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A mystery that never ends: the volunteers who locate victims whose burial place is unknown | Israel today

2023-02-24T14:15:11.120Z


530 names are written on the wall of the IDF martyrs whose burial place is unknown, many of them were buried as unknown or with wrong names, and since then it seems as if their traces have been lost • "Giving Faces to the Fallen" volunteers work as detectives who solve mysteries, and give the martyrs and their families the last honor • Soon the name of Zalman Clarice Keller, whose historical investigation found his grave in Herzliya • They found Gabriel Zion's grave in Holland, and moved his granddaughter Ronit: "I didn't know him, but I'm proud of him even 77 years after he was killed"


In the Garden of the Missing on Mount Herzl there is a wall with 530 names of the martyrs of the Israel Defense Forces whose place of burial is unknown, among them a soldier named Zalman Clarice Keller.

In preparation for the commemoration of those martyrs, which will take place this week on the 7th of Adar, the day of Moses' death, Zalman's name will soon be removed, thanks to a group of volunteers who uncovered his burial place and even revealed his real name - Zalman Clear.

"In fact, the State of Israel 'invented' a soldier," says Dorit Perry, founder and director of the organization "Let's Face the Fallen", which has taken it upon itself to commemorate forgotten victims and victims who fell before the establishment of the state and whose details are missing.

Over the past decade, Perry and her friends have uncovered and completed the stories of more than 270 of the 963 victims whose details and photos were missing from the Yazkor website, and sometimes also about their tombstones.

For a few of them, like Zalman Kleer, it was not known at all where they were buried.

According to the Ministry of Defense's "Yizkor" website, Clear was born in Lithuania in 1908, immigrated to Israel in 1938, lived in Petah Tikva and worked in the metal industry.

During World War II, he enlisted in the 1039 Port Operations Company of the Corps of Engineers in the British Army, and in May 1944, while stationed at Be'er Jacob, he fell into a pool and was killed.

At his death, it is written, he left behind a son.

His picture does not appear on the website and, as mentioned, his name is also inaccurate, a detail that led to the fact that to this day, at least officially, his burial place is unknown and his name is engraved on the wall of the missing.

"As in many cases," explains Doron Leitner, a researcher and volunteer at the organization, "also in the case of Zalman, I was exposed to the fact that his details were missing on the Yizkor website, so I started looking for more details about him in order to complete his commemoration."

Researcher Doron Leitner and the organization's founder Dorit Perry.

More than 270 stories were revealed, photo: Oren Ben Hakon

Leitner's search for the life story of the spaceman who fell 79 years ago began almost five years ago.

But what began as a routine clarification of facts and a few pictures soon turned into a much bigger mystery.

"I conducted extensive checks that included a search of British press and historical Jewish press websites, and I found no news about the death of a soldier named Zalman Clarice Keller," he says.

"In our work, the name of the space is the first anchor for the search. When the name was not known and clear, I moved to the second anchor, which is the date of the fall. I found news about a Jewish soldier who was killed on the same date and under similar circumstances, but in some of the news he appeared under one name and in others a similar but different name was mentioned." .

Leitner reached a dead end, and could not decide on the correct name of the space he was investigating.

That is why he decided to seek the help of his fellow volunteers who specialize in genealogy - genealogical research.

"I turned to the Facebook group I set up called 'Who Knows, Who Knows' for help. Several people like Neely Goldman and Atalia Buskila, who also volunteer at the organization as researchers, came to my aid. We collected all the scraps of information we had, and finally, after cross-checking several news items in the press, the date and cause of death , and searching the databases of the British Army, we realized that the name that appears on the website will be remembered incorrectly."

who is the father

The discovery of the correct name, Zalman Clear, led to the revelation of new details about him.

It turned out that he married a woman named Hana Raiza, worked as an electrician and was killed in a fall from a height of 45 meters.

This discovery also led to a flash of thought, that it might be possible to reach a solution to a much bigger mystery - revealing his burial place.

