Reznik, Elimelech (Mila, Meilech)

Son of Hanna and Naftali Yehuda. He was born on March 26, 1918, in Parlitza, in Sarabia. He was educated in a traditional Jewish and Zionist home and his Zionist activities began when he was a student at the Gymnasium in Kishinev. He was one of the founders of the Hanoar Hazioni branch in Kishinev and one of the founders of the first Zionist pioneering training branch of Hehalutz Haklal Zioni in one of the vineyards around this city. In 1936, he completed his training and immigrated to Eretz Israel as a pioneer and then his five brothers and sisters immigrated to Israel. His parents and one of his sisters perished in the Holocaust. Elimelech joined Kibbutz Ein HaGalil in Yavne’el, where he spent two years and left him because he did not find a sufficient way to live in it, but remained loyal and connected to the Galilee. He moved to Migdal HaGlilit, where he worked as a guard and agricultural laborer and later joined the police. At the same time, the construction of the “Northern Fence” began to prevent infiltration. Elimelech volunteered for the operation and was assigned as a water tanker on their way from the springs in Kadesh and Meron to the workers’ camps in the fence. The water supply to the camps was one of the most difficult and dangerous ones, and Elimelech “always sat on top of the water tank, his rifle in his hand, and he watched the distance.” On June 24, 1938, the transporters brought water from the spring in Meron. 16 kilometers from the camp, and the road passed by the Arab villages of Jish (Gush Halav) and the Safsufa (Massif). In the second journey, the men left armed, unaccompanied by the armored vehicle and only two cars, and after they had pumped the water and the armored vehicle did not arrive, they decided to return by themselves on the road, 800 meters from the main road. They were ambushed and Elimelech was hit in both legs. His artery was severed and he bled to death. As was written in the book “The Fugitives in the North”, “he managed to answer with one shot, and about twenty minutes we lay in the fire until the armored cars came in. The attackers retreated and put three bodies in the place. Elimelech’s body was transferred back to the camp and the next day to the tower, where he was buried. His life was a life legend of a young Jew who yearned for beauty and goodness, and here came the murderer and stopped the wick.”