On June 2nd we went to the Ayalon Institute in Rehovot. The Ayalon Institute is on kibbutz, Kibbutz Hill, where there was a secret underground bullet factory before and during the War of Independence.
When Naomi and I were in 5th grade, our class performed a play on this secret underground bullet factory so we already knew a little bit about it before visiting. If anyone is interested in finding this play it is called 28 Steps Below.
In the beginning, there were 75 people on Kibbutz Hill. 30 of them (including children) were kibbutzniks and 45 of them were workers in the bullet factory. It was a very dangerous operation and everyone involved was at risk. As to not put all the kibbutzniks in danger from this secret operation, very few people outside of the people working on the bullet operation knew the secret taking place right under their noses. People who didn’t know about the bullet factory were referred to as giraffes because giraffes have long necks but can’t see what is happening below them. Although many kibbutzniks of kibbutz Hill were giraffes, the truck driver who came to pick up the bullets was not a giraffe.
There were two entrances to the underground bullet making facilities, under the laundry machine and behind the bakery oven. The laundry machined covered up the noise made by the bullet factory. As part of the coverup of the operation, and to have enough laundry to keep the machine always busy, they took in laundry from others, including British soldiers. The dimensions of the underground factory were 24m by 24m by 100m. Within that space there were workstations, a bathroom, a shooting range to test bullets, and even a tanning room that they used to give the workers tans so their pale skin would not be a give away that they were working in an underground factory every day. Since the factory was such a necessity and needed to be secretive, they managed to build it in only 22 days! They had lots of workers day and night. While building the factory they said it was refrigeration for local farmers’ fruits and veggies to wave suspicions.
Over the course of 3 years the workers in this secret factory successfully made 2.25 million 9mm bullets. With the independence of the state of Israel, the bullet factory didn’t need to stay secret from the British and this group of 45 workers were freed to do their original, goal, to build a kibbutz. In 1949 the workers of the underground bullet factory established their kibbutz Maagal Michael ( מעגל מיכאל) near Haifa. Currently, one third of these secret workers are still alive.
Fun fact: the person who worked the cutting machine (that cut off the top of the bullet) was called the mohel.
A work station
Work stations and photos
The shooting range
The tiny little bathroom
The bakery and the big bakery oven. The person is made out of cardboard. The stairs in the background lead to the secret bullet factory and are usually covered up by sliding the oven over the stairs.
The tanning room where a cardboard person is currently getting a tan
-Alexandra