"We started searching in databases, such as that of the British Army and cemeteries in Israel and around the world, this time with the correct name. We discovered that in the cemetery in Herzliya there is a tombstone with the name Zalman Kleer engraved on it. The problem was that on the tombstone it was written that his father's name was Menachem, although in the various records and on the website it was remembered It is written that his father's name was Yosef."

The new discovery raised doubts in Leitner and his friends as to the identity of the buried person they found, so they were required to do further and in-depth research into Zalman's family tree.

"We searched in historical records of Jewish communities in the world, and we found out that he had several brothers whose father's name was indeed Yosef, and that is what was also written on their tombstones.

"One of the brothers also immigrated to Israel and was buried here. For us, this confirmed the fact that finally, after almost 80 years, we found the grave of Zalman Kleer, whose burial place was unknown to the state until today."

After realizing that they have all the necessary proofs and documents, Perry and Leitner recently contacted the Ministry of Defense with the new details and findings they discovered, so that it would update what was written on the Yazkor website, and also remove his name from the wall of the missing.

Zalman Kleer and his late wife Hana, photo: State Archives

At the same time, an initial appeal was made to Zalman's family members, and soon they are expected to meet with them to connect them to the Ministry of Defense and to complete the commemoration of the father of the family in an official and complete manner.

Worldwide search

Zalman Clear is the tenth space that the volunteers of "Let's Face the Fallen" have uncovered his burial place during the decade since the organization was founded by Perry and her partner Uri Sagi.

Until a few years ago, Perry, a social worker and city planner from Jerusalem, had no background in space research.

"Every year," she says, "I used to go up to Mount Herzl on Remembrance Day, to identify myself with the list of graves I knew - a guide in Bnei Akiva, a close neighbor, etc. In 2010, like every year, I debated which grave to stand at during the siren. Finally I decided to stand in the plot Martyrs of 2018.

I stood near the graves of martyrs from the Battle of Jenin in 1948, and I was struck by one empty tombstone that, apart from the name Yosef Lahanna, had nothing written on it."

When Perry returned to her home, she immediately entered the Yazkor website to find out more details about the soldier she did not know, "The page was blank. Without the names of his parents, without the date of his immigration to Israel, without anything. I was very angry. I did not understand why the State of Israel does not complete the information about a soldier who sacrificed his soul and fell for it."

Perry decided to visit Lachana's grave on Memorial Day, which took place a few weeks later, and there she met Uri Sagi, who would later become her co-founder of the organization.

"Uri came to the mass grave because of the connection he made to the battle in Jenin at the Magen Wall where he lost a close friend. We started talking about a historical book that he and his friends had published about Jenin and we decided together to reveal Lahana's story.

"We are neither historians nor researchers. Uri is a strategic consultant, and I did not like the history classes at school at all, but it was important to us, and together we managed within a year, through a worldwide study that included Greece, France, the USA and, of course, Israel, to complete the story of Lahanna's life and forward the findings to the Ministry of Defense, which will update the details."

Gabriel Zion's burial place, photo: Billiongraves

When Perry and Saghi met the Ministry of Defense personnel, they asked them how many unknown spaces, such as the one whose story was now revealed, existed.

"We were amazed when they said that there are 963 unknown soldiers, those for whom details or a picture are missing, and in fact they are faceless victims. So on the 7th of Adar 2013, we gathered, a small group of volunteers, and held the first meeting to establish the organization."

Today the organization has 83 volunteers, among whom are researchers navigating the digital and written archives, locating information and documents and also building genealogies.

The organization is fed by donations, and according to Perry, it is in close contact with the Ministry of Defense and receives assistance and support from it when necessary.

"We work exclusively on cases and stories of martyrs who fell before the establishment of the state," she emphasizes, "those who fell after 1948 are handled by the state, as well as those whose burial place is unknown, which are dealt with by the IDF's missing persons unit. But About the martyrs of the Guard organization, for example, or about the fallen of the Hebrew battalions and the Jewish martyrs in the British army, sometimes there is almost no information - and this is where we come into the picture. We do something unusual and are really experts in the matter. Even the Ethan unit sometimes turns to us for help in locating information or sons Family".

