Ops " Amsterdam " Slovakia / Dying for his Majesty the King / מבצע "אמסטרדם" או מוות מטעם הוד מלכותו

לזכרם של אבא ברדיטשוב והביווה רייק
In the memory of Lt.Abba Berdichev and Haviva Reik

יהורם גאון - איפה הן הבחורות ההן

Silk SOE flimsy escape chart C.Europe found on Ben Yaakov clothes

Special Duty Liberator B-24D ,RAF Airbase Fayida , Egypt 1944

Zvy Ben Yakov + (ldr) ( 1922 - 24.1.1945) allias "2Lt M.Jamay RCAF "

He was born as Heinrich Greenhut, son of Sarah and Jacob. His mother passed away when he was six. Until the age of 14, he studied sitting and then worked in a textile factory. At the same time, he joined a Zionist youth movement, first in Betar and later in "Azure White". Since adopting a Hebrew name - Zvi. At the age of 16 he went to pioneering training for immigration and a year later, in 1939, he immigrated to Israel.

In Israel, he was educated as part of the Youth Aliyah at Kibbutz Ashdot Yaakov and changed his surname to Ya'akov. He worked in the building industry and urged his hard-working friends to say, "The black job is what trains the young immigrant to know and conquer the land." Zvi was active in the youth company and initiated her departure for settlement as a maritime kibbutz. In the summer of 1941, when the Germans were in danger of an invasion of Israel, he was among the first volunteers for Company A of the Palmach. From the moment he entered the camp he was surrounded by friends, asked about every little thing, was interested in every detail, and after a very short time he was in the business .

There were nights when he was at home, sitting, talking and arguing until dawn, not knowing fatigue. " He worked in the port of Haifa and fishing and in the end of 1943 he married his girlfriend Michal. In early 1944 he volunteered to parachute in Europe, beyond the lines of the Nazi enemy. He was assigned to a mission in his native country, Slovakia, which was a loyal ally of Nazi Germany, to act in dual roles: on behalf of the British - intelligence and rescue Allied air crews who escaped from captivity or dropped from their damaged aircraft. And for the leadership of the community - saving Jews and organizing them for self-defense. Zvi Ben-Yaakov underwent preparatory courses for the Haganah and Palmach missions, a British parachute course in Ramat David and additional training in Egypt. The British army was renamed once again, Greenhut, and for the mission was given another identity - Michael Janai. , Such as Euro, Hanania, Uncle, Leadburn.

In Egypt, Zvi learned that his wife was pregnant and he wrote to her: "We are now looking forward to the big day when we will be blessed with a son or a daughter, where we will become parents of a sabra or a sabra." He did not know his daughter, Ripple. On the night of September 14 - 15, 1944, Raphael Rice and Chaim Hermesh were air dropped in Slovakia as part of Operation Amsterdam. The mission of the Jewish paratroopers mission was codenamed Operation Amsterdam. It was also the first dropping mission on insurgent Slovakia. They departed from Brindisi late at night on September 14, 1944 with OSS or SOE operated B-24's , and landed on ground at the first hour on September 15.The RAF pilots missed the target and instead,the paratroopers found themselves in the woods not far from the Turk Klačian. The three paratroopers walked for ten days in the mountains until they reached the town of Banska Bystrica, the center of the Slovak rebel enclave in their government.

For six days, they will break through the reefs of Mala Fatry to cross the Váh River near Turany on September 21st. The Jewish agents while seeking rescue in the mountain encountered partizans in the area.There they met Haviva Reich, who came before them and together they worked for a month and a half in the dual roles of British and Jewish: air crews rescued and organized the Jewish community. However, the Germans took control of the uprising and with the fall of the free enclave, the paratroopers set up a camp in the mountains, where several dozen young Jewish fighters gathered together and some of the community leaders. Zvy Ben Yaakov was the unit's undeclared commander.

Together with them they continue their journey and finally reached Banska Bystrica uprising center on 23 September. To their great surprise, Haviva Reik was already waiting for them who arrived by air. Haviva took the opportunity and joined six other OSS members deployed to Slovakia as an official US military mission with 483rd BG B-17 which departed Bari.

