11 Facts About Reuven Dafni

Reuven Dafni was a wartime British officer and special forces soldier and a soldier and diplomat for Israel.

Reuven Dafni was one of the founders of kibbutz Ein Gev and a longtime assistant director of the Yad Vashem memorial center.

Reuven Dafni came from an educated family that was Croatian and Jewish; he had two siblings.

In 1936, Reuven Dafni emigrated to Mandatory Palestine, then under British administration, and became one of the founders of kibbutz Ein Gev.

Reuven Dafni served in the Greek Campaign and in the Battle of Crete, as well as in the North African Campaign.

In 1942, a new Palestine Regiment, was created and Reuven Dafni was one of its soldiers.

In mid-March 1944, along with several other agents, Reuven Dafni was parachuted behind enemy lines into occupied Yugoslavia.

Reuven Dafni met up with the Partisans and kept them in contact with the Western Allies; he spent six months in Croatia.

Reuven Dafni returned to the United States in 1948, now helping to raise funds for the newly established State of Israel.

For 13 years, from 1983 to 1996, Reuven Dafni served as assistant director, in Jerusalem, of Yad Vashem: Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.

Reuven Dafni was married to Rina with whom he had two children, a son, Yoram, and a daughter, Avital.