Joseph was the oldest son in the Bruck family. His parents were Aharon Eliezer (Ludwig) , and Elsa (Levenberg) Bruck. He was born on September 18, 1919 (23 Elul 5679) in Bingen, Germany.
The Bruck family was a family of merchants. The grandfather, Max, and later on Joseph’s father, were wine merchants. Joseph’s uncles were owners of a textile plant and other businesses connected to textiles. Joseph’s aunt, his father’s sister, Paula, was a singer. Joseph’s mother passed away when he was 14, and he was sent to Palestine alone on the SS Jerusalem on October 21, 1935 as part of the “Youth Aliyah Organization”. (The Youth Aliyah was a Zionistic organization that was established in Germany in order to help Jewish youth to immigrate to Palestine while preparing them for work in agriculture there.
Joseph’s brother who was a year younger than he, arrived three months later than he and remained in the country for two years, training to work in agriculture at “Kvutzat Shiller” (“Gan Shlomo”) (a kibbutz between “Rehovot” and “Givat Brenner”). Later on he moved to Rehovot and worked as a welder within a group called “Shiboleth” (a group of “Chalutzim” (pioneers). The group was comprised of pioneers who immigrated from Germany to Palestine, working between 1938-1941. Joseph’s cousin David (Karl) Barkay (Bruck) arrived in Palestine at about the same time, and settled at “Kibbutz Hazorea” which is a kibbutz in northern Israel established in 1936 by German Jews.
Joseph, a shy young man with blond hair and a beard, was 1.80 meters tall. He finished his training at the “Ben Shemen Youth Village” but felt that he needed to live a religious life among observant Jews. In 1938 he joined a “Gar’in”, a small group of people who established a new settlement, Kvutzat Aryeh, in Hadera, and worked as day workers in orchards. In 1939 the group settled down at Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu in the Bet She’an Valley.
A few years later, Joseph moved to Haifa, getting work as a porter and doing other odd jobs. When he applied for citizenship, he described his occupation as “agricultural worker”.
Joseph was also active in Haifa’s “Sabbath Watch”, an organization of religious volunteers that were mainly active in convincing storekeepers, beauty salons and barber shops, to close their businesses before the beginning of the Sabbath.
In 1943, Joseph changed his name from “Bruck” to “Hagesher”, translating “The Bridge” in German to its Hebrew equivalent. He moved to Kfar Hassidim, a “moshav” (agricultural settlement) in the Zvulun Valley north of Haifa. His last place of residence was Tel Aviv.
During the War of Independence, Joseph joined the Jerusalem Brigade and fell in Jerusalem on Shlomzion Street, hit by a sniper’s bullet, on June 29, 1948 (22 Sivan 5708). He was brought to eternal rest at the Sanhedria Cemetery in Jerusalem.
Many of Joseph Heinz’s family perished during the Holocaust, among them probably his father Ludwig who remarried in 1937 and lived with his second wife in Frankfurt. On official documents it appears that Ludwig immigrated to Palestine, however members of his family claim that most probably he tried to flee to Yugoslavia and did not survive. Joseph’s aunts Lotta, Paula and Emma and many of his cousins perished during the Holocaust. Few were saved and now live in the U.S.A. and France.
Joseph’s brother Max immigrated to the U.S.A. and in Georgia he married Helena. They have a son Albert Bruck and a daughter Elsa Lapidus.
The details of Joseph Heinz Bruck (Hagesher’s) life appear in part on the “Yizkor” site of the Defense Ministry.
The story of his life was completed in 2016 and his photograph was found by volunteers for “Giving a Face to the Fallen”.