May 13, 1948 The Arab offensive continued. Its major force was directed against Kibbutz Kfar Etzion. Attack upon attack was rebuffed by the Jewish defenders in the course of the morning. About noon the Arabs finally succeeded in penetrating the northern gate of the kibbutz. As the armored vehicles stormed into Kfar Etzion, the local commander realized that all was lost! After many months of siege and battle, no further possibility of maintaining the village. A ceasefire was sought in order to save the life of the defenders. The exhausted defenders left their defence posts and handed over their ammunition as directed. They assembled in the heart of the kibbutz near the former German monastery, where they were to be photographed before being prisoners of war. They were suddenly fired upon. In desperate struggle which ensued, only four survived. Following the heroic battle and terrible massacre, Kfar Etzion was pillaged and destroyed. Last moments at Kfar Etzion A photographer dressed in European clothes and wearing a white kaffiyeh came on the scene and photographed us... When the photographer had finished, fire was suddenly opened upon us from every directon. Most of the assembled were hit... I jumped into a ditch near the school.... It was an officer of the Legion who saved me. He solemnly promised that he would do me no harm. When the battle subsided, the officer took me back in the village and demanded that I show him where the arms caches were. When we passed by the doorway of the shelter under the German monastery, he put a grenade in my hand, pulled out the pin and ordered me to throw it into the shelter. I held the grenade in my hand, for I was prepared to kill myself rather than to obey his order. The officer took it from me and threw it himself into the shelter.......
Aliza Feuchtwanger
Member of the Palmach (Jewish resistance army)
Here is a photograph of the very bunker (the "shelter") where that son of Satan hurled the grenade. The bunker was full of wounded and other helpless Jews, about 50 in all.
