Tanfilov, Shmuel

Son of Chaya and Tanchum, he was one of the founders of Degania Aleph. Born in 1921 in Degania Aleph, he studied at the Joint school in the Jordan Valley. He was a quiet, serious boy, always ready to help others. He did not share his thoughts, but his essays in adolescence are very sensitive, especially to the problem of poverty and the social gap. After the outbreak of World War II he accepted the order of the National Institutions, enlisted in the British Army and was assigned to the Hebrew Unit for Transportation No. 462. At the end of 1940 he left with his unit and served in various places in the Middle East: Libya, Egypt and Syria. His duties include transporting supplies, soldiers to the front, and prisoners from the front. His comrades in the unit noted his dedication to the tasks he was assigned and the cleanliness and order he maintained in the difficult field conditions. On 27 Nisan, May 1, 1943, when his unit was near Tabruk on its way to Malta, their ship, the Anapura, was bombed by German planes. One hundred and forty of the unit’s soldiers went down into the depths, Shmuel among them. Members of his group published a booklet in his memory containing his letters, essays, memoirs by friends of Degania and soldiers who served with him; The youth in Degania Aleph commemorated his name in the “Muliya Garden” planted in the farm with a water pool and a tombstone. In this garden is the Syrian tank that broke into the kibbutz during the War of Independence. 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.