Tantzman, Michael

Born in 1927 in the city of Brezno, Poland, he studied in an elementary school. As a young man, he was circumcised by his father and his mother was murdered by the Nazis. The orphan boy managed to escape from the ghetto at Brezno on the day of slaughter, and joined the partisans in the forests of Volhynia until the arrival of the Soviets. He was drafted into the Soviet Army and served in the secret police. Until the end of the war, he found his way back to Poland, and from there to Germany on the “escape route.” In the Leipheim camp in Germany, he served as a policeman in the Jewish police. Michael immigrated to Israel on the Latrun in 1947 and was deported by the British to Cyprus and released a few months later. When he came to Israel, he lived in Rehovot, but did not know any “civil” rest, and he did not continue his military tradition, and in December 1947 he joined the army and served in the Givati ​​Brigade. Among other things, he participated in the conquest of Qubayba, Yavne, and Aqir. In preparation for the resumption of the fighting at the end of the first truce, the “An-Peer” operation was planned to break through the Negev. However, the Egyptians violated the truce and attacked it on the night of July 7-8, 1948, seized several outposts and disrupted the plan. As part of the operation, our forces attacked the night of July 8-9, and the Givati ​​forces occupied the Ibdis outpost, northeast of the Negev. In the following days, the Egyptians carried out repeated heavy attacks on the outpost and Givati ​​fighters, with stubborn defense, repulsed the attacks. In these battles, he fell on the 3rd of Tammuz 5707 (10.7.1948) and was brought to the eternal rest of the military cemetery in Beer Tuvia before taking him to the death pit. His mother called him and commanded him: “Michael fled, When he was wounded in his last battle, and his friends told him to take him to the hospital, he managed to read: “Mom, Mom!” – and died.