Page 78 - ISRAEL'S CRADLE

Ratner presents the plan for the Midreshet Sde Boker to Ben-Gurion, 1962
his next meeting with him his military file from those days. He held the file in his hand and said with wonder: "So you were a Polkovnik (Colonel), and you are also at the same position today (a General Major in the IDF bore three "stars" back then, like a colonel today). In other words, you are in the same place after thirty years. Had you stayed with us, you would certainly have become a general or a marshal". Ratner did not reply and in his heart he though he got lucky. Quite a few Jewish generals were executed during Stalin's great purges.
Ratner returned to Israel and was discharged from the IDF. He focused upon his academic work and frequently planned whole buildings and complexes. Thus, for example, the plans of public institutions in Tel Aviv, buildings in the Hebrew University at Givat Ram, the Aeronautics Faculty Building at the Technion, the Beit Berl Collage, HaKfar HaYarok (The Green Village) , Midreshet Sde Boker (Ben-Gurion) and others are all under his name. Some of these plans were made in partnership with Mordechai Shoshani.
While serving in his military posting in the Soviet Union, an inappropriate act was done in Israel, behind his back. The engineer of the Jewish Agency decided to add a floor to the National Institutions Building in Jerusalem, without informing him of this. Ratner was livid, but did nothing upon returning to Israel. He was never one to quarrel, not even on this occasion. When asked about this issue he said: "I am happy that they did not manage to ruin the building overall."
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