Botnik, Yaakov

Son of Henia and Issachar. Born in 1928 in the town of Skorny, Bessarabia, he was active in the Gordonia youth movement and arrived in Eretz Israel as an immigrant on the ship “Tiger-Heil” on September 2, 1939. He immediately joined the Gordonia group “Segev,” who was among its builders and loyal guardians, wanted to enlist in the British army at the beginning of World War II to fulfill his national duty to fight the Nazis and their allies, but the members of his group prevented him from doing so because they needed him in that isolated town. Yaakov was quick and strong-hearted, with good physical fitness, excelled in the sport competitions of his regiment and easily carried out the field training in Fiuggi, Italy, and he was also known for his modesty and straightness. On March 20, 1945, on the way to pass the Puso-Vetro Canal on the front of Villanova, Italy, the Germans opened fire on his force and Yaakov was killed by sniper fire. He was buried in the cemetery of the Jewish Brigade near Ravenna, Italy.