Seidel, Moshe (Willi)

Son of Anna and Joseph. He was born in 1912 in Innsbruck, Austria. He was the only child of affluent parents, but was orphaned by his father when he was a year old and was adopted by his uncle, Adolf Neumann. He graduated from elementary school in Innsbruck and continued his studies in the city’s high school and commercial academy. During his studies, he toured Austria, worked in skiing and mountain climbing, and devoted much of his time to reading and listening to music. After completing his studies, he worked in the family factory, a liquor factory, and also devoted himself to sports in the “Power” association. He was known to be very sociable and acceptable to his friends. With the rise of anti-Semitism in Austria, Willi, in March 1938, went to Vienna and boarded the ship “Artemisia” which transported immigrants through Romania to Palestine. The ship’s journey of suffering lasted about six months and its traveling companions often told of Willy, who was among those who supported the weak and encouraged them to endure the hardships of the long journey. Willy arrived in Palestine in February 1939 and joined Kibbutz Hulda. In the kibbutz there was a truck transporting agricultural produce to Tel Aviv. On one of these journeys, on the 24th of Av (9.8.1939), the truck boarded a mine on the road between Ekron and Hulda. Willy was badly wounded and died a few hours later. He was laid to rest in the cemetery at Kibbutz Hulda.