Fighter, member of the Palmach, the Jewish Brigade and the Israeli security establishment, a founder of Kibbutz HaZorea.
כהן זכה בפרס ישראל למשפטים.
While a young man in Germany he joined the German communist movement in his native city, and when Hitler came to power he fled from Germany to Italy, where he joined the HeHalutz movement.
He came to Israel as part of HeHalutz in July 1936 and became one of the founders of Kibbutz HaZorea. Ben-Horin joined the Palmach and took part in the actions of the Special Night Squads led by Orde Charles Wingate. Through his role in this unit he became friends with Shimon Avidan (Siegbert Koch), a member of Kibbutz Ein HaShofet, and Yizhak Sadeh, the founder of the Palmach.
When World War II broke out, Ben-Horin was appointed deputy to Avidan, who was the commander of the “German unit” in the Palmach. This unit was established with the help of the British as a secret guerilla force of German speakers to be activated if Eretz Israel to be conquered from Egypt by Erwin Rommel.
After the War of Independence, Ben-Horin returned to Kibbutz HaZorea, but spent most of his time on active duty in the Israel Defense Forces reserves. In the 1960s, he headed the kibbutz factory, Plastopil (which produces flexible plastic strips), and wrote his autobiography Bizchut HaYamim HaHem
(“Thanks to Those Days”).
Milestones in the life of Yehuda Ben-Horin
Yehuda Ben-Horin was born in the city of Breslau in 1915 as Yehuda Briger. When Hitler came to power he fled from Germany to Italy.
He came to Israel as part of HeHalutz in July 1936 and became one of the founders of Kibbutz HaZorea.
In November 1944, Ben-Horin joined the Jewish Brigade of the British Army and was stationed in the city of Treviso in Italy.
Ben-Horin arrived at Matthausen concentration camp a few days after its liberation and organized the transfer of the survivors to a camp in Salzburg, Austria, and from there to ports in Italy where they boarded clandestine immigration ships bound for Eretz Israel.
Ben-Horin returned to his kibbutz
in 1946.
He went to Belgium in the framework of the clandestine immigration efforts known as Aliyah Bet.
After the War of Independence, Ben-Horin returned to Kibbutz HaZorea. He passed away in his kibbutz on May 4, 1974.