Ben Yaakov and wife , Reiss and Naomi , Palestine 1944

Ben Yaakov capture had absolutely nothing to do with Reik and Reiss capture and was awaiting his own fate while attempting death escape by pretending being a Canadian Officer . On December 7,1944 he was finally sent to Mauthausen Camp ,individually interrogated ,tortured by SS Johann Altfuldisch and murdered there on 24 January 1945 then cremated. His body was not found, but a memorial to the paratrooper of Zvi Ben-Ya'akov is found in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl, in the part of the seven paratroopers who fell in office during the Second World War. Is not really clear if he was really sent to Mauthausen or executed in Bratislava .

Ben Yaakov's last letter smuggled from prison to his wife date unknown :

I hope this letter will not be the last I write to you. At the same time, I hope he comes to you too. At the time of writing, I sit in the Banska-Bystrica prison cell and do not know what tomorrow will bring. In any case, I decided to write this letter to you so that in case I never come back you will never know and know our child who should be born in about a week or two, how I spent my last days and how my mission ended. I still have the hope that I will go through this period and come back to you, because there are chances, but slim. I want to tell you chronologically what was here, until we got where we were.

On the night of September 14/ 15 me, Chaim Hermes, Rafi Reiss, Chaim Kamacz were para dropped but not to the designated place but 64 Km off course into the German occupied territory.

We were immediately fired upon from machine guns, but none of us was hurt. Thanks to the dark we managed to get away and only two days later we found each other. For 6 days we walked through the mountains until we met three partisans and together we crossed the front line, the river Wag. The whole way was accompanied by shots and explossions. I write all this in the most vigorous way. I will not be able to add. Our goal was to get to Banska-Bistrica. We then advanced in the partisan territory along with the retreating companies to the Bistrika in a very difficult way.

But in Banska we lived here a beautiful life in terms of the reception, the hotel rooms, etc. In the mean time we met here with Haviva Reik and Berditchev who had flown from Bari .We began to work on Jewish matters, and there are no words in my mind to describe what encouragement we brought them, and not just encouragement, but also social assistance. But all that wasn't enough, because after a month or so the situation changed and everyone had to run to the mountains.

During the Slovak army retreat, the Germans occupied the entire Slovak territory. The four of us took care of the weapons and went out to the mountains with a group of explosive specialists .

The Czechoslovak army which also went out to pick up the entire disperser and today there are only small groups, in various places, still fighting. For a week we were in the mountains with cold, rain and fog, and every day it could snow, and on October 31 in the morning, at seven o'clock, a German unit attacked us with machine guns and grenades. (Left with Reik and Hermesh Cairo 1944)

The attack was sudden and the fog was so strong that we were not ready for it at all. Our group dispersed thanks to fog in all directions. An hour after the attack, I returned to the scene and found six people who had fallen. Among them was Egon Roth who has been the backbone of the Jewish pioneering movement here in recent years, and four people not from the movement: Pishta Trek, Lazo Wold, Sama and his wife. We also found two wounded at the scene.Their fate? - I don't know. We gathered six people and took what we could quickly take and had to pick up. The fog was very strong and from 20 to 15 meters we could not see anything.

We wanted to get to the east on the lower Tatras mountain range and join the partisans or army relics there. In the afternoon we heard voices from far and as we approached we noticed that they spoke Russian. Of course we went there. But it was a terrible mistake, because it became clear to us immediately that they were Ukrainians belonging to a German unit ( Edelweiss ). It was too late to retreat, because they were already saw us. They took everything from us (I had a Russian sub-machine gun and two guns) and so we were captured. They went to the place where they temporarily concentrated all the prisoners, and there I sadly realized that Rafi and Haviva were also captured. Their fate is unknown to me. Rafi was injured by a bullet in the shoulder during the attack and someone managed to help him.

The next morning, all the prisoners were taken to the nearest village, some 12 kilometers away. The weather became clear to our dismay, and it was impossible to escape. The meeting with the Germans was terrible. Their behavior is very rude. To say "brutality" - it is not enough, I do not find the right word for the correct phrase. Animals without any human emotions ...They asked us for our names, and found out immediately that Rafi was a Jew and that Habiba also said she was Jewish.

Seeing how they behave with Jewish soldiers of the English army, I decided to say that I was English and that I did not know any language other than English. Their behavior towards me was completely different. There was no significant difference between their attitude towards Rafi and Haviva and civil Jews they behaved to them terribly.

I was taken by car to another city and there they talked to me (the Germans) for about four hours, of course in English. For the first two hours we discussed political questions. Then they moved on to questions about my military work here. A lot of questions were asked, but I didn't answer any of them. They threatened me but also this didnt get them further . The next day they brought me to Banska-Bistrica, and here they took us to Gestapo.

