Brothers For Resistance And Rescue By David Gur

any secrets of the underground. The torture left her with scars andirreversible damage to her health which she lived with until her last day.In 1944 she married “Mimish”, Yitzhak Herbst.Judith made aliya in 1948 and joined Kibbutz Ha’ogen. Later she left thekibbutz and moved to Tel-Aviv. She was an art teacher, an artist anddisplayed her creative work in various exhibitions.Herbst Yitzhak 'Mimish'Herbst ImreBorn in Eperjes (Prešov) in 1916Died on 8.2.1978 in IsraelMember of “Hashomer Hatzair”Yitzhak joined the movement at an early age. In 1935 he started to studymedicine in Prague but in 1938 he had to discontinue his studies due tothe worsening of the conditions for the Jews.Yitzhak’s older brother, Jenø, who was a communist activist, wasarrested and deported in 1942. Yitzhak was also in danger and had toescape to Hungary. When he arrived in Budapest, Mimish joined the aidand rescue operations for the refugees from Slovakia and Poland. In1943 Mimish was caught, arrested and brutally tortured. His health wasdamaged by the torture. He was released and resumed his rescueoperations.After the German invasion of Hungary on 19.3.1944, he was one of themain activists of the Zionist youth movements underground. In June1944, together with his wife Judith, he was supposed to cross the borderinto Romania within the framework of the tiyul in order to make aliya.They were both caught by the Hungarian gendarmerie and were detainedin the Szeged prison. Mimish managed to escape but Judith remained inthe custody of the Gestapo and was cruelly tortured. Mimish succeededin liberating her in a daring operation with the help of Tzipi Schechter(Agmon) and Milan, a Serbian.Mimish continued his underground activities until the end of the war.According to his friends he got the nickname of “Mr. Underground”. Afterthe liberation Mimish was active in the Aliya Bet.He made aliya in 1948 and joined Kibbutz Ha’ogen.In 1950 he moved to Tel-Aviv with his family. He worked as aphotographer. Of the many films he made, one of the first Israeli films,“Burning Sands”, is famous.For many years Mimish suffered from the physical damage caused by hisarrest in 1943.Brothers for Resistance and Rescue 132