Tannenholz, Reuven

Son of Rivka and Ze’ev, was born on March 7, 1915, in the town of Bialowiecka (Volhynia), a small town on the Polish border. As a boy, on January 26, 1926, he immigrated to Israel with his parents who settled in Afula. Reuven helped his father in the work of blacksmiths and frames, and when he reached the age of 17 aspired to stand alone. Despite his parents’ pleas, he left Afula and moved to Tel Aviv. He worked there as a laborer in the “sailors” factory, and also knew unemployment and lack of livelihood. For several years he was a member of Kibbutz Na’an and Sdot Yam. He participated in work-conquering work and was one of the founders of Tigert’s “Northern Fence” to prevent infiltration Arab rioters from Syria and Lebanon during the bloody riots of 1936-1939. In all his wanderings he was self-possessed, humble and devoted. Even in times of suffering, he did not fall in the mood and wrote to his parents about his situation in a humorous way. With the outbreak of World War II he was among the first volunteers to the British army. “There is no justification for the young people of our people to sit with their hands folded for such a time,” he wrote home. As a soldier in the British Army, he spent six years in Africa, Italy, France and Belgium, and in his letters from that period there was considerable disappointment that Hebrew soldiers were not given real combat duties. With the outbreak of the War of Independence he was among the first volunteers to the army, and was one of the conquerors of Acre and fought in the Galilee. Reuven died on Tuesday, June 10, 1948, in the defense of Ramot Naftali in the Galilee, was buried in Ramot Naftali, and on 27 March 1950 he was transferred to the military cemetery in Haifa.