Rosenthal, Albert

Albert, son of Genia and Yehuda Aryeh, was born on 15 July 1925 in Ozerow, Poland. He began to attend elementary school and was like all children – cheerful, playful and carefree, but not for long. After seven years of study, including a member of the Jewish youth movement “Youngborn”. World War II broke out. He stopped his studies and began to suffer from hunger and suffering, and at the age of fifteen he was caught by the Nazis and imprisoned in a concentration camp. For five years the brave boy had moved from one concentration camp to another – Riga, Stutthaus, and Bergen Belsen – had experienced all the horrors of the war and stood there. He had no youth, for he soon grew up in the shadow of the Nazi atrocities. He was isolated from camp to camp and from state to state and fought for his existence and to preserve his image as a person, despite the terrible suffering. When the war ended Albert was released and with his courage and strong and determined personality decided to rebuild his life on his own. He went to France and studied there for five years at the Alliance School, and even graduated as a certified electronic writer. In 1948, Albert immigrated to Israel and immediately joined the Israel Defense Forces. Two years of fighting in the Negev Brigade and as a man who stood at the horrors of the Holocaust in Europe, was fearless. He bravely fought for the liberation of his homeland and risked his life for his comrades. After his discharge from the military service, he married Nechama and together they established a home in Israel. Albert worked tirelessly to support his family with dignity and to give her what he had missed as a child and as a youth. He was a loyal husband and devoted and loving father to his three children, who read about the names of his parents and brothers who perished in the Holocaust. Despite all that he had gone through, he remained a cheerful, sociable man who loved to spend himself and at every party the living spirit and excelled in his sense of humor and love of dance. He had a heart of gold, and came to the aid of anyone who asked for his help and was very fond of his many friends and acquaintances. Albert fought in all of Israel’s wars – the War of Independence, the Sinai Campaign, the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War – and in all of them he excelled with courage and bravery. During periods when Arab terrorists operated throughout the country, he worked as an independent in the service of the Defense Ministry and often performed his work under fire and with mental danger, but he was not afraid. When the Yom Kippur War broke out, Albert was drafted and together with his unit he took part in defending the country. On November 9, 1973, he died at the time of his service and was put to rest at the military cemetery in Kiryat Shaul. He left behind a wife, two sons, a daughter and a sister. After his death he was promoted to corporal.