NAME: Frankfurt Eliahu

LEHI ALIAS: Pinchas

DATE OF BIRTH: March 29, 1930

DATE OF DEATH: July 28, 1988

Eliahu was born on March 29, 1930 in Warsaw to Rivka and Tzvi. The family made aliyah in 1936. Eliahu (Eli) acclimated very quickly to the Land of Israel, quickly becoming a sabra. In 1940, during World War II, Tel Aviv was bombed by the Italians. Ten-year-old Eli was injured and hospitalized for a year. He carried the scars of the attack for the rest of his life.

He joined HaNoar HaOved, and when he finished elementary school, he left the house and moved to Kibbutz Ginnosar, where he came down with a fever. When he recovered, he continued to stay at the kibbutz, but after a while he returned home.

He enjoyed his adventures travelling the length and breadth of the Land of Israel, and this was how he absorbed love of the Land. At age sixteen, he left HaNoar HaOved and joined Lehi. His first mission was putting up posters. The British caught him doing this next to the Ramat Gan Police Station, and he was arrested and transferred to Latrun. He spent the next year-and-a-half there, reading, studying and working with his hands.

When the State was established in 1948, he joined the IDF with other Lehi members. He was assigned to Battalion 89 of the 8th Brigade. He fought in the War of Independence. He served for years in the reserves, fighting in the Sinai War, the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War. He was discharged in 1984, at the rank of first lieutenant.

In 1954, he married Shoshana Millner. They had two children, Amos and Leora, and Eliahu saw to their higher education. He was the grandfather of four.

He had the spirt of an artist, a creator. He enjoyed working with his hands. He decided to go into industry, manufacturing springs. Thus he built his life’s work, a workshop for the manufacture of springs, which satisfied his need to create. Though he had never studied mechanical engineering, he was still able to build a machine to make springs as well as various other tools to help him in his work.

He loved classical music, devoting much of the little free time he had to it. He found a whole world of wonder in it. Listening to music was his way to unwind after a day of hard work.

He followed diligently everything occurring in Israel and was a sharp critic. He was firm in his beliefs but always pleasant and honest in his dealings with others. He always dreamed of studying painting and music, but he died before he could realize this dream.

Eliahu passed away on July 28,1988. He was buried in the Lehi section of the Holon Cemetery.