Zilka, Rachamim

Son of Haviva and David, was born in April 1929 in Jerusalem. He studied at Tachkemoni. He joined the “Hanoar Haoved” Histadrut and went to agricultural training in Nahalal. From there he moved to the Palmach and went to a training program in Givat Brenner, and after the “Black Sabbath” (29.6.1946) he was taken with other members of the Palmach to a detention camp in Rafah. He was always a playful and cheerful child, and in the camp they loved him too. The split between the fighters according to their organization, even though they were one enemy, guided his rest and after his liberation he was agitated by all British oppression and quarrels among the Hebrew fighting youth. He joined the Lehi underground. He took part in his organization’s activities against Arabs and British alike. And when official advice was given to the Jews of Romema to leave the neighborhood with no chance of defending it, he influenced his parents to join the few families who remained in the neighborhood and even taught his mother to use weapons. He took part in a Lehi activity to incite the Arabs from the neighborhood and fortify the western entrance of the city by an Israeli force, and in a clash with British armored vehicles he fell near Givat Shaul on April 21, 1948. He was buried in Sanhedria in Jerusalem. (26.9.1951) was transferred to eternal rest in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.