Korkin, Menachem

Son of Shulamit and Yosef. Born on August 3, 1922, in Yavne’el, he completed his studies at the elementary school in the settlement, and after completing his studies he did not fit learning into his stormy nature. He was accustomed to his work and liked to drive the mules, to graze the sheep and plow the fields, and from childhood he was very fond of animals, collecting bird eggs and sorting them into different types and colors. He spent most of his time on the football field and served as head of the soccer team of the moshav’s youth. He continued to be active in the field of sport, especially in swimming, but continued to act with daring and risk and devoted his time and energy to the security of the Yishuv. As a person who had a good command of the use of weapons, took part in the Haganah activities, and for a while he worked with a group of Hanoar Haoved from Yavne’el in the kibbutz hachshara, but found no satisfaction in it. Here he was satisfied. He was proud of his actions and saw his role as a mission and honor. In 1941, a joint plan was established between the Yishuv institutions and the British forces to establish a commando unit that would blow up the oil refineries in the city of Tripoli, which is under the control of the French Vichy regime. According to the plan, a motorboat carrying three invasion boats with three classes will arrive at the Tripoli coast. One was assigned to guarding the boats, the other to security and diversion along the railway running from the outside to the refineries, and the third was to plant the explosives in the refineries. The twenty-three men who were selected for the daring operation, including Menachem, underwent a difficult training period that included training in a stormy sea. On the morning of 21 Iyar, May 18, 1941, early in the morning, the boat set sail for Lebanon. At midnight the last broadcast was received from them and since then no trace has been made. Menachem left his parents, three sisters and a brother. On Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, a boat-shaped gravestone was erected in a water pool with the names of the 23, including the name of Menahem, is engraved on it, and commemorated in a memorial book commemorating the fallen of Yavne’el, the Yordei Hasira “. He was 18 years old when he died.