Shachnai, Assaf

Son of Miriam and Eliyahu, was born on the 14th of Teves, December 27, 1928, in Jerusalem, to a family with a pioneering, national-socialist consciousness. He spent his childhood in Kfar Yechezkel, where he began his studies at school, and absorbed the atmosphere of labor in the village. From childhood, he loved the work, and was not drawn to the theoretical studies. Upon completion of his studies at the vocational school of the Hebrew Technion in Haifa, he and his fellow members of the “Ha-Mahanot Haolim” movement, went to a training center in Maoz Haim. At that time his father was on a mission to the refugee camps in Greece, and his brother and sister served in the British Army. Assaf promised his father before leaving on a mission, that he would not leave his mother until one of the family members returned, but he felt he could not wait, and asked his father if he would allow him to retract his promise. To his delight, he received his father’s blessing for the way he had chosen, and was very proud of it. He was sent to the Arava, and during a search for weapons by the British, he was arrested while wrestling with the Regents, and was detained for a prolonged period, in the Latrun detention camp. After his discharge, he joined the Maoz training program, and completed a brigade commander’s course. At the beginning of the War of Independence, he moved to the Negev Brigade as a squad commander. He went, with his class, on a tour of the border towards Nirim, and on their way, they made a mistake and entered the village of Shu’ut, where an Arab crowd tried to detain them. Assaf ordered his comrades to retreat, and stayed with two friends to cover up the retreat. He fell in this position, on the 26th of Kislev, December 9, 1947. He was laid to rest in the civilian section of the Haifa military cemetery. Assaf excelled in his heroism in this action, in which he saved many friends’ lives. A year after his fall, the Operation Stabilization of control of the area east of the Gaza Strip and the blocking of Egyptian attempts to advance toward Beersheba, was named after him; “Operation Assaf”.