Shiber, Menachem (Mandy)
Son of Hadassa and Yechezkel was born on April 3, 1923, to a Zionist family in the town of Dorna-Vatra, on the border between Romania and Galicia, where he studied at the home of his father the shochet and dreamed of immigrating to Israel. When the Nazis invaded, he set out on a journey. The family was deported to Transnistria, suffered hunger and deprivation, and his father and mother died there. Menachem and his sister managed to return from exile, broken and crushed, and in 1944 joined the Red Army, crossed the Ural Mountains and participated in the triumphal journey from Stalingrad to Berlin. In 1945 he was discharged from the army, came to Poland, joined the Zionist pioneering movement and received his training in the “Dror” kibbutz in Gliwice. When the kibbutz members moved to Germany, they sat in the camp among five thousand Jews, and Menahem was a member of the committee and a member of the kibbutz secretariat. On an illegal journey he reached Italy and from there he boarded 700 illegal immigrants aboard the United Nations ship, which reached Nahariya. In Israel he chose the pioneering path. At first he worked for Yagur for a while and later joined the core of the Cyprus exiles in the Givat Hashlosha farm. He loved work and nature and wanted to forget about his long-nightmare past. With the first conscription into the army, at the outbreak of the War of Independence he went to battle and was always on the front line of the front. He fought in the 7th Brigade in the fierce battles in the Latrun area and entered the first armored vehicle to Nazareth. He was kind to his men for his simplicity, sincerity and gentleness. Menahem did not tell much about his experiences in the battle and always dreamed about the victory that would come. He participated with his unit in the “Hiram” operation for the liberation of the Upper Galilee and fell on the 29th of Tishrei 5709 (October 29, 1948) in a battle with the “Rescue Army” of Quakji, during the conquest of Gush Halav. He was laid to rest at the military cemetery in Rosh Pina.
