Yaakov Brosh (Brishnik) — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Yaakov Brosh (Brishnik) 1926-2012  was born in Vilna, the son of Feivel (Shraga) and Leah, and the brother of two older sisters - Yentel and Lolke. He lost his father when he was a year and a half.

As a child, he studied at a "heder" and later at the Polish-Jewish school "Shkola Pobshkna 35."

In September 1941, after the German invasion of Lithuania, he moved with his family to the Vilna Ghetto. Yaakov began working as a servant for German soldiers, brushing their boots and arranging their rooms, so that he could smuggle to the ghetto leftover food he had received at the end of the work day. In October of that year, his sister Lolke was sent to Ponar where she was murdered.

In April 1943, Yaakov was put on a train, together with other young men, to arrange personal belongings that remained in the carriages after the Jews' transportation. During their work, the train started, and at one of the curves, when the train slowed down, Yaakov jumped from the carriage intending to return to the ghetto, to his family.

On his way, after walking through the forests, he was caught and brought to Ponar where he was ordered to take off his clothes and stand on the edge of the pit in front of a firing squad. When he heard shooting, he fell into the pit and fainted. When he awoke at night, he came out of the pit and after about three days of walking reached the ghetto, and his family.

On September 1, 1943, another 'Actia' was held at the ghetto with the intent of finding young people to send to labor camps. Yaakov, along with other young men, hid in the hiding place they had prepared in advance behind their house. Four days later, the Jewish ghetto police found them and handed them over to the Germans. Yaakov was cut off from his family and sent to Estonia, to the Vaivara labor camp.

After discovering that the camp was about to close and all its occupants would be sent to extermination camps, Yaakov fled to the forest.

Towards the end of September, when the Russians entered Estonia, he came out of hiding and returned to the "Ereda" labor camp to see what happened to it. Except for body parts, nothing remained.

In October 1944, he arrived in Russia where he stayed for several months. In 1945, he fled from Russia back to Vilna, hoping to find his family, but it became clear to him that in the meantime everyone had been murdered in Ponar.

In October 1946, Yaakov boarded the illegal immigration ship "Bracha Fuld" on his way to Eretz Israel, along with about 600 other refugees from Poland, Romania and Hungary. The British discovered the ship and deported its passengers to Cyprus to a detention camp. In April 1947, they were transferred to the Atlit detention camp and from there, a few months later, to the "Kiryat Shmuel" transit camp near Kiryat Haim. Three weeks later, Yaakov, along with several other young people, moved to Rishon Lezion.

On his trip to Eretz Israel, Yaakov enlisted and was sworn into the Irgun (IZL), and upon his arrival, joined its ranks.

On April 25, 1948, he was wounded in an Irgun operation against snipers stationed at the Hassan Beck Mosque in Jaffa.

In 1951, he met his wife Deborah. They were married in March 1952, and had two sons - Shraga and Yariv. Yaakov and Deborah have four grandchildren.