Weill, Gerard

Son of Hildegard and Otto (a champion of the Swiss army), was born on the 23rd of November 1942 in the city of Lausanne, Switzerland to a family with a tradition of generations in military service and was educated as a Swiss citizen, He was educated at the Polytechnic in Zurich and was trained as an engineer, and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers and, in accordance with the defensive trend of the Swiss Army, specialized in sabotage (mines and explosives) The Second World to the French Resistance in the border area and the smuggling of Jewish and Christian refugees from France to Switzerland The idea of ​​volunteering for the British Air Force and landing in the parachute for sabotage operations in Germany, however, dissuaded him from this, the Jewish Holocaust in Europe aroused his interest in the Jewish problem and his study of the Zionist solution and volunteered for the acquisition of the historic homeland for the Jewish people. This decision was especially influenced by the fact that the Jewish youth in Palestine were fighting underground methods for the liberation of their homeland, and in order to get to know the situation in the near future and to find their place and function, Participated as a guest member in the establishment of Kibbutz Gilad, helped with his technical knowledge and volunteered for every job as a regular member. He was then hired by the electric company in Haifa and there he came into contact with people from all walks of life. He traced the roots of actions and events in Israel and found the way to join the Haganah. But first he had to return to Switzerland for two months of two-year training. He used these two months to learn the latest methods of sabotage and acquire understanding and sympathy among the Christians for the Zionist cause. When he returned to Israel in December 1947, at the beginning of the War of Independence, he brought with him a detailed plan for acquiring information from enemy territory. The attitude of doubt and caution on the part of the Haganah’s Haganah leaders to his proposal depressed him, because he relied on Swiss fidelity with all his fervor and did not understand how to doubt it, but the head of the service encouraged him that if he did it as a private individual, As a Christian tourist he toured Transjordan, Syria and Lebanon, and when he returned three weeks later, bringing with him tremendous military value, he was accepted as an explosives instructor in the Palmach’s Yiftah Brigade in the Upper Galilee. The job fulfilled his ambitions in full. Six days after his appointment, on the 11th of Adar I 5708 (March 11, 1948), he was called to dismantle a mine that was found on the way from Ayelet Hashahar to Haltha, was killed in the explosion and was buried in Ayelet Hashahar.