Because they had no one in the place who could translate, I was imprisoned in a cell. The prison office needed a translator to talk to me and it happened that they brought Rafi Reiss. This is how I knew he was also here. After they took everything away from me except your picture and the wedding ring - which I in no way agreed to hand over, they locked me in the cell alone, and Rafi who was with Haviva and another sixty Jews in one room by the neighboring cell - two days later they also brought Rafi into my room together with the other Jews.

The prison guards are Slovak and only two German soldiers. Some Slovak guards are good people, but some of them are pro-German. We (Rafi and I) were on one floor with prisoner Slovak officers. Most of them helped us a lot in the early days when we had no food other than the prison kitchen. But after a while we could already order food from outside. On the other side of the prison were the Jews captured. Dozens of people, men, women and children lived in very small rooms. All together. Among them are my uncle, his wife and two little girls.

On November 20, Rafi and Haviva and another 250 Jews were taken. All their blankets were taken from them and the cold was great, by that time it was snowing. Gypsies were also taken in the same transport. I was told that they took Rafi and Haviva to Bratislava, but they didn't ...

The week before Rafi went, one French captain's was brought to my cell Sympathetic and intelligent guy. But he was also moved days after Rafi and Haviva went to Bratislava. With him went Lieutenant

Colonel Supracha, a Czech, who came here in the air from England. With these two people I made very close relationships and I think they can be of help to me.

After the French officer left, I was left here alone in the cell and made contacts with the Slovak officers. I'm sitting here for the sixth weeks speaking only English and appearing only English (if it "goes" so on I have every chance of coming to one of the prison camps). Only one person knows that I am a Jew from the country, this is a Slovak Christian guy who used to be a member of "Hashomer-Hatzair" here. His wife is Jewish. Highly qualified guy.

Through this I send you this letter too. He also knows English well and everyday we send each other long letters. We can get on the corridor freely throughout the day (I mean the officers). On the second floor above me is sitting in a cell without a heart window, one member of the movement, taken prisoner as a partisan. I'm afraid he'll also be sent as a kind rap and kind. I gave him money and gold so that he could escape. Every day I bring him something to eat and smoke, to all the guards I gave a bribe here and it obviously helps a lot.

Three days ago, an American officer (Francis Perry) joined me. I was happy to have a partner, with whom I could at least speak English. Attitude to us is usually not bad. We have money to buy everything, even drinks, that are prohibited here in prison. The women's ward keeper, she herself brought me a bottle of expensive drink. She fell in love with me and wants to show me her love in this way.

We have had enough food in recent weeks, and we (myself and the American) are distributing as much as possible to others who do not have so much. Today I found out that this American is Jewish too. He himself didn't tell me that. He knows I'm from the Palestine. Talking here that today or tomorrow will take us to Bratislava.

After a single transport of Jews went, some 250 Jews were brought here again, and will probably be sent in the next few days. And so it is in every city - large concentrations of Jews in prison and after a week or so two weeks came a new Tenersport. And it's hard for me to describe my feelings: sleepless nights, and sometimes I have the feeling I have no right to continue living, while all these people are being massacred. Only two things keep me alive. A) you and the child; B) I have to give everything I have seen here. The American who came three days ago told me that Abba Berdichev (Willis) is still in the mountains with another English officer (Jack Wilson). As I wrote above, I do not know the fate of Haim. I hope he held himself well in the mountains.

Here is a crate with pictures of three concentration camps that were in Slovakia from the days before the German occupation. The place is safe. The material is very important historically. I hope I can in some way send it to Israel. However, I would like to point out that Slovak Judaism has proven itself during these difficult years, with mutual assistance and with help from Jews from different countries. A lot of it did the pioneering movement, or rather the remnants of the pioneering movement. Orthodoxy also did great. For example, Rabbi Wismendel, a man with an enlightened degree. From the pioneering movement, Egon, Henzi and Weiz, made big moves, and all three of us were in the mountains. I don't know anything about the last two. But not only them, all the pioneers were active in helping.

At the time of writing, my fate was still in the fog. If they didn't discover my Jewishness, everything may be fine. Then I will come to some concentration camp and after a long time I will return home to you. But if it doesn't then my fate is sealed too. I am not afraid of death, because I did the account with him a long time ago, even before I took the job. If I ordered to die, I will quietly die, because I am nothing but a brother to many thousands who are my ancestors. I know it won't be easy for you. But time is a doctor, a good doctor. M., I don't know if we have a son or daughter ? In any case, I know that he is in good hands and loyalty. Next day he was executed by Gestapo.

