Col. David Marcus, American Jew who was killed in action June 10 while, serving as supreme commander of the Israeli forces in the Jerusalem area, was buried at West Point today. The body of the graduate of America’s military academy, who was a veteran of campaigns in Europe and the Pacific theatre during World War II, was flown here yesterday from Tel Aviv.
Funeral services were held at the Union Temple in Brooklyn, after which the casket was taken to City Hall where municipal officials who had served with the one-time Commissioner for Correction paid tribute to him. After the City Hall ceremony the body was escorted by a police detachment to West Point. En route, at Camp Smith, near Peekskill, N.Y., a National Guard honor escort met the funeral party.
At the military academy a firing detail and a bugler accompanied the body from the chapel to the cemetery. Twelve classmates of Col. Marcus’ at West Point served as honorary pallbearers. At the funeral, the City Hall tribute and the cemetery, Col. Moshe Dajan and Commander Yossef Hamburger, two Haganah officers, served as representatives of the Israel Government. They flew here from Tel Aviv in the same plans as the body.
On a special radio program broadcast over Station WMGA tonight in honor of Col. Marcus, Gov. Thomas E. Dewey, Republican presidential nominee, declared: “The death of Col. Marcus will be one of the milestones in the history of the fight for freedom. The death of Col. Marcus, I hope, will serve to stimulate all of those in the United Nations who are struggling valiantly to bring peace by peaceful means, stability and a future to the new state.”
Aubrey S. Eban, Israeli representative at the United Nations, said that “the memory of David Marcus shall forever endure on the soil of Israel which he strove to liberate.” Former Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson called Marcus “one of our bravest and most talented soldiers.”
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