Kaplan, Yosef (“Yossi”)

Son of Israel and Rachel. He was born on April 11, 1942 in Jerusalem. Yosef studied at Matmid Elementary School in Ramat Gan and after a year of high school he decided to enter the military school of the Reali School in Haifa. It was his first challenge in life. After completing his studies at the military boarding school, he enlisted in the IDF in September 1961 and volunteered for the paratroopers in the wake of his older brother (who was killed two years earlier in Tel Katzir), and left his brother with a kind of “will”. After completing the course as a distinguished cadet, he returned to the paratroopers and advanced through the command stages until he became commander of a company, where he commanded a company during the Six-Day War in battles in Sinai and then transferred He was transferred to an elite unit in the Israel Defense Forces and from there was transferred to the Operations Branch of the Paratroopers Unit. He was considered an excellent officer and a brave soldier and was an exemplary friend. As a company commander, he kept the discipline in his company, arguing about his behavior, how efficient or necessary it was, but it was very typical of him. In terms of military achievements or performance, he never said that this is what it should be, but explained the reason for the action and the soldiers accepted the explanation that it was given in an educational way. It would not be a military step, but a human one, and Yosef was honest and spoke the truth – proof of the incident A: In one evening, the commander of the area convened the commanders of the companies and after searching for soldiers, they toured without permission, “not to spy,” and each company commander told his own why he had carried out a patrol, but Yossi told him simply and honestly: With the company. “Another of his friends noted Joseph’s quietness, which stemmed from his inner confidence, and he said quietly, in short, clearly and in a safe voice, that he had encountered terrorists and their people in a raid that took place on the 21st of Adar 5729 11.3.1969), was killed and brought to rest at the military cemetery in Kiryat Shaul. One of the friends told me after they fell that the group went to the chase in a good mood and the general feeling was that they had arrived in the valley to complete some kind of elaborate system that everyone shared. The atmosphere was far from the atmosphere of war – and as a surprise the terrorists came out of the cave. In the “thirties” for his fall, officers, friends and soldiers gathered and told about Yosef – and then their words appeared in the booklet.