Haviva Reik + ( Marta Reiková) "Ada Robinson " (1914–1944 ) Liason

In the 30's before immigrating to Israel

The mission, parachuting into Nazi-controlled territory, was highly secret and extremely dangerous; before the operation Reik told friends that she was not sure she would make it.

Still safe in a Kibbutz in Palestine (right )

An uprising was in progress at the time in her native Slovakia against the Axis-installed Hlinkova

Slovenská Ľudová Strana (Slovak People's Party of Hlinka; HSLS). Centered around the Banská Bystrica region, the revolt had begun in the spring of 1944, initiated by the Czech Agrarian party, part of the Social Democratic party, the Communist party, sectors of the Slovak nationalists, and army officers. In late December 1943 these groups had aligned with the Slovak National Council.

Egypt 1944

The uprising sought to overthrow the German collaborationist government and detach Slovakia from the There were armed underground Jewish cells in each of the three Slovak labor camps before the SNR was established. Early in 1944 they established contact with the SNR, and became part of the movement. The uprising was to coincide with Allied advances, particularly that of the Soviet Army. However, the Red Army held back. The partisans made considerable gains, and on August 28 the Nazis decided to occupy Slovakia and eliminate the uprising. Reik and the other members of her group received training in parachuting in Egypt and Haifa

The first time she was to jump from an airplane, she had an injured hand from earlier training, and her trainers were concerned it might not be strong enough to manage the
parachute; however she did make the jump with little
apparent concern. After their training, Reik and her
group were transported to Cairo to await departure for the mission. Left on the photos Haviva in Cairo 1944 prior
departure to Bari , Italy .

On the night of 14 September 1944, Rafi Reiss ,Zvi Ben-Yaakov and Haim Hermesh had to be parachuted into Slovakia; the jump was dubbed "Operation Amsterdam".Reik had planned to join the jump but British authorities refused to allow her to, they knew the Germans had copies of their standing orders prohibiting female soldiers to cross enemy lines, so they thought if she were captured she would almost certainly be executed as a spy rather than taken prisoner as a soldier. Haim Hermesh later remembered that Reik burst into tears and said, "what will become of me? We promised that all four of us would go together ! The three male parachutists landed safely and made their way in a few days to Banská Bystric and were surprised to find Reik already there waiting for them, working with the local Jews . Some 10 days after they had jumped,Reik had joined a group of American OSS and British SOE officers who were landing in Slovakia in what was called Operation Leadburn.

The Israeli archives claims that Reik flew with this B-24 crew from Bari to Banska ,info which I can not confirm ( this is a States side B-24 crew ) Sept.21,1944

letter addressed to mother in German language from Cairo

Letter from Banska to Palestine

At the end of the month, a fifth parachutist, Abba Berditchev ,joined them, bringing radio equipment. In Banská Bystrica, Haviva and the others engaged in relief and rescue activities. Reik helped organize various Jewish groups into a resistance, settling disputes among them and lending financial and other assistance. They also aimed to help Jews escape to Palestine. The group organized a soup kitchen and community centre for refugees, and facilitated the escape of Jewish children to Hungary and from there to Palestine. Through their connections with partisan and resistance groups, they helped rescue US 15th Air Force allied airmen who had been shot down. The Germans organized large numbers of soldiers to put down the Jewish resistance. Late in September 1944 the SS Obergruppenfuhrer Gottlob Berger,chief commander of the German forces, was replaced by the Obergruppenfuhrer of SS and the Polizeifuhrer SS, Hermann Hofle. They used Ukrainian Waffen SS troops, among them apparently Ivan Demjanjuk, to suppress the rebellion.

The prison where Reik, Reiss and Ben Yaakov were kept

The Prison 1944

After meeting other members of the Amsterdam group on September 24, 1944, she actively participated in intelligence activities for a month. Due to the worsening situation on the rebel fronts, the group decided on October 24, 1944 to move with Jewish paratroopers to the mountains above Pohronský Bukovec to set up a forest camp for persecuted Jews. However, on October 31, 1944 at 7:00 a.m., the camp was unexpectedly raided by a Slovak fascit commando unit. Although the majority of team members were scattered, almost all were arrested during the day, including three other members of the Amsterdam group Reiss , Zvy Ben Yaakov and Hermes.

