Louis Wald was the son of Yacov and Rosa, hard-working Jews who emigrated from Poland and settled in France, where he was born in Paris on 9th September 1930. He excelled at school, earning the praise of his teachers. When playing games, he always defended the weaker children.
In 1942, the family decided that they could no longer remain in Paris under Nazi occupation rule, so they left Paris by foot at night and illegally crossed the border into unoccupied France. This young lad, who was then 12, helped his little sister by carrying her for many hours across the border area, which was guarded by S.S. Nazi soldiers and their dogs.
When they reached the safety of Toulouse, he continued to study at school and learned English, Esperanto, Spanish and Yiddish. He joined the Jewish scout movement and was recorded in their golden book for his excellence in discipline and comradeship.
When the pressure of the Germans began in unoccupied France, his parents handed both Arieh and his sister into the care of a Christian family. They escaped to another area where they were hidden by the Maquis underground movement. Although still young, Arieh also helped the Maquis to the best of his ability.
When the allied armies invaded France, Arieh ran away from his refuge and joined the partisans. He was saved from the fire of the Vichy militia who were tracking him, and the partisans returned him to his parents.
He then joined a communist youth movement involved in saving refugee children. (In a documentary film, “The Helpless,” on Jews who defied the Nazis and helped others to rebel against them, Arieh is seen playing a mouth organ in front of hundreds of Jewish children who were saved from the crucible of suffering.)
After the war, he joined the Soviet Legion of Toulouse and learned from the Russians about their lives, and he hoped to travel with them to their homeland, but his parents would not permit this. He then studied radio technology, and on qualifying he began to work.
When news of the war between the Jews and the Arabs reached his ears, he was caught up with the idea of a free democratic Jewish State. He disappeared from his place of work and participated in a training program of the “Haganah.” When he could no longer continue, he went to work teaching others the tailoring trade, but he still felt obligated to spend his free time training with the Haganah. Returning home he would quietly have to put aside his plans and abide by his parents’ wishes.
In the summer of 1948, he parted from his family and joined a youth summer camp as he had done in previous years. However, when he found out that many friends in his group had cancelled at the last moment, he decided to change his plans and he wrote to his parents from Marseilles telling them that he had gone to fight for the Jewish state.
He arrived in Israel on 30th August 1948 and immediately entered the IDF, joining the 5th Battalion of the Givati Brigade. He participated in battles until he fell on 3rd October 1948 near Dir Aben in the Jerusalem area.
He was laid to rest the same day in the cemetery at Kibbutz Kiryat Anavim.
Source: Translated from the Yizkor website by Joe Woolf.