Sela Institute – Underground Weapons Factory
In 1941, in the orchards between the Ziv family villa and Moshav Herut, the Haganah established an underground weapons factory of the clandestine military industry (Ta’as). The factory was set up in a packing house shed and was called the Sela Institute. It was established after the workload at the Shomron Institute in Kibbutz Gan Shmuel had become too great. When the Shomron Institute was dismantled, the Sela Institute took its place.
Approximately twenty workers were employed at Sela, engaged in the turning and assembly of grenades and mortar shells. Most of the workers lived in the moshavim of the Tel Mond Bloc. They worked at the institute eight to ten hours a day. On days when the British imposed a curfew, they were forced to remain at the site until nightfall, so they could slip home on foot under cover of darkness.
Next to the packing house, a shed was built with an underground silik (weapons cache), whose double walls were designed to prevent moisture. Special machines and equipment were custom-made for the factory in a “branch” located at the Tel Aviv Exhibition Grounds.
Aryeh Brener was appointed director of the Sela Institute. The facility produced “Kadim” (code name for 2-inch mortar shells), marked with the letters O.Z.E.K., an acronym in Hebrew for “Od Tza’ad Echad Kadima” – “One More Step Forward.” It also produced 3-inch mortar shells marked H.Z.M.N., standing for “Harbeh Tzarot, Me’at Nachat” – “Much Trouble, Little Relief.”
The factory also produced HANH (a type of propellant explosive) and carried out finishing work for various Ta’as products, including Sten guns, known by the code name TAMAT (Ta’as Submachine Gun). At Sela, Mills grenades were also filled - these had been cast at the Ta’as factory in Kibbutz Mishmarot and machined at Institute A in Tel Aviv.
The Sela Institute remained active at that
location until the establishment of the State of Israel.
Source: Tel Mond Documentation Museum Archive, File: “In the Footsteps of the Jewish Defense Forces,” Shlomo Musman, 1988.