Mordechai Eldar was born in 1929 in Campulung la Tissa, Transylvania. In April 1944 his family's possessions were confiscated and they were deported to the Saltina ghetto. Deported in May from the ghetto to Auschwitz, Mordechai survived Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen, Mauthausen and Gunskirchen. After the war he tried to immigrate to Palestine with his surviving sisters aboard the Exodus ship but the vessel was immediately forced by the British authorities to return to Hamburg upon arrival in Haifa. Emerging from the Holocaust a Zionist, Mordechai decided to devote his life to ensuring the national security of the State of Israel and served in the Israel Defense Forces for 30 years, achieving the rank of lieutenant general.