By COLlive reporter
An email that was sent this week to Rabbi Eliezer Gurary, Chabad Shliach in Krakow, Poland, has led him to visit the local military cemetery, Haaretz journalist Ofer Aderet reports.
There, Rabbi Gurary commemorate the yartzeit of Naftali Penishel, a Jewish warrior, an Israeli who had a tragic story.
Penishel was born in 1899 in Krakow, Poland, to his parents Leibush and Rachel. He completed his studies at a high school in Tarnow.
He was conscripted into the Polish army but refused to serve in that army. He threw away his weapon and was subsequently arrested and sentenced to death.
He managed to escape from Poland and reach the border with Germany. In 1934, he immigrated to the land of Israel. He lived in Herzliya and worked in agriculture and construction.
During World War II, he enlisted in the British Army and was assigned to Platoon 608 of the Royal Engineers. He served in the Western Desert – in Marsa Matruh, Sollum, and Tobruk.
From there, he was transferred to Greece along with the British expeditionary force intended to stop the German Nazis from invading the country. In late April 1941, the force surrendered to the Germans, and most of its men fell into captivity. Naftali was among them.
He spent about four years in German captivity. After his release on the 25th of Adar, 1945, he was killed in a railway accident in Poland and was brought to rest in the British military cemetery in Krakow. He left behind a wife and daughter.
His tombstone had a Magen David on it, and it was the only Jewish grave in the cemetery. Perhaps for the first time in many years, his yartzeit was observed with a prayer being said for his soul.
Perhaps a mitzvah like this will be what takes to tip the scale & bring משיח.