Mystery as old as Israel: Who is the little girl buried with Hahagana fighter?

A mystery from the days of the establishment of Israel is still waiting to be solved, but no one has a lead, even 75 years later.

The story starts in Jerusalem in 1948, months before the state was established when the War of Independence had already begun, and the British Mandate was coming to an end.

On the night of February 12, the British arrested four Hagana fighters who were guarding a lookout near the Mandelbaum Gate in Jerusalem and put them in a car. At the end of a short drive, the fighters were thrown from the vehicle at Damascus Gate, and the next day, their bodies were found next to the Lions Gate after they were murdered by a Palestinian mob.

One of the fighters was Shimon Nissani, the owner of a carpentry shop in the Bet Israel neighborhood who wasn't even supposed to be at the guard post but was present because he had swapped shifts with fellow Hagana member Pinhas Spiegelman months before the shift was meant to start. Thanks to the swap, Spiegelman was saved.

Girl gets buried with Nissani

The story of Nissani's burial is like it was taken from a movie. Because of the delicate security situation in those days, burials on the Mount of Olives only took place at certain times, and Nissani was taken to be buried together with other bodies of people who had died in the last few days.

Nissani, who was born in Persia, was supposed to be buried in the Sephardi plot, but while the stretcher carriers were busy with a different grave, they started to be shot at and were forced to escape the area. Because of the circumstances, Nissani was quickly buried in a nearby grave, not in the plot he was meant to be buried in, and the people burying him turned to escape.

A moment before they left the place, Isaac, Nissani's brother-in-law, stopped. He had spotted the body of an eight-year-old girl who was left on the ground without being buried. According to the death records of the Sephardi Committee, her name was Rachel, daughter of Victoria Haim.

Making a quick decision, Isaac dug up Nissani's fresh grave, buried the girl with him, and covered them up together without any gravestone or sign. Even though he was buried in a different plot, to this day, the Chevra Kadisha's records show that Nissani is buried in the Sephardi plot.

Nissani's family finds girl in his grave

In the 19 years after that, while the Jordanians controlled the Mount of Olives, Nissani's family couldn't visit his grave. At the end of the Six Day War, his family tried to find his resting place. Because his actual grave's location wasn't written down anywhere and because the cemetery was heavily damaged during the Jordanian control, they couldn't find identifying markers, and they didn't find the grave.

Only in 1990 was Nissani's grave recognized. It happened after Spiegelman conducted research to find the grave of his fallen friend after many years that he carried feelings of guilt. An old picture with identifying markers that Nissani's brother-in-law remembered, together with a man who helped with his burial, helped the family find the estimated burial location.

When they opened the grave 42 years later, the family found Nissani's bones and the girl's bones, and that's how after decades, they were able to definitively say that this was Nissani's grave.

The two were covered up again, their bones remained in place and they continue to share the grave. Later, a military gravestone was placed on the grave with Nissani's name, but the girl's identity has remained a mystery to this day. Aside from her name and the name of her parents, nothing is known about her.

Ir David Foundation tried to find out more

Since 2006, the Ir David Foundation has been managing an information center that, among other things, helps find information about graves and their occupants in the cemetery and make it accessible. Thus far, the project has led to great success, and thousands of graves, many of which were anonymous, have already been identified and mapped.

Out of a wish to honor the girl, the Ir David Foundation entered the scene in this case too. Last week, a memorial sign was made for her which will be placed on the grave during the memorial ceremony on Tuesday. In order to get more details on her life and character, the foundation is trying to find relatives or friends who know her story and can shine a light on the details of the incident or even take part in the ceremony.

"In the last few months, we have been doing a lot to try to locate information about the unknown girl, but in the meantime, we haven't even found a lead," said Yonatan Manovich who manages the information center. "The search efforts involved volunteers from the 'Latet Panim Lanoflim' (give a face to the fallen) organization and employees of the Jerusalem Municipality Archives, but since the search efforts failed to lead to a breakthrough, we decided to turn to the general public for help."

"People don't know the story," said Mount of Olives researcher Sarah Barnea. "There were so many events in the time between the November 29 vote in the UN and the establishment of the State of Israel in May. These are people who have been forgotten. We don't know who she is, we don't know anything about her family. We need to do something in her honor."

Barnea heard about the girl's story while visiting Nissani's sister Leah.

"It's really heart-rending that there isn't anyone to go to the grave and honor her memory," she said. "I thought the time has come to do something for her."