I arrived in Palestine in September 1945 with the underground assisted by the Jewish Brigade.
Crossing the Alps from Austria to Italy, we embarked from Bari on a fishing boat with 173 youngsters. Sailing on the choppy Mediterranean for 13 days, we finally reached the shores of Netanya-Hadera undetected by the British blockade.
It was a stormy period, with killings of British soldiers in Tel Aviv. The British imposed martial law –penalizing the Jewish leadership, who refused to help find the guerrillas.
I moved to Haifa in 1947, where I worked for the custom house as an agent for my uncle. Due to the nature of my job, I had accessibility to the Haifa port and witnessed a historic event on July 1947, the arrival of the ship Exodus with Holocaust survivors. The British sent the Jews back to Germany.
In November 1947, the United Nations voted for the partition. Arab violence erupted in the British refinery, killing 37 Jewish workers. I witnessed the victims being brought out on a flat bed, while blood was still dripping. Joining the Haganah, my first job was to defend an isolated house — sleeping with my clothing along with my tommy gun.
On May 15, 1948, an independent Jewish state came into existence, after a 2000-year dream and I joined the Israeli armed forces, My fighting unit of the Golani Brigade served on the northern front. On Feb. 15 this year, we had a special reunion at Veterans House in Tel Aviv.