Pelech, Chanan
Son of Paula and Conrad. He was born on December 23, 1920 in Berlin, Germany. A second son to a well-established Jewish family, a younger brother to Gad, who is two and a half years older than him. In the early thirties his parents divorced and the boys stayed with their mother. Chanan was an active member of the Zionist youth movement. With the intensification of Nazi persecution, the mother sent her children one after the other with “Youth Aliyah” to Israel. In 1937, Chanan arrived at Kibbutz Kedma and his brother Gad in Kibbutz Matzuva. His mother managed to escape to England. The father perished in the Mauthausen concentration camp. In 1941, Hanan enlisted in the British Army and served in Company 468 in the Transportation Corps. His company saw many battles in Egypt and in the Anzio region of Italy. His brother Gad also served in the British army. Upon his release Hanan moved to live with his brother in Kiryat Bialik. He worked in a local garage and later at the refineries, where he and his brother were sent by the Hagana organization as part of the “occupation of labor.” In 1946 Chanan met Miriam and they married in August 1947. The couple lived in Miriam’s parents’ home in Kiryat Motzkin. Since Chanan worked in the oil refineries in the reserves, he was not in the compound when the massacre took place on the morning of December 30, 1947, by the Arabs of Balad a-Sheikh. The refineries were closed for a certain period, and Chanan worked in the building and evenings in the taxi company. On the evening of 8 January 1948, a taxi was ordered by a cable and electric cable company located at the end of the cI.PC road in the Haifa Bay, which was taken by Chanan, who was ordered by the Arab Legion guarding the oil tanks. He was shot at from a distance and was killed on the spot. He was buried at the Tzur Shalom cemetery in Kiryat Motzkin. He was survived by his wife, mother and brother, and after his fall, his family received the “Aleh” decoration (decorated with state fighters). Wife Miriam’s family were one of the founders of Kiryat Bialik. He is immortalized in main synagogue and in a memorial to its fallen soldiers erected in the city. He also appears in the book of the fallen
of Kiryat Bialik.
