The true amazing story of the little Polish Belgian Jewish kid, Jepke Mendelovich, that survived the
holocaust, immigrated
to Palestine, joined the Israel Defense forces, fought in its wars, and finally retired in the early 1990’s as an Amour General. In the process, the young Jepke, changed his name to Yossi Peled.
He was born in 1941, and although both his parents were sent to notorious Auschwitz death camp (his father died, the
mother survived but never recovered), he was hidden by a local family whose patriarch was sent to another German camp as punishment for hiding Jepke and his sisters. Jepke’s earliest childhood memories are of the Germans searching the house he hid in. He was in basement, hearing their boots on top.
After the war, the patriarch came back from the German camp and wanted to adopt Jepke. The young kid identified with his savior rather then with his mother who had come to claim him a number of times. Finally, under duress from soldiers from the Palestine based Jewsih, Jepke and the mother were united. The mother, severely traumatized by experiments conducted on her by the arch villain Dr. Mengale in the death camp, could not deal with the young rebellious kid and sent him to a Jewsih orphanage. Shortly afterwards, all the kids went to Palestine and Yossi Peled was born. A new name, a new Jew in a new country. Peled suppressed all memory of the past, and refused even to meet the family who saved him when they visited Israel in the 1960’s
This new Jew joined the Israel Defense forces in the late 1950’s and served in the armor core. In his last position, he was commanding officer of Israel’s northern command.