January 26, 1945
Abba Berdichev Is Executed
Historical context
On this day, January 26, 1945, the Nazis murdered Yishuv paratrooper Abba Berdichev at Mauthausen after capturing him in Slovakia.
Archive record
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- Date
- January 26, 1945
- Verified sources
- 1
- Archive threads
- 7
On this day, German authorities murdered Abba Berdichev at the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. Berdichev, born in Galați, Romania, had reached Mandatory Palestine as an illegal immigrant and later volunteered for a British-sponsored Yishuv paratroop mission into occupied Europe.
On 15 March 1944 he parachuted into Yugoslavia with Hannah Szenes, Reuven Dafni, and Yonah Rosen. He did not reach Romania, the intended field of the mission, and later went to Slovakia during the Slovak National Uprising. After fighting in the mountains he was captured, transferred to Mauthausen in December 1944, and tortured. Yad Vashem dates the murder to 26 January 1945. He is commemorated on Mount Herzl.
Research trail
Sources and further reading
- Paratroopers from Eretz Israel in Mandatory Palestine, October 1944 · Yad Vashem · This Month in Holocaust History View source
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