WORLD MACHAL - Volunteers from overseas in the Israel Defense Forces

Freddy Pfeffer

Freddy PfefferThe son of Lina and Chaim, Freddy was born on September 19th 1929 in Kassel, Germany.  He spent his youth in the hells of the concentration camps.  After being freed from the camps he went with his family to live in England, and it was there that he decided to volunteer to assist the State of Israel.  

He enlisted in the Palmach and joined the Negev Brigade unit known as the “French Commandos,” many of whose fighters were veterans of the French resistance against the German occupation in World War II.  The rest of the fighters were mostly from North African and other countries.  Commanding the seventy- or eighty-man unit was a devout Catholic who believed in the Zionist ideal and came to Israel to help the people in their war of survival.

The Palmach gave the unit its name as it was seen to be something distinct and different, mainly because of their battle-dress which consisted of spotted camouflage outfits, crepe shoes, and commando knives in their belts.

The unit participated in the capture of Beersheba, “Operation Yoav.”  In “Operation Horev,” the campaign to liberate the Negev, the unit was sent to capture the enemy stronghold Yud-Gimmel to the west of the Bir-E-Tamile.   They were spotted by enemy sentries, and attacked by a numerically superior and better-equipped force.

Freddy fell in battle on December 26th 1948, together with many comrades.  He was laid to rest in the cemetery at Kibbutz Revivim.

His name is inscribed in the Book of the Torah commemorating the fallen of the War of Independence.

Translated from the Yizkor Web site