Katz (Taburitski), Leon

Leon, son of Genia and Chaim, was born on the 13th of Iyar 5709 (13.5.1949) in Luban, Poland, to his parents, Holocaust survivors. He graduated from elementary school in Poland and immigrated to Israel with his parents in 1957. Leon was drafted into the IDF in early August 1968 and assigned to the Armored Corps. Since he was a professional, he was assigned to the Armored Corps workshop and took part in a tank mechanic course, a field-level course and a mechanic tank course. In the army, as in every place in his life, he was quiet and disciplined and performed his duties with dedication. At the beginning of August 1971 he was released from regular service and assigned to a reserve unit. From the time he retired to civilian life, he began working as a mechanic in the garage and later moved to work in the Aircraft Engines Division. He did his work quietly as usual, and on his vacations hurried home. He loved his brother Yitzhak, who also fell in the Yom Kippur War, and the two were very attached to each other. “Leon was everything … was great,” his father said. When his brother Yitzhak married him, he promised him: “Do not worry, your older brother will help you.” Indeed, the brothers always helped each other, though they were different in nature. Leon was sitting there, absorbed in his books, and Isaac was lively and lively. In 1970 the two sons died of their beloved mother and grandmother, and the family’s approval was undermined. But the terrible calamity that struck the members of the household reached its peak in the war. During the Yom Kippur War, Leon served as a car mechanic on the southern front. On October 18, 1973, six days after his brother Yitzhak fell, Leon set out with a squad of mechanics to repair damaged tanks. The unit worked in the area of ​​the Su-Soir bridge under heavy shelling. A member of the unit said, “Leon called me, ‘The screw did not open, let’s help me.'” I asked him for the key, and I put my head and part of my body into the tank and then the shell exploded next to me. “Before I lost consciousness I managed to say, ‘Do not worry, And the two brothers were brought to eternal rest in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl, leaving behind a father and a sister, who was promoted to the rank of First Sergeant,