When Colonel (res.) Eli Königsberg puts on his uniform at the age of 57, he carries more than just command. He tells the story of two families that almost disappeared from the map of Europe.
As the world commemorates International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1945, the deputy commander of Israel’s Jerusalem and Central District of the Home Front Command says the past is not distant history. For him, it lives on in memory, in service and in the urgency of defending a Jewish state that he believes remains the only place where Jews are truly protected.
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Colonel (Res.) Eli Königsberg, deputy commander of Israel’s Jerusalem and Central District in the Home Front Command, whose face is blurred for security reasons, is seen operating with reserve forces during the ongoing war following the October 7 Hamas attack. (IDF)
After surviving Auschwitz, his father joined the Betar movement and attempted to reach the country of Israel in 1946 aboard the ship Theodor Herzl. He was detained by British authorities, imprisoned in the Atlit camp and exiled to Cyprus for almost two years.
It was only with the declaration of Israel’s independence that he finally arrived.
“He enlisted, fought in the Revolutionary War and four other wars and served in the reserves for 55 years,” Königsberg said.
On the mother’s side, the losses were no less devastating. Her parents and sisters were taken from their home in eastern Poland after neighbors informed them.
“They were forced to dig their own graves under a pear tree and were executed by gunfire,” he said.
The Holocaust was rarely discussed openly in his childhood home, Königsberg said, but its presence was constant. Now he worries about another silence.
“We are 80 years after the Holocaust, and the people who can say ‘I was there. I saw’ are disappearing,” he said. “Therefore the duty of remembrance is our duty.”
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Colonel (Res.) Eli Königsberg, whose face is blurred for security reasons, is the son of Holocaust survivors and deputy commander of Israel’s Jerusalem and Central District in the Home Front Command. (IDF)
That sense of responsibility has determined his life. Königsberg, a father of four daughters and a grandfather, served in the Israeli Reserve Forces for more than 36 years, completing more than 3,600 days of service.
“A total of ten years of reserve service,” he said. In Israel, reservists are legally exempt from service at the age of 45. Königsberg decided to continue: “If they call me, I will come immediately.”
After the Hamas attack on October 7, he was mobilized again.
“What we saw on October 7 was killing for the sake of killing,” he said. “Not to conquer territory or change reality. It was hate for hate’s sake.”
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Eli Königsberg, whose face is blurred for security reasons, is pictured with his mother next to the cemetery of her father, his grandfather, in Poland, after he was killed in the Red Army against the German army three days before the end of World War II. (IDF)
Since then, he has commanded rescue and heavy engineering units operating in the Gaza Strip, Gaza and the north. Its troops have conducted body identification, rescue operations and clearance missions aimed at eliminating terrorist hideouts.
“In the coming days we will return to Gaza for evacuation and demolition,” he said.
Despite the trauma, he says the reserve system reflects something powerful in Israeli society. “The great thing about the reserves is that people can have very different political opinions, and everyone still comes together to work as one,” he said.
Königsberg reflected on what he believes history teaches. “We now see that anti-Semitism existed and will continue to exist in the future,” he said.
He pointed to the global reaction to Israel since October 7. “Terrible things are happening in other places. For example, the Iranian regime is cracking down on its own people, and you don’t see these kinds of demonstrations, but when it concerns Israel and the Jews, there is outrage,” he said.
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Sign ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ at the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in Oswiecim, Poland. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
For Königsberg, commemoration is not just about mourning the dead. It’s about protecting the living. “Every Jew’s place is here in Israel,” he added. “And we must always remain united and strong. We must be here in our country, be strong and united and make sure that ‘never again’ really means never again,” he said.
