World War II – the story of a Jewish Soldier – David Hirt

Getting to know David Hirt's amazing story, one understands two things: one, the young and brave man fought in many battles on the Eastern Front in WW2; the other, day in day out, more and more stories of Jewish bravery and resistance, of individuals and groups, alongside the Holocaust, are discovered. David Hirt's story is one of them.

Hirt's story is tortuous and complicated, as the bloody story of WW2. As a soldier in the Red Army and the Polish Army, he fought in endless battles, sometimes near death. All during the war he used his alias, Daniel Alekseievitz, so as not to be exposed as Jewish. On the Eastern Front, he fought in the Battle of the Dnieper; the long and heroic siege and battle of Stalingrad; the Kursk Campaign. He was deputy commander of a reconnaissance unit of the 6th Division, and fought as such in the liberation of Lvov and Przemyśl, Lublin and Warsaw, Goldberg, and finally in the battle of the Oder-Neisse, and the liberation of Berlin. 

David was injured a few times in battle, as well has having some personal jolts, such as the death of his younger brother, Hanania, and the horrible discovery that all his family was exterminated in the Holocaust. David fought the Nazis with all his might, with a sense of mission, and the knowledge he had nothing to lose. For his heroic fighting, he was decorated by the Red and Polish Armies; the highest decoration was the Polish bravery cross, second degree.

After WORLD WAR IIDavid immigrated to Israel, where he married Lusha of blessed memory, and together they set their home in Moshav Magshimim. Currently, David, a widower, a father to a son (Shuki) and a daughter (Tova, of blessed memory, who was killed with her husband in an airplane crash some years ago), and a grandfather, is living close to his son in Tel Aviv and continues working.

His fascinating and heroic memoirs were published in a book "Taking Revenge," published by "Docustory," 2009, a copy of which is preserved in IDFA. 

Sources: David Hirt, Taking Revenge, Docustory, Ra'anana, 2009​

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