Zolana, Yosef-Meir

Son of Esther Rachel and Ze’ev (Wolf). He was born on November 21, 1913 in Gombin, Poland, to a large family of children. The family made a living by trading fish, eggs and wheat, and Yosef, like his other brothers, helped support the household. He was a lively, energetic and active young man, a sports fan and, most importantly, enjoyed swimming and soccer. In 1939 he immigrated to Palestine illegally. His ship was caught off the coast of the country by the British, but he jumped from it and arrived after a long swim to Tel Aviv beach. He lived in Tel Aviv with his relatives and worked in fishing. During the Second World War he enlisted in the British Army and was assigned to the 462 Company of the Transportation Corps and served in Egypt and Beirut. At the end of April 1943, he went on board the ship “Aryanpura” from Egypt to Malta in order to participate in the Allied invasion of Europe. On the 27th of Nissan, 5703 (1.5.1943), a German reconnaissance plane was flying over the convoy of ships headed by the “Aryanpura”. The plane bombed the convoy off the Benghazi coast. Joseph’s ship suffered direct damage and drowned. One hundred and forty men of the 462 Company were killed in the disaster, illuminating between them. He left a brother. The rest of his family perished in the Holocaust. The memory of Yosef was commemorated in “The Book of Volunteerism,” in “The Book of the Year of the Journalists” and in the “Yizkor” book of the Jabotinsky Institute, where a monument was erected in the cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. His burial place is unknown.