Well, here's the story: My wife and I are renting an apartment in an interesting neighborhood in Jerusalem. Virtually all the streets in the neighborhood are named after Jewish military heroes.
The street we live on, Rehov HaPalmach, is no exception. It is named after the Haganah's elite fighting force. (The Haganah was the Palestinian Jewish community's pre-state defense organization.) The Palmach (a Hebrew acronym which stands for Plugot Mahatz, i.e., "strike forces") was the military unit in which many of Israel's early leaders earned their stripes, including Yitzhak Rabin. When Israel declared its independence in 1948, the Palmach was absorbed into the Israel Defense Forces (Israel's army), but Palmach veterans remained prominent and influential.
Intersecting with Rehov HaPalmach very close to our apartment building is a very small street with the name, "Haviva Reik Alley." Ever since moving here, I'd wondered who she was. Today, in honor of Yom HaShoah, I thought I would do some research and share my findings with you. (Much of the information below is available on-line.)
Like Hannah Senesh, Haviva was a Jewish volunteer who parachuted behind enemy lines during World War II in an attempt to strengthen Jewish resistance and save Jewish lives. Although she never became as famous as Hannah Senesh, her story is no less inspiring.
Haviva Reik was born in 1914 in Slovakia, which is roughly north of Hungary, south of Poland, east of Austria and west of Ukraine.
Although there was a brief period between the two world wars during which Jewish life flourished in Slovakia, by the 1930s, a government with Nazi sympathies arose there. As it did elsewhere in Europe, anti-Semitism flourished in Slovakia. Like many of her peers, Haviva became a Zionist. She joined the Hashomer Hatzair socialist Zionist youth group, and prepared to become a farmer in the Land of Israel. In 1939, she emigrated to what was then known as Palestine. (It is sad to note that only approximately 5,000 Slovakian Jews emigrated from Slovakia before the outbreak of World War II. Almost all who remained were murdered.)
Once in Palestine, Haviva became active in the Palmach. This brought her to the attention of British and Jewish leaders in Palestine who, by 1942, were seeking Jewish soldiers to drop behind enemy lines to develop and strengthen the anti-Nazi resistance.
Haviva trained to become a paratrooper.
After her training, in September, 1944, Reik parachuted into Slovakia. She joined a group of American and British officers and engaged in relief and rescue activities. The group organized a soup kitchen, a community center for refugees, and facilitated the escape of Jewish children to Hungary and from there to Palestine. Through their connections with partisan and resistance groups, they helped rescue allied airmen who had been shot down.
In response, the Nazis determined to supress the resistance. Haviva and the other parachutists escaped to the mountains with about forty Jews of varying ages from the area. But the Germans overran the camp and captured Reik and several of the others. (Only one paratrooper escaped capture.) Haviva was killed on November 20th in the village of Kremnička. She and the Jews she had been sheltering were buried in a mass grave in the village.
After the war ended (less than eight months later), her body was recovered by the British and re-interred in a British military cemetery in Prague. Following the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, the Israeli government petitioned the British for permission to re-inter her in Israel. This permission was finally granted in 1952, and her body was then buried on Mount Herzl together with the remains of Hannah Senesh.
In addition to the street near my apartment, a kibbutz (Lehavot Haviva) and the Givat Haviva institute were named after Haviva Reik.
As I mentioned in my previous blogpost, we tend to refer to this day on the Jewish calendar as "Yom HaShoah," but its full name is, in fact, the Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and Heroism. I have a feeling that, from now on, when I think of modern Jewish heroes, Haviva Reik will be among the first who will come to mind.
After the war ended (less than eight months later), her body was recovered by the British and re-interred in a British military cemetery in Prague. Following the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, the Israeli government petitioned the British for permission to re-inter her in Israel. This permission was finally granted in 1952, and her body was then buried on Mount Herzl together with the remains of Hannah Senesh.
As I mentioned in my previous blogpost, we tend to refer to this day on the Jewish calendar as "Yom HaShoah," but its full name is, in fact, the Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and Heroism. I have a feeling that, from now on, when I think of modern Jewish heroes, Haviva Reik will be among the first who will come to mind.
