Son of Eugene and Anna. He was born on the 13th of Nissan, April 19, 1932, in Breslau, Germany. When he was one and a half years old, his parents immigrated to Israel with him. Chanan grew up in Kiryat Bialik, and joined the Hashomer Hatzair movement in Kiryat Haim. He was active in the youth movement there, and completed his studies at the Kiryat Motzkin elementary school. At the age of fourteen, he went to Kibbutz Mizra, to study at the educational institution. He played basketball. He was active in the company, and found interest in agriculture. In the early years, when he was in Mizra, he worked in the vegetable garden. He stood out as a leader, and was one of the first to do anything, until his dying day. He was recruited to the Israel Defense Forces, in September 1951, and became a sports instructor in the Israel Air Force. When the paratroopers unit was founded, he volunteered to join it, until its disintegration, and the establishment of the Paratroopers Brigade. After his discharge from the army, he became involved in the development of agriculture. A few years later, he was forced to leave agriculture, to which he was very attached, and moved to the industry in the kibbutz. After his discharge from the army, he would occasionally go on reserve duty, and took an officer’s course, during which time he was promoted to the rank of major. He was fond of his subordinates and commanders. In the Six Day War, he joined the force that was about to break into the Old City. At first, his company was hit by heavy shelling, and Chanan was unusually resourceful in rescuing the wounded, and organizing the force to continue the battle. His subordinates saw him as a competent commander, and an admired man. He was sent to active reserve duty in February 1969, and this lasted until April 1, 1969. Motta Gur told the memorial service at the Shiva, that he had done great work in the Old City, during the conquest of Jerusalem, in first aid to the victims of the evacuation of the dead, and in the organization of a fighting force among the others. But in the midst of active reserve duty, on the 21st of Adar, March 11, 1969, Chanan fell in pursuit of sappers. He left a wife and three daughters, the youngest of whom was about a year and a quarter years old. He was brought to eternal rest in the cemetery in Mizra. Motta Gur added that when Chanan came before me, and said that he wanted to participate in the chase, no one could say to him: “You are not going out!” “You can not say this to a warrior like Chanan. This is beyond the authority of discipline, beyond the authority of procedure. On this matter, there was no room to argue with him, for he was not a regular company commander, but a paratrooper, a veteran fighter, and a veteran commander. In one thousand battles he participated, and succeeded, but in this battle he fell!” During Shiva, they wrote a newsletter “Dafei Mizra” dedicated to his memory.
