Mordechai (Motke) Eldar served in the IDF for 30 years, achieving the rank of colonel.

Mordechai (Motke) Eldar was born in 1929 in Campulung la Tissa, Transylvania to a Spinka Chassidic family of six children. In 1940, with the Hungarian occupation of the city, racial laws were inflicted on the Jews. On 16 April 1944, the Jews were forced to assemble in the local school, where their valuables were confiscated. The following day they were taken to the Saltina ghetto. Motke remembers the hunger and torture in the ghetto and Hungarian fascist youths tearing off his father’s beard.

Deported in May from the ghetto to Auschwitz, Motke survived Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen, Mauthausen and Gunskirchen. Making his way to a refugee camp where he was reunited with his uncle, he eventually regained his strength and returned home to Transylvania, where he found his two sisters and his aunt.

After the war Motke tried to immigrate to Palestine with his sisters aboard the Exodus ship. On 17 July 1947, they arrived at the Haifa port, but were immediately returned to Hamburg. In June 1948, after a year in Germany, Motke arrived at the Tel Aviv port aboard the Kedmah ship, and continued from there to an immigrant camp in Hadera. Emerging from the Holocaust as a Zionist, Motke decided to devote his life to ensuring the national security of the State of Israel. He served in the IDF for 30 years, suffering a head injury during one of the battles in Hulda and achieving the rank of colonel. 

Motke has two sons and six grandchildren.