Shoshana Tannenbaum, Daughter of Rabbi Yitzchak Tzvi, Survivor and Last Remnant of a Large Family, who Fell in Sanctification of G-d’s Name in Kfar Etzion
Iyar 4, 5708 – Iyar 4, 5784 (May 13, 1948 – May 12, 2024)
In 5684 (1923-4), Shoshana Tannenbaum was born in the city of Radomsk, Poland, to Yitzchak Tzvi and Perl. Upon the outbreak of the Holocaust, Shoshana and her family (the parents and six brothers and sisters) were taken to the ghetto. Shoshana was the only one of her large family to survive the camps and ghettos.
She held on until liberation, and then was appointed director of Kibbutz Torah V’Avoda in Bedzin.
When the members of the kibbutz were arrested and imprisoned in the city of Rybnik, it was Shoshana who led the persistent struggle for their release. She did not rest until the group was released, on its way to the Land of Israel.
Passover fell when she was in Rybnik, when the group was released. There was no kosher kitchen in the hotel, and Shoshana, who self-sacrificingly held onto her faith, was satisfied for a full week with only matzah and tap water.
On Lag Ba’Omer 5707 (May 1947), she married her fiance Naftali Lenchner. Four months later, she had to say goodbye to her husband, who remained working for the movement in the Diaspora, and moved to Israel.
In the Land of Israel she lived in Kfar Etzion, and during the siege she bravely stayed in the besieged and shelled community.
She wrote at that time:
“A fundamental error is to despair and surrender at this fateful moment. It is true that the recent events [the fall of the convoy of 35] have a negative effect on us, but in spite of everything, we must not despair. We here have perhaps been through more than you there, and despite this, we are full of hope in our victory. The main thing is the deeply rooted faith, that G-d will not leave us… we have to be proud because we are living in a fateful time, a time in which the fate of the people of Israel will be decided: to be or to cease to be… The situation here adds new qualities to a person: he becomes hard-hearted, hard-headed and stubborn. I hear a voice in me calling: revenge for those who fell, so that we don’t have to be ashamed and can continue the enterprise that they started… we don’t lose our spirit. We feel strong and proud that we are participating in this great enterprise and with G-d’s help we will last. A fresh and bright day will come tomorrow – and it will be ours!”
On Iyar 4, 5708 (May 13, 1948), the Arabs attacked the village itself with great force. When the Arab Legion’s armor broke into the village, Shoshana was – with the other medics – in a shelter under the German monastery building that served as theןר headquarters. For hours, she devotedly cared for the many wounded, moving from one to the other and doing as much as she could for them. The enemy, who could not penetrate into the shelter, blew up the building, and its ruins buried all its inhabitants under them.
Over a hundred defenders of Kfar Etzion fell that day, including Shoshana. Some were shot after surrendering.
The next day, Iyar 5, 5708 (May 14, 1948), the day Israel declared independence, the three other settlements of Gush Etzion fell – Revadim, Ein Tzurim, and Masuot Yitzchak. The remaining defenders were taken into captivity in Jordan.
Shoshana was 24 years old when she fell. She left behind her husband.
The bodies of the fallen remained in place, Jordanian territory, for about a year and bit. Their remains were collected in a special operation by the military rabbinate in 1949 and they were laid to rest in a large mass grave on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, in a state ceremony that took place on the Cheshvan 25, 5710 (Nov. 17, 1949).
At Ganzach Kiddush Hashem, we light a candle, learn, and pray in memory of Shoshana bat (daughter of) Yitzchak Tzvi z”l.
May her holy memory be enshrined in our hearts forever.
