Shafanoff (Ben-Zvi), Arthur
Son of Sophia and Heinrich (Zvi), was born on February 21, 2121 in the city of Krakow, Poland. In his city he completed high school and as an athlete he was admitted to a high school for physical culture. With the outbreak of World War II he was forced to stop his studies and with the flow of refugees fled to the Soviet Union. Thanks to his talents, he was able to join the well-known sports team “Dynamo” and worked for a factory. When he learned of the Sikorski-Stalin agreement and the establishment of an army of Polish refugees he volunteered and was accepted into an artillery unit. With the Anders Army he arrived in Tehran and in October 1943 he immigrated to Eretz Israel. With a group of Jewish soldiers he left Anders’ army and joined Kibbutz Ein Hamifratz. He stood up to all the difficulties of adjustment and slowly became involved in kibbutz life and established a family. In addition to his permanent role in the kibbutz, he also developed the sport of his favorite. At his initiative, a sports field was established and he organized a soccer team that defeated the soccer team of a British army unit stationed near the kibbutz. In the end, he joined the Hapoel Haifa football team. With the outbreak of the War of Independence, the kibbutz decided to send Arthur to a brigade commander’s course and he served in the Carmeli Brigade, occasionally carrying out daring missions such as bombing bridges, clearing enemy-blocked roads, and conquering villages. In the battles of Ramat Yohanan, after the platoon commander and his deputy were killed, he was temporarily appointed platoon commander and assigned the task of removing the platoon personnel from the fire, without any casualties, but he himself remained on the battlefield. His friends thought him dead, but it was only a ploy that saved his life, because the Arabs thought so too. On April 22, 1948, On the liberation of Haifa, Artak was sent with his men to the aid of an entire platoon of Haganah men who were under siege at the “Najada House.” The mission was very difficult, the group advanced from house to house and the Arabs set fire to it, He was brought to rest in the cemetery at Kibbutz Ein Hamifratz, and in his memory he published a booklet called “Artak Shafanoff” in his kibbutz.
