Schwartz, Mordechai

Son of Leah and Jacob. Born in 1914 in the town of Komarni, Czechoslovakia, to a family of multi-children farmers, he was educated in the town of Dori Dorot and was known for his religious studies, first in Bratislava and later in Shirani. To help his father in the family farm, and immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1933. He joined the Hapoel Hamizrachi movement in Israel and moved to Bnei Brak, where he worked as a member of the Histadrut labor federation. To the ranks of the Haganah. “As his commander’s testimony at the time, he was” a courageous guy with a warm Lev. ” The order of the 1936 riots accepted the call of the national institutions to enlist in the Mandat police and was one of the first recruits after receiving approval from his commander in the Hagana. He first served in Haifa and in the summer of 1937 he was sent along with an Arab policeman to guard the High Commissioner’s vacation home in Atlit. At the same time, the Jewish National Fund approved a plot of land near Hadera to build a house. He was also about to get married but did not get to realize these plans. According to lists he found after a while, the Arab policeman, a member of the tent at the guard site, “Leumi fanatic” teased him and expressed his joy at the murder of Jews by Arabs. On September 2, 1937, he went to the settlement of Atlit to change books. That same day he received information about the murder of his two comrades in the pioneering training program in Bratislava. Added to this was the news of the murder of two Jews near Karkur on 29 August 1937 and one Jew near Jerusalem the next day. These reports severely affected Mordecai’s spirit. And when he returned to the tent he shot the Arab policeman while he was sleeping and killed him. Three days later he was arrested and then tried before the Serious Crimes Court. The national institutions provided him with a defense attorney, and with the family lawyer they adopted a line of defense according to which the defendant did not shoot the Arab policeman. However, the British judge did not accept their arguments and ruled that Schwartz was sentenced to death, which was later approved by the Court of Appeals. In London, Mordechai’s two brothers met with the British Colonial Secretary. The family also met with the Czech statesman, who was then an important member of the International Red Cross. In Israel Moshe Sharett turned from the Jewish Agency to the High Commissioner for pardon, but all the requests were in vain. On the 16th of Av, 1938, Mordecai was executed in Akko Prison, when Shema Yisrael was read on his lips. He was laid to rest at the Carmel Beach cemetery in Haifa. Before he died, he wrote: “Believe me, I am not sorry for what happened.” The God of Israel, examining hearts, knows how much this Arab should have been killed, he jumped with joy when he spoke about the dead in Karkur, boasted that he would kill all the children and women in Tel Aviv. To hear what he said and to take revenge for my brother who were killed that day, so would any Jew who would have heard this abuse by an Arab “