Kritzler was born on 27 November 1921.
He arrived in the UK from Vienna in 1939. He helped educate children who were brought to the UK from Germany on the Kindertransports as part of the Bachad movement.
Kritzler helped to look after all of the Boys in the care of Bachad, in particular part of the third group of the Boys brought to the UK in 1946. He worked in Millisle hostel in Northern Ireland, overseeing it for Bachad, a religious Zionist organisation.
Kritzler relocated to a smaller training farm in St. Asaph, in North Wales.
On Kristallnacht Efraim and his brother Zev went to their synagogue after it was firebombed by the Nazis. They took the wooden spindles off the Torah scrolls, folded the parchment and took them home. When the boys eventually went from London to Israel, the Torah scrolls were reconstituted at Kibbutz Lavi and they are in use to this day.
In 1949, Kritzler helped to found Kibbutz Lavi. His wife Sheila still lives there. Sheila worked for the Jewish underground in the UK.
This profile was written by Ruby Kwartz.
Kritzler died in Kibbutz Lavi on 26 January 2015.