Friedler, Joseph

Son of Israel. He was born on the 28th of Tammuz 1922 in Germany and immigrated to Eretz Israel with Youth Aliyah in 1938. He studied in the first graduating class of the religious youth village near Kfar Hasidim, and after graduating came with his group to work in the Aryeh group (Sde Eliyahu). About a year and a half after the outbreak of World War II, he enlisted in the British Army and was assigned to the 462 Company of the Transport Corps. He served in Egypt and Beirut and at the end of April 1943 he went on board the ship “Aryanpura” from Egypt in the direction of Malta in order to participate in the invasion of the Allies to Europe. On 27 Nissan 5703 (1.5.1943), a German reconnaissance plane was flying over the ships, which was headed by the “Aryanpura”. The plane bombed the convoy. “Arinfora” drowned and together with it descended into the depths the one hundred and forty members of Company 462, Joseph was among them. He left behind a father. His name was immortalized in “The Book of Volunteerism,” in the Yizkor book of the Jabotinsky Institute and in the “Yearbook of the Journalists”, 1946. In the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, a ship-shaped monument was erected in memory of those who were missing, and next to it is a water pool with the names of the fallen engraved on the bottom. This fallen hero is a “maklan” – a hero whose burial place is unknown.