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Devi, Joseph

Devi, Joseph


Son of David and Gladys. He was born on January 4, 1948 in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. When Yosef was three years old, the family immigrated to Israel. At first the family lived in the Hadera transit camp and the year after she came to Israel she moved to Ramat Gan. When he reached school age, Yosef began to study at the “Amishav” school in Ramat Yitzhak and completed his studies there with very high grades. Joseph was a cheerful child, a love for all and everything gave him love. While in elementary school, he belonged to the Hanoar Haoved movement. He also tended to sport and loved to play soccer in a youth group to which he belonged and also liked to play chess. After graduating from elementary school, he moved to Ort Yad Singlovsky High School in Tel Aviv and after a year of studies he moved to ORT school in Ramat Gan where he studied for two years. Two years later, he completed his studies as an outstanding student in the class. Despite his love for various games, Joseph knew how to stop them and come to the aid of a wife who had been wrong in the way and to direct her, to carry his burdened old baggage or to help someone at a loss whose door was closed to him. A story about him was that when he was about nine he used to go out to school as soon as usual, saying that he played a little before school started. But then a single old wife told her that Joseph used to come to her house every morning, do the shopping for her, feed her devotedly, and leave food for her for lunch. Even when he returned from school, he used to go to her house, to fulfill all her needs, to feed him, and only afterward would he return home. All this he would do without pretending to be human, because by nature he loved to help others – and quietly, because of his hatred of fame and honor. He was humble and humble in his manner and loved to do as his above actions prove. Another interesting thing is that Joseph found a wallet full of foreign money on the pavement in the street. He imagined that this wallet belonged to a tourist who had lost his wallet a while ago. After looking around and seeing a group of youths from abroad, headed by an Israeli instructor. When he approached them, he asked them if they had lost anything and when it turned out that the wallet belonged to one of them, he returned his loss and his friends reacted to this act with a puzzlement that he did not give the loss to the police station. Since there he would have won some prize; Yosef responded with surprise to them: “Why am I entitled to a prize? After all, I only returned a loss to its owner.” About four months after graduating from high school, Yosef was drafted into the IDF and was not yet 18 years old. It was in November 1965. When he was drafted, he said to his mother: “Mother, wherever they want me to permit – there visa – because I do not go from lack of choice but out of recognition and desire to do something for my country and my birth.” At the time of his induction, he was offered an airborne course, a submarine or a commando. But Joseph immediately chose submarines. He replied to his parents: “I know it’s hard, but if I do not have difficulties, they’ll take me out of the course. In January 1967, Joseph was ordained as a diver and was devoted and loyal in his service. He always sought a special military service in which he would be a fighter on the first line with his special service on the sea. On the eve of Israel’s 19th Independence Day, he was sent to the State of Israel as an excellent soldier who knew what he had to do.Joseph participated in the Six-Day War and two months later (on July 30, 1967) was sent to England to serve in the Dakar. On January 9, 1968, he received his last letter asking him to stop writing to him that he would soon return home, but on that same day the submarine went out to the port of the house and did not reach it. It wasOn the 25th of Tevet 5728 (25.1.1968). The Chief Military Rabbinate determined that the date of Yosef’s passing, in the course of his duties, together with the rest, was the 29th of Tevet 5728 (30.1.1968). Since Joseph was one of the missing members of the team, a memorial monument was placed inside him in the memorial to the Dakar people in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. In his book “Six Days in Decker,” Eran Shorer commemorated his name and remembered by bringing his picture. On the 28th of June 1999, after years of searching, the INS Dakar submarine was found on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, at a depth of 2,900 meters on its planned sailing route and 250 miles from the port of Haifa. His burial place is unknown.

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