Steinberger, Mordechai

Son of Fanny and Chaim, was born in 1927 in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. He graduated from the “Torat Emet” ultra-Orthodox school in Budapest and continued to study Torah in various yeshivas in Hungary. When the Germans took control of Hungary, his father and younger brother were murdered by the Nazis and he was kidnapped and sent to a concentration camp in Hungary and from there transferred to Germany. In 1945 he was liberated by the Allied armies that came to Germany, returned to Budapest and found his mother, grandmother and older brother, who thought him among the victims. Mordechai joined the Poalei Agudat Israel organization and despite his young age worked for the Histadrut secretariat in Budapest. Together with other friends he began to organize the “Bricha” operations, first to Germany, and from there to Palestine. At the beginning of 1946, he joined a group of illegal immigrants who had passed through Italy and boarded the illegal immigrant ship “23 Yordei Ha-Sira” in order to reach Eretz Israel “to enjoy the land of Israel.” After his six-month stay in Cyprus, he was allowed to immigrate to Israel, and during his stay in Italy, he also organized lessons in Hebrew and Bible studies. He was loved and loved by all his friends and acquaintances. Even in the most dismal of situations, he was full of joy and knowledge to please his friends. He had difficulty in arranging his work and did not complain about the days when he was starving. Mordechai lived in a youth center of the “Geula” association in Petach Tikvah and was the only one of all the youth who joined the Palmach and took part in the Palmach’s 1st Battalion, Yiftach “took part in the fighting in the Latrun area, and with the resumption of hostilities after the first truce, the brigade participated in the” Dani “operation. On July 17-18, 1948, towards the beginning of the second truce, the” Haemek “battalion seized Shilat and an outpost in the eastern part of the Korikor ridge To threaten the wing of the legion in Latrun, and in the morning it became clear that the Legion force was holding the western part of the ridge, In two directions, with the help of armored vehicles, and it was forced to retreat.In the difficult retreat in an open area under crossfire, many of the fighters fell, and on that day, on the 11th of Tammuz 5708 (18.7.1948) Was brought to rest, with his comrades in battle, in a grave in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.