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Admin History/Bio: During the Second World War, Dunkelman served as a major in the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada. After enlisting in 1940, he became a platoon commander. Dunkelman took part in the second wave of D-Day landings in 1944 and later assisted in the final Allied assault on Germany, earning the Distinguished Service Order. He left the army in 1945 after the war had ended. The Queen's Own Rifles Association and the Canadian Society for the Weizmann Institute of Science organized a reception in 1976 to honour the publication of Dunkelman's autobiography, Dual Allegiance.

Scope and Content: Series consists of records documenting Ben Dunkelman's involvement in the Second World War. Included are newspaper clippings, maps, photographs, and correspondence. Some files deal with Dunkelman's experiences during the war; others relate to Dunkelman's relationship with veterans after the war and, in one case, with his memories of the war. The files cover such subjects as The Queen's Own Rifles, Veterans, the liberation of The Netherlands, Aubrey Cosens (a soldier under Dunkelman’s command who was killed in battle but later honoured with the Victoria Cross), and the prosecution of Nazi war criminals.

Related Material: See fonds 2, series 6 for more information on Dunkelman's involvement in the Second World War.

Admin History/Bio: Dunkelman maintained private correspondence with a wide variety of friends, from well-known people such as composer Leonard Bernstein, former Israeli defence minister Shimon Peres and former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin to his father David, the lawyer Carl Goldenberg and his father-in-law, David Lifshitz. One correspondence is with Fred Johnson, an acquaintance from the end of the Arab-Israeli War. Fred Johnson helped Ben and Yael establish themselves in Israel in the years following the war. Johnson wrote to Dunkelman in 1975 and they resumed correspondence.

Scope and Content: Sub-series contains 12 files of personal correspondence between Benjamin (and sometimes Yael) Dunkelman and family, friends and acquaintances on such subjects as Ben and Yael's marriage, buying a new apartment, condolences for the death of a friend's mother, Yitzhak Rabin's assassination and a retirement application.