Weiss, Aharon (Ari)

Son of Yaffe (Sheindil) and Moshe, was born on January 25, 1925 in the city of Irshva, in the Carpatho-Rus region, Czechoslovakia, to a religious Zionist family. In 1945, a few months before liberation, he managed to escape from the camp, posing as a Christian and living with an Austrian peasant in the vicinity of Graz. From his large family he and his two brothers remained, and they decided according to their father’s will to come to Eretz Israel, whatever the matter, and in Israel they met. On the 26th of Tevet 5708 (January 8, 1948) he was called upon to repair a Bren machine gun at one of the positions in the Green neighborhood and to help evacuate the apartments there. After he had fixed the machine gun, he left the post, and a bullet hit his heart and killed him on the spot. Aharon was the first victim of Poalei Agudat Israel during the War of Independence. He was laid to rest in the military cemetery at Nahalat Yitzhak.