COLONEL DAVID DANIEL “MICKEY” MARCUS 

 MAY  25th 2023   

On May 10, 1951 Israel’s  Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion was in NYS at West Point Military Cemetery to place a wreath on the grave of Colonel David Daniel “Mickey” Marcus. The wreath was a Star of David in blue & white. Ben-Gurion  also presented Israel’s Order of Independence posthumously to Marcus.

 Mickey Marcus, an American Jew, died on June 10, 1948 from friendly-fire after having helped successfully  defend Israel during its War of Independence.  Marcus was a Machal soldier; a volunteer from outside Israel. His nom-de-guerre was Mickey Stone.  The UN cease fire ending the war, took effect a day after his death.

Among those  present at Marcus’s July 1, 1948 burial at West Point were Moshe Dayan. Marcus’ gravestone reads  “ Colonel David  Marcus- A Soldier for all Humanity”.

 Of the then approximately three thousand graves at West Point his is the only one marking the resting place of a soldier killed fighting under a foreign flag.

Born in 1901, he attended Boys High School in Brooklyn; he  graduated West Point in 1924. Later he graduated Brooklyn Law School and was an Asst US Attorney in NY fighting the Mafia.

His WWII & Nuremberg activities require another setting.

• Ben Gurion wrote to Mickey’s widow Emma that Mickey was “the best man we  had”
• He was Israel’s first General -“Aluf” in  2000 years- since Judah Maccabbe, serving the IDF  from late January to his death in June 1948
• He overhauled the command & control of the Hagannah
• He commanded the Jerusalem Front- Operation Nachshon- The Burma Road 

Marcus had engineered the miraculous liberation of Jerusalem, bypassing the Jordanian fortress of Latrun. The departing British had turned over the key police station controlling the Jewish lifeline to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv to the Jordan Legion. 1200 Jews had already died running the gauntlet. There were no delusions about the fate of the Jews in Jerusalem if the city fell.

From the first meeting between Ben-Gurion & Marcus early 1948:

                        BG: You know Ecclesiastes?

                        MM:  One of my favorite authors.

                         BG But I understand you are not a religious man

                         MM: No not in the formal sense

                         BG:   What about Zionism, is it true that before you came here you never heard of Herzl-            

                                    the founder of the movement?  

                          MM:  I was at Dachau.  The bodies were still piled up like cordwood.  After that,  I didn’t need any more lessons in the importance of a Jewish homeland. 

• Biography by Ted Berkman 1962- “Cast a Giant Shadow” 
•  Fictionalized movie adaptation 1966 with Kirk Douglas, Frank Sinatra and John Wayne, Yul Brynner
•  

“Many could come, but he was the only one who came; and we will never forget it”.  (Eve Kirshner, Tel Aviv housewife who briefly hosted Mickey to Emma Marcus)

Among the sites named after him was the David Marcus Theater on Jerome Avenue in the North Bronx of my youth (1967-1978)   In our youth & total ignorance  my friends & I referred to it as the David Mucous Theatre.  This brief tribute is my apology.

JOEL G. COHEN

9/9/2020

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The above essay written by Joel G Cohen is sourced from and with references to: