Ruchs, Raphael (Richard)

Son of Lina and Max. He was born on March 27, 1913, in Berlin, Germany. When he grew up, he worked in Germany in pharmacy and in 1934 immigrated to Eretz Israel in a group of German immigrants and joined Kibbutz Sha’ar Ha’amakim. He quickly absorbed himself in society, worked devotedly in all branches of agriculture and liked his friends. In August 1940, with the call of the National Institutions to volunteer for the British Army, he accepted the call and enlisted in the Hebrew Transport Company 462. During the war, a difficult period took place in the Western Desert, with soldiers storming the ground and incessant bombing from the air. During his service he was also active in Zionist propaganda among his comrades in arms. After the expulsion of the enemy from North Africa and the preparations for the invasion of Sicily and Italy, Raphael’s unit was to be among the first landing forces. On the 27th of Nisan 5703 (1943), the unit set out on the ship “Arinapura” from Alexandria, Egypt, towards Malta, and was bombed and sunk by German planes. One hundred and forty of the soldiers of the unit drowned, Raphael among them. Eyewitnesses who were on the ship said that he could have been rescued by jumping from the deck but he chose to go down to the ship to try to save documents and thus he died. His friends at Sha’ar Ha’amakim commemorated his memory in a children’s swimming pool and a professional library in his honor. In the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, a ship-shaped monument was erected in memory of the missing, and next to it is a water pool with the names of the fallen engraved on the bottom.