Shapira, Eliezer

Son of Pnina and Mordechai, was born on 26.8.1926 in the city of Timisoara, Romania, to a religious family. Was the seventh son in the family. When he joined the school, he joined a Zionist youth movement and the whole family became Zionist. When the German army entered Romania he began to work in the sewing workshop to support the family, since his father and brothers were sent to forced labor. Together with his two brothers he planned an escape plan. He passed through Hungary and the border of Yugoslavia, but was caught on the way and arrested. When he was liberated, he sailed in 1947 on the illegal immigrant ship Knesset Israel. He sat in the Cyprus camps and later in Atlit until the British army left the country. At the outbreak of the War of Independence he joined the army, served in the “Kiryati” Brigade and participated in the battles of Beit-Nabala, Rosh Ha’ayin, Yehudiya, Kula, Qalqiliya and Migdal Tzedek. At the end of the battles, he underwent a symbol course. Eliezer fell in Ramle on the 28th of Tishrei 5709 (October 28, 1948). He was laid to rest in the military cemetery at Nahalat Yitzhak