Haim Gouri

Haim Gouri was born in 1923 in Tel Aviv

Haim Gouri was born in Tel Aviv in 1923 as Haim Gurfinkel, to Gila and the politician Yisrael. He studied at several schools, including the Kadoorie Agricultural School, and was a member of the HaMahanot HaOlim youth movement.

He joined the Palmach in 1941 and became a platoon commander. He took part in the attack on the Stella Maris radar stations and was later sent to Hungary to prepare Holocaust survivors for immigration. During the War of Independence he served as a deputy company commander in the Negev Brigade.

His first poetry book, Flowers of Fire, came out in 1949. He studied literature and philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and then studied at the Sorbonne in 1953. His poem Behold, Here Our Bodies Lie and the song The Comradeship became linked with the War of Independence.

From 1954 he wrote a column for LaMerhav and later for Davar, until he retired in 1988. He covered the 1961 Eichmann trial and collected his reports in the book Facing the Glass Booth. He also wrote and co-directed a trilogy of Holocaust documentaries, starting with The 81st Blow.

In 2007 he gave his archive to the National Library. He lived in Jerusalem with his wife Aliza and died in 2018.