The identification of a grave in Haifa brings back into the spotlight one of the most painful chapters in Cypriot-Israeli history: the British detention camps for Jewish refugees in Cyprus after World War II.
The Israeli army announced that the grave of Shlomo Haimson had been located; he was killed in 1948 by gunfire from guards at the Karaolo detention camp, during an escape attempt. His death occurred in September 1948, a few months after the establishment of the State of Israel, while he was still among the displaced Jews being held in Cyprus by the British authorities.
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After his death, Haimson was buried in the Jewish cemetery in the Margos area near what is now occupied Pyroi, in the Nicosia district. In 1970, the remains of those buried there were transferred to Israel. Most were buried in Haifa without having been identified, with the result that their graves remained unmarked for decades.
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According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the investigation concluded that Haimson is buried in grave number 11, in the second row of the Jewish immigrants’ section at the Haifa cemetery. The identification was completed nearly 78 years after his death.
This effort was a collaboration between the Missing Persons Unit of the Israeli Army’s Casualties Directorate, the Military Rabbinate, the Israeli Ministry of Defense, and the Association of Jewish Prisoners in Cyprus. The long-term investigation made it possible to link the records from Cyprus to the unmarked grave in Haifa.
More than 52,000 Jews were held in British detention camps in Cyprus from 1946 to 1949, many of whom were Holocaust survivors attempting to reach what was then the British Mandate of Palestine.
SOURCE: CNA