An accident in the Netherlands

Leitner (50), who lives in Jerusalem and works in security, volunteered for the organization almost as soon as it was founded.

"I met Dorit a little more than a decade ago around the time of deciphering the first story. I have always been a fan of historical mysteries, so I decided to volunteer and research stories of spaces in order to bring about their commemoration in the most complete and appropriate way. I love the challenge of the search and the feeling of the invention, and of course the updating of the family members. This is definitely Worthy and worth the effort."

Since the organization was established, the stories of more than 270 fallen have been completed.

"Sometimes research takes a year, sometimes three years and sometimes it will never end," notes Perry.

Out of the total number of those who fell before 578, the burial place of 150 is unknown, or exists but is not known exactly where, like the story of the late Gabriel Zion, whose family members were given an emotional closure.

"When I came across Gabriel's page," says Leitner, "I saw that besides the photo and the details, it was stated that he is buried abroad, but the place itself is unknown.

On the website it was written that he enlisted in the Corps of Engineers of the British Army, so I researched a little about the story of the unit, I read through old articles from that time, until I found the details about the story of his fall - a car accident."

Since the British documented all their soldiers and even photographed their gravestones, he quickly discovered that Zion was buried in the Netherlands.

"At first I didn't find him in the records, but when I realized that the British wrote his name SION and not ZION, I focused my searches on that name, and from there it was a short way to find that he is buried in Arnhem in the Netherlands."

The tombstone of Zalman Kleer in the cemetery in Herzliya, photo: Billiongraves

In the next step, Leitner began to look for his family members in Ilanot, to ask them for details and a photo.

"On the Yazmor website it is written, to this day, that he left behind a wife."

Following his search, he discovered that Zion also had a daughter, which led him to locate his grandchildren.

Then he also realized that for decades the family members did not know where their loved one was buried.

Zion's granddaughter, Ronit Klein, says that her mother and grandmother told her about the grandfather she did not know.

"They told me that he was killed in a car accident in the Netherlands, but they didn't know exactly where. My mother always wanted to visit her father's grave, but she didn't know where he was."

Zion was born in 1910 in Thessaloniki, Greece, immigrated to Israel in 1935 when he was married to Allegra and the father of 3-year-old Rebecca.

Together they lived on Sderot Har Zion in Tel Aviv.

"Grandpa was a carpenter," says Klein (62) from Rishon Lezion, "Grandma said he had a lot of personal charm and he was very loved. In 1943, he enlisted in the British army for Zionist considerations and livelihood, which at that time was difficult."

He served in the Corps of Engineers.

"He planted and dismantled bombs," says Ronit, "Grandma said he was one of the brave. His last visit happened around Purim, where he spent a few days with my grandmother and mother."

A few weeks later, in April 1946, he was run over to death by a truck at night.

"For my mother, it was a real hole in the heart. She remembered the day when she was informed that her father had been killed, and every year she lit a candle in his memory. She passed away nine years ago. I have no doubt that if she had been alive and received the news that her father's grave had been found , she was very excited and flew to visit his grave. Wow. I get chills just thinking about it."

As far as Perry is concerned, the story is not over yet.

Gabriel had another name, Menachem, which is still not updated on the Yazkor site, as well as the fact that when he died he also left behind a daughter - Ronit's mother.

"Beyond that, we are in the process of locating the names of Gabriel's parents, who are also not listed on the website. We plan to go to Greece to find the parents' names, which are currently not engraved on the tombstone either. The story needs to be completed."

The stories of the ten martyrs whose burial place was not known and was discovered by the organization, will be presented at a conference that will be held this Monday at the Begin Center in Jerusalem, to mark the tenth anniversary of its establishment, under the title: "Rescuing fighters from anonymity".

The conference will be attended by all the volunteers, the families of the martyrs and some of the 2008 fighters who helped solve one of the cases.

"The work of the organization is very important and blessed," says Ronit, "revealing the story of my grandfather's life and, of course, the discovery of his burial place, caused me and my brothers great excitement. Although I did not know my grandfather, this story ignited a sense of pride in me. I am also proud of him 77 years after he was killed."

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Source: israelhayom

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