Reuven, Erwin

Son of Lilly and Rudolf. He was born on the 13th of Tishrei (13.10.1913) in Germany. From his childhood, he was connected to the youth organization “The Young Maccabee” and from there he carried out the values ​​that he outlined. In 1935 he was sent to the movement’s main council as the emissary of the Zionist pioneering movement in the hachshara. In 1936, after undergoing agricultural training in Westerbeck, he immigrated to Eretz Israel, where the group completed its training in Degania and from there moved to Hadera as a working group. Here, too, as in the previous training stages, Erwin was one of the leaders and activists who always supported every position and task, and as the representative of the group gained the trust and appreciation of the residents of the moshava and its institutions. In 1939 he left with a settlement nucleus for Lower Hanita, and in February 1940 they went to the land of Matzuva for permanent settlement. In Metzuba, Erwin held responsible positions as a treasurer, center and foreign representative, and was also popular among the Arabs in the area. As a mukhtar of Metzuva, he served as liaison with the British administration, the regional police officers, and its news officers, on the British intentions in the area. on 6 Iyar, May 11, 1943, when he returned from a meeting of Haganah members in the Galilee, a fire broke out in a collision between his car and a British military truck. He was brought to rest in the cemetery in Matzuva. left a wife, a son and a daughter who was born after his death. His name was immortalized in the pages of memory that were taken out by Kibbutz Matzuva.