Pilshus, Benjamin (Bernard, Bolek, Benny)

Son of Sabina and Marcus, was born on October 28, 1926, in the resort town of Zakopane, Poland, and as a boy he was spared the horrors of the war, and until the last minute he knew that only his father had survived, In 1942 he managed to move to Romania, where he was also cared for by a Christian family, and when he learned of the existence of a training group he joined her and on July 18, 1944, And spent a few months with the group in the agricultural educational institution in Magdiel, where in December 1944 he volunteered for the Jewish Brigade and managed to participate in the war in Europe at Amalek Hanatz And avenge his family. After his release, he settled in Haifa, studied the work of paving Buildings and worked in this profession in the city and around. He joined the Palmach and participated in the underground. At the beginning of the War of Independence he broke up with his fiancee and took up service. He was sent to a squad commanders’ course but was not given a rank because he did not seem to be able to bear the practical responsibility of the job, but the great need for the commanders placed him at the head of a class, and in operations he proved to be most talented in turning the Palmach’s ” To the soldiers fighting and caring for them as a brother and a father, and not deterred from any task. He participated in all activities of the Fifth Battalion of the Palmach, the Harel Brigade, the Jerusalem area (the bombing of the bridge on the Jericho road, the operation of Nahshon, Augusta Victoria, Sheikh Jarrah, the Radar, Sha’ar Hagai, Latrun). At the head of the class, and on retreats, on the way back from work, the rearguard was the end of the class and the assistant to the weak, and in his example he had prepared his men to bear hardship and to carry out daring and successful missions, and he had ignored the pain of both feet , Until he went on vacation with his battalion to Tzrifin on the night of the first truce, where he was killed in an accident during training hours on the 29th of June 1948. He was brought to rest at the Nachlat Yitzhak military cemetery, where his father arrived in Israel a year after his death.