Vashdi, Shimon

Son of Batya and Yehuda. Was born in Jerusalem as the youngest son of a family of three sons and a daughter. The father of the family immigrated to Israel in the 1880s. He settled in Jerusalem, abandoned the selection of perfumery in which he worked in his native country and did odd jobs. After a while he brought his family over, Shimon with them. Shimon is famous among all those who come into contact with him as one who absorbs love of people and love of the land. At the beginning of World War II, he enlisted in the British army and was assigned to the 608th Pioneer Corps. He first served in Egypt and then in the Western Desert, in Marsa Matruch and in Tobruk. In March 1941 he was sent to Greece with the British Expeditionary Force to stop the German invasion of this country. On the retreat of the corps, on 25 Nisan, April 22, 1941, he fell in the line of duty. His burial place is unknown. His name was immortalized in the book “Yizkor” of the Jabotinsky Institute, in the “Book of the Year of the Journalists” and in the book “The Volunteer Book.”