Gottfried, Leo

Born in Czechoslovakia to a Zionist family. After the outbreak of the Second World War, when the only option for Jews from occupied Europe to reach Eretz Israel was illegal immigration, in October 1940 three ships, Pacific, Atlantic and Milos, sailed over 3,000 immigrants, including Leo and his brother, Ernst. They were sent to Haifa. The British authorities decided to deport the three immigrants to the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. In response, the Haganah placed a landmine on the ship in order to remove it. Due to the mistake of calculating the strength of the “Patria” structure, the bottom of the ship disintegrated, and it quickly sank: 267 illegal immigrants were killed and 172 wounded, and the survivors of the ship were transferred to the camp at Atlit, and Leo and his brother Ernest were among them, Leo and his brother were sent to the western desert and stationed in Tobruk, during the battles for the city against the German army, Leo was killed in the battle and became the first Czechoslovakian soldier to be killed.