SOE Radio code found in Haviva posessions

At the beginning, the Germans found that most of the prisoners were Jews and have brutally interrogated all of them, which also included Chaviva Reiková personally.

The next day, she was taken to the Banská Bystrica District Court prison and designated as a Jewish agent. According to files, she was released on November 20, 1944, along with of her personal clothing. In fact, she was murdered same day along with another 250 Jews in a tank ditch in Kremnička by Einsatzgruppe 14 (left) Hermann Hoeffle Einsatzgruppe. Ben Yaakov was kept in a separate cell in jail presumed as a RCAF officer which was due to be sent to Mauthausen ,

Kremnička massacre 20.11.1944

Tanks trenches in preparation of the Kremnička massacre by Slovak workers

Haviva Reik and Rafi Reiss were arrested and killed on 20 November 1944 in the village of Kremnička near Banská Bystrica, as part of the Kremnika massacre. Photos 1945

Her remains were found along with other victims of executions in Kremnicka during the exhumation mass graves in April 1945. The district national committee under number 5017/1945 informed the district register that "in mass graves near Kremnicka in April this year a woman was 20-30 years old, a taller, slender figure. She was wearing a military blouse and - pants, a blue knitted sweater with zip, a gray, dark, waterproof coat, yellow baguettes and black hair, two medallions on the neck with the inscription Robinson WAAF, JEW, W 2992503, the other with the same inscription and a green Hubertus the findings of the Exhumation Commission for Mass Murder to Suppress the Slovak National Uprising from November 5, 1944 to February 19, 1945 was shot and buried by the Germans.

Ludbid Latzo 1943

Ludbid Latzo (left ) CO of Einsatzkommando which murdered Reik and Reiss on trial 1952

Rafi Reiss +(LDR) (11.8.1914- 20.11.1944) allias Sgt.Stephen

Last visit in Haifa with Noemi and Daughter

Haim Hermeh and Reiss, Cairo 1944

He was born to his parents Helena (Miriam) and Abraham Rice and when he was five the family moved to the city of Nova Zamki, Slovakia, where his father died a year later. The mother supported her children in hard work and Rafi graduated high school. In 1932 he began to study medicine at the University of Bratislava. He also joined the Ben-Guria Zionist Student Union and later Maccabi Hatzair and was the activist of the Zionist movement in Slovakia.

He ran a youth camp preparatory camp, was in charge of a movement of graduates and served as secretary of the Yarba training group. In 1939 he immigrated to Israel on the "Hilda" vessel which was captured by the Brits and then was detained for six months in the Atlit prison camp Acco. Upon his release, he embarked on a year of training in the "Ayanot" agricultural institute and eventually joined a group of squads, later settled on Kibbutz Sde Nehemia. There he married his girlfriend Naomi and had a daughter named Edna. In December 1943, he was offered to parachute across Nazi enemy lines in occupied Europe and act in Hungary. After preparatory courses under the Haganah and the Palmach, he underwent a British paratrooping course in Ramat David and other training in Egypt.

RAF Fayida Reiss, Hermesh, Haviva, Ben Yaakov 1944

RAF Faida Air Base Egypt Summer 1943 (right seat)

His duties on behalf of the British MI-5 were intelligence and help rescue Allied crews who fell captive or parachuted from their damaged aircraft also rescue of Jews and help their self-defense organization.

In the summer of 1944, together with Haim Hermesh, he was parachuted in Yugoslavia, in the territory controlled by Tito's partisans. On the mission he received a new identity, Stephan Rice (different spelling) and cipher names: JORDAN, IVAN, CHALLOCK, KNOCK, RICE and more.

(left on the photo )

After the capture of Hannah Szenes, Joel Pelagi and Peretz Goldstein,the Brits decided Rice and Hermesh would enter Hungary through Slovakia and they were joined in the "Operation Amsterdam", along with Haviva Reich and Zvi Ben-Jacob.Rafi Rice was dropped on September 15, 1944 with Ben-Jacob and Hermes in the mountains of Slovakia. They walked for ten days in the mountains until they reached Banska Bystrica, the center of a Slovak rebel enclave in the central government that was an ally of Nazi Germany.
There they met Haviva Reich and worked together until Rice and Hermes came to Hungary. From the

mission he wrote: "If ever I doubted the value of this mission compared to the danger it entails, nowadays all these reflections have disappeared and have no recollection. You can understand what it means for these unfortunate ones, to see if anyone who came to them from security, from freedom "From the Land of Israel, and that - only for them and only for their help, to stay with them!

