Schwartz, Chaim (Yudel)

Chaim (Yudel), son of Minna and Leon (Leib) Schwartz, was born on February 2, 1924 in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. During the Second World War, he was tortured in the extermination camps of the Germans. After the liberation he joined the Gordonia youth movement and immigrated to Israel with his friends in 1946. During the War of Independence he was drafted into the army, served in the Givati ​​Brigade and was among the defenders of Negba. One day before his death, he had been speaking with his friends in a bunker, guessing how many days of life were meant for each of them. Chaim said, “Do you know what I went through in Auschwitz? I’ve gone through dozens of battles and I am alive! I’m still alive, I’m still alive.” The next day, on the 3rd of Tammuz 5708 (10.7.1948), he fell during an Egyptian attack on the Ibadis outpost, was buried in Beer Tuvia, and left behind a wife and a child. On the 19th of Tammuz 5713 (July 2, 1953), Chaim’s remains were re-interred in the military cemetery in Haifa.