Eitan Avissar

Eitan Avissar was born in 1892 in Sombor

Avissar was born in 1892 in Sombor, then part of Austria-Hungary, under the name Siegmund Edler von Friedmann. His family had a long military tradition. His grandfather was an Austrian officer, and his father was an Oberst who served as adjutant to the empire's defense minister.

He attended a military secondary school and then the Maria Theresa Military Academy in Vienna, where he was commissioned as a lieutenant. In World War I he served as an artillery officer on the Eastern and Italian fronts and received 6 decorations. After the war he helped build the army of the new Austrian republic and retired in 1931.

In the 1930s he led the World Union of Jewish Front Fighters and organized its first congress in Paris in 1935. After the Anschluss in 1938 he was arrested and jailed for about half a year. On his release he immigrated to the Land of Israel in September 1938.

He became a military adviser to the Haganah command, headed its planning department from 1939, and drew up its first strategic plan in 1940. In 1943 he became deputy head of the Haganah national command. He was present at the Declaration of Independence in 1948 and became the first president of the IDF military appeals court.

He retired from the IDF in 1954 with the rank of Aluf. Between 1943 and 1955 he published 6 books on military history, economics and security, starting with 2500 Years of Tactics. He died in Tel Aviv in 1964 and was buried in Kiryat Shaul cemetery.