Interesting story of the sacrifices made.

http://chicago.suntimes.com/ne...ited-trains-in-wwii/

RIP Mr. Figa.

Hollywood meets history.

quote:

WWII partisan fighter Leon Figa (right) with his son Stewart Figa, left, and actor Liev Schrieber, who portrayed a member of the resistance in the 2008 film “Defiance.”

All of them are amazing. Their deeds were brave and amazing. May God bless him and all of them that did what needed to be done to survive and to believe in freedom.

Great story, tough man.

One of the greatest was a man who sought justice after the end of WWII, and paid for that in full

He was Eliahu Itzkovitz, a Romanian Jew.

While a prisoner in a concentration camp, he witnessed the murder of his family at the hands of a Romanian prison guard named Stănescu. Eliahu vowed revenge, but was unable to find the murderer after the war. It took Eliahu about a year to recover from the camp, then he began to realize he had a life in front of him that was his to chart.

After the war he emigrated to Israel where he served in the fledgling Israeli Navy. There, he kept hunting his family's murderer. Then he heard rumors that Stănescu had enlisted in the French Foreign Legion.

At the next port call in Genoa, Italy, he went AWOL from the Israeli Navy, hopped a train to Marseilles, France, where he enlisted in the French Foreign Legion.

He survived training at Sidi-bel-Abbes, Algeria, then volunteered for duty in Indochina, a place that was killing Legionnaires everyday (e.g., the 1 BEP, the best unit in the Legion was wiped out twice, once at battalion size and later as a regiment, 1REP).

Itkowitz kept volunteering for more and more dangerous posts, until one day, in 3REI, he found himself on patrol with Stănescu, along Route Coloniale 18 near Bắc Ninh.

Calling out the murderer by name, and no doubt scaring the shit outta Stănescu when the very Voice of Death called him by name, a brief burst from Eliahu's MAT 49, and the Itzkovitz family was avenged.

Eliahu finished his five year contract with the Legion. Upon discharge, he went straight to the Israeli Embassy in Paris, where he surrendered himself as a a deserter from the Israeli Navy.

He was later court-martialed in Israel for desertion and after the facts were known, sentenced to one year and one day in prison (the minimum sentence). He did the time, then finished his enlistment in the Navy.

Once freed from the burdens of revenge and military service, he lived a full life, passing into history in quietly.

If you find yourself contemplating revenge on someone for some perceived or real slight, ask yourself... will you go as far as Eliahu Itzkovitz?