IDF Identifies Burial Site of 1948 Fallen Soldier Shlomo Haimson in Haifa

After nearly 78 years, the Israel Defense Forces and Ministry of Defense have located the burial site of Shlomo Haimson, an IDF soldier who died in 1948 while attempting to escape a British detention camp in Cyprus. Haimson, born in Romania in 1930, immigrated to Mandatory Palestine aboard the illegal immigrant ship Pan York but was detained by the British and sent to the Krawlos camp in Cyprus. In September 1948, upon learning of his newborn daughter Miriam, he tried to escape with eight others but was shot and killed by guards. He was buried anonymously in the Jewish cemetery in Margo, Cyprus, as his identity was unknown at the time.

In 1970, as part of Operation Margo, 163 bodies from the Cyprus cemetery, including Haimson’s, were transferred to a special immigrants’ section in Haifa’s Kfar Samir cemetery, many buried as unknowns. A long-term investigation initiated in 2010 by the Immigrants from Cyprus Association and later intensified by the IDF’s Missing Soldiers Unit in 2023 used archival research, testimonies, and archaeological surveys to confirm Haimson’s identity and exact grave location (grave 11, row 2).

Haimson’s family, residing in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was informed of the discovery in a ceremony attended by IDF representatives. They will soon travel to Israel for a state military ceremony where a gravestone bearing his name will be placed, formally recognizing him after decades of anonymity. The family expressed deep gratitude for the dedication and sensitivity shown by all involved in the identification process, emphasizing the honor brought to their father and grandfather’s memory and legacy.