Panika, Simon

Son of Malka and Yosef, was born on May 16, 1930 in Tel Aviv. He graduated from the Geula high school and was a graduate of the Max Payne Vocational School. He worked as a mechanical mechanic. It was quiet and modest. Simon excelled in an evening voice, always welcoming and fond of all he knew. When the War of Independence broke out, he volunteered among the former, although the enlistment duty had not yet been fulfilled – he was 17 and four months old – and served in the Givati ​​Brigade. He did not say much about his activities, although he took part in many battles in Beit Dagon, Yazur, Beit Daras and in the battles of the Negev. He fought conscientiously and took action for danger. He was one of the first burglars to Beit Daras and the first to enter the village. The vacation comes rarely. “The enemy at the gate,” he told his mother, “when everything passes I will come for a long vacation and sit here with a clear conscience that I do not need.” At the end of his last vacation, his friends urged him not to hurry back to the base in Be’er Tuvia, because the settlement had been badly shelled, but Simon did not listen to them. “They do not scare me with their shelling,” he replied. “Now they need us more than they always do.” When he reached Be’er Tuvia, he immediately ran to the excavations before he could put his backpack. On the way to the excavation, a shrapnel hit him. Simon was transferred to Hadassah Hospital in Tel Aviv, underwent surgery on July 13, 1948. He was laid to rest at the Nachlat Yitzhak military cemetery.