Background
He was born on February 22 in New York to immigrant parents from Romania.
He was born on February 22 in New York to immigrant parents from Romania.
He received a Jewish and general education. Mickey, as he was affectionately called, grew up in a neighborhood where anti-Semitism was rife and he set about building up his undernourished body in order to defend himself and the honor of his family.
In high school he became a good all-around athlete and also had a brilliant academic record. After eighteen months at New York City College he won an appointment to the United States Military Academy, West Point (1920). He continued to excel in athletics and in 1924 received an invitation to the Olympic tryouts. At West Point he was particularly strong in military art and leadership potential.
After graduating in 1924 Marcus studied law and remained in the army until 1927, when he entered government legal service, moving from the Treasury Department to the Attorney General's office. He was appointed Commissioner of Correction by Mayor Fiorcllo H. La Guardia of New York and in 1934 drew up the plan for the raid on the Welfare Island penitentiary when the prison was taken over by gangsters under the protection of corrupt political bosses. Marcus personally led the raid that broke underworld resistance.
In 1940 he rejoined the army with the rank of lieutenant colonel as divisional judge advocate and divisional headquarters commander. In 1942 he served as head of the Rangers' Training School in Hawaii, where he trained some 8,000 men in jungle warfare in the Pacific. In 1943 Marcus became chief of planning in the Civil Affairs Division in the War Department in Washington, where he was charged with organizing the administration of territories in Europe to be liberated or occupied, and was one of the American advisers at the “Big Three’’ sessions held at various locations until after the end of the war.
In 1944 he volunteered to parachute into Normandy on D day, and in 1945 was appointed to the staff of the military governor in Germany. He visited the Dachau concentration camp a few days after its liberation, an experience which was to haunt him for the rest of his life. With the full approval of Generals Lucius Clay and George S. Patton, he worked to make conditions tolerable for displaced persons throughout Germany. His next appointment was head of the Nazi War Crimes Investigation Division at the Pentagon.
In 1948 Marcus acceded to the request of the Jewish Agency and the Haganah to act as military adviser to David Ben-Gurion and arrived in Palestine at the beginning of 1948 under the name of Michael Stone. He was instrumental in devising the model upon which the Israeli army was based, prepared its first military manuals, ran training courses for its commanders, and planned the strategy for the War of Independence. He was said to have been responsible for the fact that, when the Arabs invaded, Israel was ready on every front. When war broke out he actively participated in the battle for the Negev, and the attacks on Latrun, and was involved in the planning and construction of the “Burma Road” built to bring supplies to be leaguered Jerusalem. On May 28. 1948, when the Old City of Jerusalem fell he was appointed commander of the Jerusalem front, with the rank of aluf (brigadier general).
On June 11, 1948, during the first cease-fire. Marcus was accidentally shot by a guard in his own headquarters near Jerusalem. He was buried at West Point with full military honors, and the head-stone over his grave carries the legend “A Soldier for All Humanity.” Kibbutz Mishmar David in the Judean Hills, founded in 1949, was named in his honor.
Quotes from others about the person
Colonel David Marcus was killed at 3.50 a.m. Wrapped in a blanket, lie had gone outside the perimeter fence of his headquarters in Abu Ghosh. As he returned he was challenged in Hebrew by a sentry. It appears from the only witness, the sentry himself, that Marcus replied in English, or what sounded like English, and jumped over the low stone fence. The sentry claimed he fired one warning shot into the air, and when the person failed to stop, fired another shot into his chest. It was only with difficulty that the sentry was prevented from committing suicide when he discovered the identity of his victim.