The son of Joseph-Zvi and Mindel, Eliezer Zeltser was born in Miskolc, Hungary, on 12th December 1928. He and his father were the only survivors of an extended family whose many branches were wiped out in the Auschwitz annihilation camp.
After World War II he began studying medicine at the University of Hungary, but the outbreak of Israel’s War of Independence disturbed his serenity. “As my life would be miserable forever, without a real life, if I was not able to repay the debt imposed on me,” he wrote to his father in Miskolc from the university when he decided to discontinue his studies and leave for Israel.
He arrived on 30th June 1948 and joined the 89th Mechanized Commando Battalion. The records of his unit tell of his courage and determination. The songs of the Warsaw Ghetto were found on his body: “The mark of the oppressed Jew will not continue, will never continue.” (Translation from Hungarian by Avigdor Hamari.)
Eliezer Zeltser fell during the attack on Faluja on 11th November 1948, and his body was laid to rest the next day at the Kfar Warburg cemetery.
Source: Translated from the Yizkor website by Joe Woolf