Kaufman, Mendel

Son of Malka and Meir was born on January 23, 1927, in Hungary, and as a child was cut off from his family, he was sent to a concentration camp and was miraculously saved. In early 1947 he sailed to Eretz Israel on the illegal immigration ship “Etzel” which arrived on the shores of the country, and its passengers were transferred by British forces to a detention camp in Cyprus. In Cyprus, he spent thirteen months during which he served in the Dov Gruner Betar Battalion and took part in a military training course for the Irgun, and after his release he arrived in Palestine and moved to the Betar Company in Shuni, near Binyamina. Mendel underwent a military training course and participated in the conquest of the five surrounding Arab villages (May 1948). He fell on the shore of Kfar Vitkin on the 21st of June 1948, while helping unload weapons from the Altalena. He was laid to rest at the Nahalat Yitzhak Military Cemetery. His name was immortalized in the memorial book for the fallen fighters of the Irgun, Zachrem Netzach, and in the Altalena.