According to Halachaic law, burial within walled cities, especially in the Holy
City Jerusalem, is forbidden. But when the continuous battle for Jerusalem in the
War of Independence began, from the 13th to the 28th of May 1948, it became impossible
to move casualties from the basement of the Misgav Le-Dach hospital outside of the
city confines for burial. Several days passed, and the number of casualties increased.
A special burial permit was requested from the rabbis for temporary burial inside
the Quarter. Permission was granted, and a small courtyard next to the defender’s
headquarters became the burial site. Several volunteers prepared the grave, and
the funerals began.
In the first stage, on the 21st of May, 1948, 23 casualties were buried in a communal
grave. Five days later the scene was reenacted when an additional 11 casualties
were laid to rest. The next day, Thursday, the last day of terrible fighting, 4
more defenders fell. Their bodies were placed in one of the rooms of Batei Mahse,
which had become a temporary hospital. When the evacuation of the sick to the Armenian
monastery began on Friday afternoon, the rooms with the casualties caught fire and
it was impossible to get the bodies out. Some time later their remains were interred
with the other casualties, so that in total, 48 defenders and residents of the Quarter
were buried here.
Immediately after the reunification of Jerusalem, the burial site was identified
and the grave was revealed by the military rabbinical authorities. The bodies were
moved to a permanent grave on the Mount of Olives, and were reburied on the 4th
of August 1967 in a large communal grave overlooking the Quarter they had defended
so valiantly.
All of the casualties were posthumously inducted into the IDF, and the IDF symbol
and their military ID number were engraved on their tombstone. The age of most of
the casualties ranged from 18 to 25, but some were older and younger. You cannot
turn your gaze from some of the gravestones: Yaffa Harush, 16, Moshe Mizrahi, 17,
Privaye Nissim Gini, aged 10. A communications runner on that final day, he was
the youngest casualty of the war of 1948.
