Louis Harris

BORN LEEDS JULY 31, 1924. DIED LEEDS, FEBRUARY 24, 2016, AGED 91

WHETHER IT was hot-air ballooning, camping in rough and inhospitable terrain or joining in safaris in wildlife areas, the spirit of adventure never left Louis Harris. He was a giant in the Leeds community and a pillar of the Beth Hamidrash Hagadol Synagogue. His work for Israel was known nationally and internationally. Born to Dolly and Ellis, a tailor, Harris was one of five siblings. Educated at Roundhay School, he married Adrienne Cohen on March 22, 1954.

Even from the age of 12, he was a fervent Zionist, collecting donations and becoming the youngest member at Zionist meetings.

In 1940, aged 16, he joined the Home Guard where he qualified as a machine gunner. Working as a steel erector during the day and training as an engineering draughtsman by night, he eventually graduated in structural engineering.

At 18, he volunteered for the RAF Air Crew but was soon seconded to an engineering division, helping construct the Mulberry Harbour landing docks for D-Day.

When the state of Israel was found- ed, Harris attended a Leeds Ajex meeting of more than 600 people who pledged their support. Along with 25 other ex-service personnel, the cohort was sent on one-way tickets to various contacts in London and Paris.

After being trained in the French Foreign Legion, he and his troop eventually arrived at the displaced persons camp of St Jerome, near Marseilles, where they helped refugees board Liberty boats manned by American and French Jews.

The French police and Sureté turned a blind eye, even assisting by pushing hand-carts containing the refugees’ possessions down the Rue de Canibierre. Eventually, the Machalniks were spirited away by small boats and an army of tradesmen’s vans.

They volunteered financial and military support, committed to fight alongside the Israelis. “It was unique fighting as Jews in a Jewish army in a Jewish state and with badges that said Israel Defence Forces,” he once noted.

Apart from being allowed to vote in the first Israeli elections, the volunteers had to hand over their passports, to be sent to would-be Jewish arrivals from Germany. When his passport was eventually returned, his photograph had been removed and

Louis Harris: his passport helped displaced people leave Germany