Willinger, Moshe

Moshe, son of Baruch, was born on December 12, 1928 in Czechoslovakia. On July 15, 1945, Moshe arrived in Israel as part of the Youth Aliya. He was educated at the “Mekor Chaim” institution in Jerusalem. After recovering from a lung disease from which he suffered, he learned electricity. Later, he joined the “Alumim” group of the Bnei Akiva religious youth movement. On August 15, 1948, members of the Legion in Sheikh Jarrah tried to break into the city. They bombed the entire front area with thousands of shells. One of the shells hit the telephone connecting the Mandelbaum House with the headquarters, and Moshe immediately volunteered to go out with another friend to fix the line. His friends tell of his last moments. “He walked upright, without a trace of fear, and smiled confidently.” Moshe and his friend managed to repair the torn line and began to return through the main road in Nahalat Yitzhak, where there was no shelter wall. His friend made his first pass and Moshe jumped after him, but in the middle of the road they got an Arab sniper’s bullet and he was hit in the stomach. Moshe was rushed to the Ziv hospital in critical condition, but there he died of his wounds. He was twenty years old. Moshe was buried on the day he fell in a grave in Sheikh Bader A. On the 17th of Elul 5710 (August 30, 1950) he was transferred to eternal rest in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. This hero is a “last scion”, a survivor of the Holocaust who was the last remnant of his nuclear family.