Shmuel Pollak, who lost his own parents in the Shoah (Holocaust), chose to make Aliyah to Israel and fight in Israel’s War of Independence.
Many Holocaust survivors fought alongside the soldiers of the Yishuv (Mandate Palestine); indeed, some of them were dispatched to the frontline the moment they set foot in Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) and were assimilated straight into the various combat units - without adequate training or even knowing the rudiments of Hebrew.
Despite their initial trials and tribulations, their contribution to Israel’s victory in the war proved decisive. Unfortunately, many of them paid the ultimate price - and some of those who fell were the last survivors of their families.
Shmuel was also the last scion of his family. Facts about his life story only came to light during research conducted at the Zionist Central Archives by volunteers from the ‘Latet Panim’ (‘Giving a Face to the Fallen’) organization, after his dog-tag was discovered among the belongings bequeathed by one of his former comrades-in-arms.
Hannah, the youngest daughter in the Offenberg family, was resolved to make Aliyah to Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) and settle on a kibbutz.
She and her family escaped from Germany to Belgium, where they lived in hiding in an apartment throughout the war.
In 1946, at the age of 15, Hannah bid farewell to her parents to join her friends’ pioneering group, which sailed for Eretz Yisrael on one of the Ha’apalah (Illegal Immigration) ships, renamed “Hachayal Ha’ivri” (“The Hebrew Soldier”. ) The ship was stopped on the high seas by the British; however, after a short period of internment at the Atlit detention camp, she reached Kibbutz Be’erot Yitzhak in the western Negev, where she worked in the agricultural sector and resumed her studies.
Immediately after the establishment of the State of Israel, the kibbutz came under Egyptian attack and was forced to mount a defense. Hannah, who served as a medic and field radio operator, was killed on July 15, 1948, during the battle to stem the advance of the large Egyptian force.
Bella Papierowicz was one of the 811 ‘anonymous’ victims who fell in Israel’s wars, whose life stories, unfortunately, remain a blank page.
The mission of the ‘Latet Panim’ (‘Giving a Face to the Fallen’) organization, headed by Dorit Peri, is to uncover the stories of their lives and their bravery. The organization’s research team is seeking leads and scouring documents in repositories at all Israel’s major historical archives and, primarily, among those conserved at the Central Zionist Archives.
