Yaacov (Yakubek) Putermilch was born in Warsaw as a second son to Rachel (nee Lederman) and Elimelech in September 1924 to a Jewish traditional family. The family, parents and four children lived in 62 Novolipki St. in the center of the Jewish quarter of Warsaw. The family owned a grocery store at the same address. Yaacov started his studies in a “Heder” as was a habit in the Jewish neighborhood and continued in a Jewish public school run by the Jewish community.

As a boy, following his sister and supported by his parents, he joined the “Hashomer Hatzair” youth movement, and in the summer of 1942, he joined the Jewish combat organization - JCO in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Until the uprising that took place in the Ghetto in April 1943, Yaacov was involved in the underground - operational activities of the JCO. In the uprising, he fought in the Tebens-Shultz “Shopes” area under the command of Eliezer Geler and his group commander, Yaacov Faigenblat, both from the “Gordonia” movement. On April 29, 1943, Yaacov and a group of fighters left the Ghetto through the sewage canals of the city to the Polish part of Warsaw. After 24 hours, the group moved to the woods surrounding Warsaw and joined the partisan groups fighting in the woods of the Bug river district. In the spring of 1944, Yaacov returned to Warsaw, hiding in various places in the Polish part of the city. In August 1944, he participated in the Polish uprising in Warsaw. In January 1945, upon the liberation of Warsaw, he and a group of surviving fighters, including his future wife, Masha nee Glaitman, who fought in the central Ghetto as a member of the “Bund” movement, left Warsaw toward Bucharest, Rumania. In October 1945, the group received certificates to travel to Palestine, and Yaacov fulfilled his wish to reach the holy land.

The author’s experiences during the Holocaust are recorded in this book. He has only related the fronts in which he saw action and only groups with whom he fought. He writes with the objectivity and modesty of a witness who lived through this period, raising the memory of his comrades in arms as he saw and got to know them.

In 1947, Yaacov volunteered to the “Hagana” organization, and after the foundation of the state of Israel in May 1948, he joined the army (IDF) and fought with the “Givaati” brigade in battles in southern Israel. He participated in the Sinai war in 1956, in the Six-Day war in 1967 and the Yom Kippur war in 1973.

From 1950 till his death in September 1984, he worked in “Solel Boneh,” the biggest construction company of the era. The highlight of this period was building the new Israeli parliament house where he was engaged as the project manager.

Yaacov and his wife Masha survived the Holocaust without any immediate family members. They had two daughters - Rachel (Rochi) and Fanny, four grandchildren (and today also eight great-grandchildren). The Putermilch couple lived in Tel Aviv from 1946 till their death (Masha died in November 2007).

Yaacov’s book was published in Hebrew in 1981 and won a prize in 1982. He felt that the publication of the book was his obligation towards his fellow combatants in the Ghetto uprising who did not survive.

The current translation and publication of the book in English is a fulfilment of his will prior to his death. As his daughter, I felt obliged to do so. May our parents’ soul rest in peace.