in Sheikh Bader Aleph. During his funeral, his commander told his mother, who was “the best soldier in his company.” On the 17th of Elul 5706 (August 30, 1950) he was transferred to the eternal rest of the military cemetery at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.