Wilner, Samson (Shemesh)
Son of Leah and Zvi. He was educated in a cheder, then in a government elementary school and was sent to a yeshiva in Cracow in 1934. In 1934, Yosef, his older brother, immigrated to Eretz Israel. Samson immigrated to Israel with the help of his brother, who received a permit as a full-time student in a yeshiva in Petach Tikvah, and after six months of yeshiva study began to work as a boy in a packing house in one of the orchards and following his brother he joined the National Workers’ Union, and after the outbreak of World War II he joined the heavy transport company In the British army. On May 1, 1943 he was on board the ship “Aryanpura”, which was sunk by German planes en route from Alexandria, Egypt to Malta, and after six hours wrestling with the waves was collected by a Greek submarine and arrived safely in Egypt. His brother, an activist of the Lechi underground, was suggested to help the underground by distributing leaflets among Jewish soldiers in Egypt and purchasing weapons. He fulfilled these tasks with great devotion. After his discharge from the army in 1946, he immediately enlisted in Lehi and on June 17 he was one of the participants in the attack on the railway workshops and the Haifa Bay, killing 11 fighters and 18 men, all of whom were sentenced to death. On 14 Iyar, May 4, 1947, he was among the escapees at the time of the Acre prison breakout by the Irgun and at the time of his escape he was wounded by British soldiers. He was buried in the cemetery in Shavei Zion, north of Acre.