In Hotel, Cairo,1943

The belief and hope that our very appearance aroused within the interior of the desired Judaism are those who cover the dangers that this mission entails." At the end of October, the Germans suppressed the uprising in Slovakia. The paratroopers set up a camp in the mountains with several dozen young Jewish fighters and community leaders. After a sudden attack, Rafi Rice and Habibah were captured.

While being injured after a medical examination revealed his Jewishness. Despite the British uniform, the paratroopers were not treated like prisoners of war. After the incarceration, Rafi Rice and Haviva Reich were murdered by the Nazis and their Slovak aides on November 20, 1944, together with a group of Jews and partisans, and all were buried in a mass grave in Kremnicka.

Reiss’s daughter, Edna, who was a year old when her father was murdered, does not regret the anonymity. She knows that this was her father’s explicit wish. One of the items in the box of mementos is the last letter her father sent to her and her mother, Naomi. He wrote it on November 19, 1944, in a Slovakian jail, on the last night of his life. The letter was smuggled out of the prison by a partisan fighter and eventually reached Israel. On November 20, Reiss and Reik were put on a truck and driven to a mass grave, where they were shot.

Reiss’s daughter, Edna, who was a year old when her father was murdered, does not regret the anonymity. She knows that this was her father’s explicit wish. One of the items in the box of mementos is the last letter her father sent to her and her mother, Naomi. He wrote it on November 19, 1944, in a Slovakian jail, on the last night of his life. The letter was smuggled out of the prison by a partisan fighter and eventually reached Israel. On November 20, Reiss and Reik were put on a truck and driven to a mass grave, where they were shot.

“Dear Naomi, Edna, I have no idea whether this letter will reach you,” Reiss wrote. “Oh, how much I wish it will arrive. I want to part with both of you for all time. All the signs are that I have arrived, if not at the end of my goal, then at all events at the end of my life. It sounds so banal that I can’t help laughing. I have known clearly for quite some time that I will be shot, but still, it’s odd to be sitting here in prison knowing that this is the last evening of my life.” In the letter, which became his testament, Reiss requested that he not be made a hero after his death. “I am not in the least tired of life, but I have lived long enough for me to be able to part from you before my eternal rest. Please do not take this very tragically. Even though it is about me, you must understand it as though you are hearing about one of millions. It is pleasant for me to know that I will not disappear from the world without leaving traces behind. By that I mean Edna and your love for me.”

Prague 1952, memorial along with US and British reps.

In 1952, the seven paratroopers who fell as part of their mission in the Second World War mission were taken to burial in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl.

Lt.Haim Hermesh (Leader ) "Capt. Harry Morris "

Hermesh was born in Hungary in the city and their book is called Mihály Kaszás. Hermesh was among the leaders of the "Zionist youth" in Hungary and together with his wife Dina immigrated to Israel in 1940 on the illegal immigration ship "Libertad". Life was imprisoned by the British for illegal immigration to the Atlit Detention Camp for a full year. Left and beneath in training , Egypt 1944 .

Lt.Hermesh and Reik , Egypt 1944

During World War II, in 1944, Chaim Hermesh volunteered for the operation in Europe through SOE paratroopers and parachuted twice in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia in Banska Bystrika .Beneath :forged Slovak ID Card

He was captured by Gestapo on October 31 along with Reiss and Haviva Reik.He succeded to evade transporation by the Germans and after the defeat of the Slovak uprising after a long hardship through the Tatras joined the Tito's partizans

His friends Haviva Reek, Zvi Ben Yaakov and Rafi Reiss, who were sent with him, did not return. For a year, while fighting with the partisans the German enemy, the contact with him was lost and only after a year when he returned to Israel, they learned that he was still alive. He documented in a book "Operation Amsterdam". Hermesh recon parachute landing sketch

Hermesh (left ) after escape from Banska with R.Dafni and aTito Partisan 1945

Miraculous escape from Banska Bystrika's death fields (1945 Soviet Leutenant uniform)

They met up with, and attached themselves to, the partisan army's 6th Corps in the Papok Mountains.The German occupation of Hungary forced changes in their plan, rendering the task of infiltration and carrying out their work even more hazardous. In the meantime the two groups were united on 6 May. They spent some time with the partisans,engaging in guerilla warfare, sabotage activities and the securing of escape lines for Allied airmen, while worrying that they were unable to implement the real purpose of their mission, helping Jews escape the harrying plight they were being subjected to in Hungary.