page_title: Mickey Marcus
section_title: Death
hierarchical_section_title: Mickey Marcus / Death
caption_attribution_description: A memorial plaque to Colonel David Marcus in Union Temple of Brooklyn
context_page_description: David Daniel "Mickey" Marcus was a United States Army colonel -- later Israel's first general -- who was a principal architect of the U.S. military's World War II civil affairs policies, including the organization of the war crimes trials in Germany and in Japan.
  He assisted Israel during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War -- one of the well known Israeli Machal soldiers -- becoming Israel's first modern general. He was killed by friendly fire. He was portrayed by Kirk Douglas in the 1966 Hollywood movie Cast a Giant Shadow, which focused on his role in the Israeli war.
context_section_description: A few hours before the cease fire, Marcus returned to his Central Front headquarters.  He and his commanders were billeted in the monks' quarters of the abandoned Monastere Notre Dame de la Nouvelle Alliance in Abu Ghosh.  Shortly before 4:00 a.m., a sentry, Eliezer Linski, eighteen years old, and a one-year Palmach veteran, challenged Marcus, who he saw as a figure in white. 
  When Marcus failed to respond with the password, Linski fired in the air and the man ran towards the monastery. He fired at the man, as did one or more fighters in a nearby sentry post. Marcus was found dead, wrapped in a white blanket. Marcus knew very little Hebrew and had responded in English, which Linski did not understand. Marcus wore no rank, although officers had been recognized by a ribbon pinned to their uniforms.  As Marcus's body was removed from Abu Ghosh, a ribbon was found and placed on his casket.
  His body was returned to the United States for burial at West Point, accompanied by Moshe Dayan and his wife Ruth, Yoseph Harel, and the wife of his aide de camp, Alex Broida. His burial, with military honors, was attended by Gov. Thomas Dewey, former Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, and General Maxwell Taylor, then superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. 
  Ben-Gurion was suspicious of the initial report that Marcus had been shot accidentally. The Haganah was composed of several factions whose lack of consensus over strategy and tactics was one of the reasons for Marcus's appointment as commander for Jerusalem, and Ben-Gurion suspected that elements in the Palmach may have conspired to kill Marcus so he would be replaced. On the same day Marcus was shot, Ben-Gurion summoned Yaakov Shimshon Shapira—later Israel's Attorney General—and asked him to investigate the incident.  Shapira's investigation was cursory. Despite conflicting reports concerning the number of shots fired, how many wounds Marcus suffered, whether the fatal wound could have been caused by Linski's rifle, and how and why Marcus may have been outside the monastery, he concluded that Linski shot Marcus in the line of duty. The report has never been made public.
caption: Memorial Plaque for Colonel David Marcus at Union Temple of Brooklyn
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