Grave of Jewish soldier killed escaping British detention camp identified after 78 years
Shlomo Haimson was shot dead in Cyprus after trying to reach his newborn daughter in the newly established State of Israel
The grave of a Jewish soldier killed while escaping a British detention camp has been identified almost 78 years after his death.
Shlomo Haimson was 18 when he was shot dead by guards as he tried to break out of the Karaolos detention camp in Cyprus in September 1948.
His final resting place remained unknown for decades, but an IDF investigation has now established that his remains were reburied in an unmarked grave in Haifa.
Haimson, who was born in Romania in 1930 and lost his father during the Second World War, tried to reach Mandatory Palestine after the war with his mother Ita and partner Perla.
They travelled aboard the Pan York-Kibbutz Galuyot, but the ship was intercepted by British forces and its passengers were sent to detention camps in Cyprus.
While detained, Haimson joined the “Defenders’ Ranks”, which operated under the Hagana and prepared young men for military service once they reached Israel.
After Israel was established in 1948, his mother and partner were allowed to leave Cyprus. Haimson remained in the camp.
In September that year, he learnt that Perla had given birth to their daughter, Miriam, and decided to escape.
On the night of 29-30 September, he and eight others broke through the camp fences. Guards opened fire, killing Haimson. The others were caught and returned to the camp.
He was buried the following day in a Jewish cemetery in Margo, Cyprus. His grave was left without his name because those at the camp did not know him well enough to identify it.
His remains were among those transferred to Israel in 1970 during Operation Margo.
Around 120 of the 163 people brought to Israel could not be identified and were buried as unknowns in a special section of the Kfar Samir cemetery in Haifa.
Decades later, efforts began to establish the identities of those buried there.
A special team within the IDF’s EITAN Missing Persons Branch was set up in 2023 and examined archive records, witness accounts and historical photographs, as well as carrying out archaeological surveys.
Investigators eventually concluded that Haimson was buried in grave 11, row two, in the cemetery’s Cyprus immigrants section.
His daughter Miriam, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who live in Rio de Janeiro, were told this week that his grave had finally been found.
Brig Gen Edna Ilia, head of the IDF Casualties Division, said: “Seventy-eight years have passed since Shlomo Haimson fell in the detention camp, and our moral debt to his memory and his family has not ceased for a moment.
“Last night, when the IDF attaché stood in uniform in the family home in Rio de Janeiro and delivered the news to his daughter and descendants, the past embraced the present. The meeting is living proof that the IDF never abandons its soldiers, even after decades.”
Haimson’s family said they were “deeply moved, fulfilled and eternally grateful for the unwavering dedication, meticulous efforts and sensitivity shown by every professional and investigator involved in this noble mission”.
They said knowing that his final resting place would now bear his name had brought “indescribable peace” to the family.
His descendants are expected to travel to Israel for a military ceremony in Haifa, where a headstone bearing Haimson’s name will be placed on the grave.