Bracha Fuld

Bracha Fuld (left) with her father Lothar Fuld (1886-1938) and her sister Hannelore (also known as Petra), circa 1930. Source: Netzorg Family Papers Collection, box 35, Petra and Bracha Fuld. University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library.

Bracha Fuld (; born Barbara Fuld; December 26, 1927 – March 26, 1946) was a German-born Jewish guerrilla fighter who was killed while attempting to escort illegal Jewish immigrants into Palestine. During the operation, she encountered British security forces and got into a shootout in which she was fatally wounded. Fuld was the first female Jewish insurgent to be killed during the Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine. Her father had served in the Imperial German Army during World War I, and he took his own life after the events of Kristallnacht in 1938, unable to reconcile his Jewish and German identities.

Military career Upon graduating high school in 1944, aged 16, Fuld joined the Palmach, an elite Jewish military force that was working with the British. She was assigned to "H" company and stationed in Kibbutz Kiryat Anavim, near Jerusalem. She was named an outstanding cadet, and was one of the few women who trained to become a squad commander.

At the end of World War II, the British attempted to stop Jewish Holocaust refugees from coming to Palestine, and the Palmach fighters revolted. They began to sabotage and assault the British military, while helping to smuggle Jewish immigrants into Palestine.

In the city of Tel Aviv, Bracha Fuld Street is named in her honour.