**Jewish Refugee Killed in Cyprus Identified After 78 Years**
The remains of Shlomo Haimson, a Jewish refugee who was killed at a British detention camp in Cyprus in 1948, have been identified in Israel after nearly eight decades. Israeli authorities announced the identification on Wednesday, revealing that Haimson's grave has been located at a cemetery in Haifa.
Haimson was shot by guards at the Karaolos detention camp in Famagusta during an attempted escape in September 1948, just months after the establishment of the State of Israel. Following his death, he was buried in a Jewish cemetery in Margo, a settlement with a long-standing Jewish presence in Cyprus since 1897.
In 1970, the remains of those interred at the Margo cemetery were transferred to Israel. However, most of the graves were not individually identified at that time, leaving Haimson's burial site among those that remained anonymous for many years.
The identification of Haimson's remains was made possible through a collaborative investigation involving the Israeli army’s missing persons directorate, the military rabbinate, the defense ministry, and the association of Jewish prisoners in Cyprus. Their efforts pinpointed Haimson’s grave as number 11 in the second row of the cemetery’s Jewish immigrant section.
This case is part of a broader historical context concerning the detention of Jewish refugees by British authorities. Between 1946 and 1949, over 52,000 Jews, many of whom were Holocaust survivors, were detained in various camps across Cyprus. The British established these camps after intercepting ships that were carrying Jewish refugees attempting to enter Mandatory Palestine, which was under British control at the time.
The identification of Shlomo Haimson's remains not only brings closure to his family but also serves as a poignant reminder of the struggles faced by Jewish refugees during this tumultuous period in history.