Shneider- Friedlander
Submitted by his daughter Ayala Handelsman, Ramat HaSharon, at the beginning of 2017
David Shneider was born in 1923 and passed away October 17th, 2016.
David was the eldest son of Adela Shneider and Aryeh Friedlander with his four brothers and sisters. He grew up in a big and loving family.
Just as the Germans were approaching Boryslaw, David accompanied a friend who was leaving to go east to Russia. Somehow he found himself on the train when it left the platform without saying goodbye to his family and was unable to return. He spent the war years alone in Russia in the regions of Georgia, Uzbekistan and elsewhere, suffered hardships and starvation, was drafted into the Red Army and wounded during the war.
After the war, he discovered that his parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, uncles and cousins had all perished in the Holocaust. Only one uncle survived, but he, too, died of a broken heart a few years later and had no offspring. David was the only survivor of his immediate family.
Until his immigration to Israel, he was in Germany and served as a Haganah youth counsellor. Upon his arrival in Israel during the War of Independence, he joined the Negev Brigade, participated in the battles to liberate the Negev and was one of the first fighters to arrive in Eilat.
In Israel he slowly built his new life. He worked for many years in the Tel Aviv municipality as the manager of the development and maintenance of the municipal water system.
He read many books of philosophy and history. From his days at HaShomer Hatzair in Boryslaw he remained an idealist in his soul.
