Amir, Dan

Son of Robert and Hannah. He was born on May 30, 1924 in Berlin, the capital of Germany. When he was five, he began his elementary studies in Berlin. He was a very developed and active child. Although Hitler had already mastered Germany, Dan had successfully passed the entrance exams to the Real High School, and was the only Jew who was accepted into the institution. He succeeded in his studies, but two years later Dan found the doors of the school closed to him and his parents moved him to the “Theodor Herzl” high school. He soon became a central social position in this school and was loved by all. Like many Jewish homes, music also played an important role in his home. Dan studied violin, played in the school orchestra, participated in great music evenings at his parents’ home, and achieved impressive musical achievements. Dan treated his parents with unusual ways and took into consideration their opinion and their economic situation, which was not at all benign. He would walk to school to save the fare. In his spare time, he would go on trips and long trips with his sister. On the bicycle he bought with his savings, they would go for walks around Berlin. In March 1939, they immigrated to Israel as part of the Youth Aliya. From the day of his arrival until February 1941 he worked with the children in Talpiot in Jerusalem and during those years he studied high school. He studied Arabic in Talpiot and the Arab subject was close to his Lev. Perhaps the Bedouins’ primitive ways of life without electricity and without a bed pleased him. In February 1941, Dan moved to the Ein Gev Youth Company. He was brave and stubborn and always chose to fight for his own. He learned to drive a tractor himself and did so after school and after work. Whatever he decided to study he would acquire with perseverance and perseverance and would struggle with all the difficulties and achieve achievements. Just as he worked hard in the pick, he learned the painting work because he wanted to know how to paint. He would work to the point where he wanted to do everything himself. In 1943, he joined the “Scouts” group in Pardes Hannah and from then until his last day was in charge of the building at Ma’agan Michael. He gained knowledge in this field through self-study, and in 1954-1956 he also participated in an evening course for building engineers at the Hebrew Technion in Haifa. For three years he studied three evenings a week, after a hard day’s work and before another day of work, and graduated with honors. In the course he stood out for his adult quiet, his steady behavior and his serious attitude to studies. “Dan was a serious, diligent and visionary student who devoted himself to studies almost unbound and was loved by everyone who knew him at school,” said the director of the School of Practical Engineers at the Hebrew Technion in Haifa, who was also one of his teachers. After the course new problems arose and the search for new solutions and an exchange of ideas in Dan came to be learned from each other’s experience. His muscles were right and his senses sharp, and he was able to merge an exemplary order, a meticulous precision with an abundant and vivid imagination. Dan always stood as a constructive and creative person, with plans, will, and ambition, and more than any aspiration for true perfection, a constant need to strive for it, even though he never reached perfection. He never blamed the material for something that did not work, but rather hung the blame on people – and sometimes did so impatiently. Many times he was right and many times he was not right, but there was always power in his work. It was a kind of crane that lifted it above the material. Dan was drafted into the IDF in late November 1950. After being discharged from regular service in 1952, he married a wife who was a graduate of the Nahal Brigade and joined the kibbutz. Throughout the years he participated in technical committees and coordinated the construction committee in the agriculture. After his discharge from the army, he would go on reserve duty for as long as he was called, and at the end of July 1970 he was called up for reserve dutyactive. On the 12th of Av 5770 (August 12, 1970) he fell while carrying out his duties, leaving a wife and four children to be buried in the Ma’agan Michael cemetery, a pamphlet in his memory called Dan Amir, published by Kibbutz Ma’agan Michael.