Gabriel Ersler (1913-2005) was born in Włocławek (Poland), studied medicine in Berlin until 1933, then in Bern until 1936, where he sympathised with the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland. He arrived in Spain in September 1937, initially serving in the International Brigade base in Albacete, then becoming captain of the 1st Battalion Sanitary Unit in the 13th Dąbrowski International Brigade.
As a medic, he took part in the battles of Sierra Quemada and the Ebro, among others. After leaving Spain, he found himself in France, where after the outbreak of war he joined the resistance movement.
In 1944, he travelled through the Middle East to the USSR, and in February 1945 he was arrested and, after a year and a half of investigation in Lubyanka, sentenced to 25 years in labour camps. He returned to Poland in 1956. Due to the anti-Semitic campaign, he had to leave the country in 1968. He lived in France and Israel, where he worked as a doctor.
