Rothmansch, Leon (Aryeh)

Son of Yitzhak and Miriam. He was born on the 30th of Tishrei 5708 (September 30, 1947) in Dzerzhonyov, Poland. Leon was a child of great energy, lively and naughty. There was more affection for him than for animals. His friends were Polish children because there were few Jews around. But the anti-Semitic atmosphere of the mid-1950s made its mark on him, and sometimes he returned home from elementary school crying and asked: “Am I not like all the children? The family lived in the city of Wroclaw (formerly Breslau), and there were also hand-fights at the name of “Gide” because Leon was firm and he claimed that he would not tolerate this derogatory name, The judge, where Leon studied in the fourth grade, soon became absorbed in the society and easily learned the Hebrew language, where the family stayed only half a year and then moved to Tel Aviv and from there Daughter of-Yam, where he completed his studies in elementary school, was interested in music and played the clarinet and the saxophone, and when he completed his studies he began to study the profession of photography and was very interested in it. Leon was alive and at the same time very sensitive, for example, when the news of Eli Cohen’s execution in Damascus was received, he felt that he had not done enough to rescue him – and he had given his life for the state! On the day he enlisted in the IDF, he was looking forward to it, and in November 1965 he was drafted into the army and assigned to the Armored Corps, and from the very first day he sought to assume difficult and responsible positions. He wrote to his parents: “We are ready for anything. The IDF is on guard. He claimed: “The enemy has a large army and many equipment, but it depends on who is sitting in the tank.” In his last letter (dated June 1), he expressed concern for his parents and tried to encourage them, but the letter was received only on the sixth of the month when he was no longer alive. On the first day of the war, on the 5th of Iyar 5727 (June 6, 1967), at the foot of the al-Jaradi compound in Sinai, his tank was hit directly by a tank shell and a fire caught a tank that Leon managed to get out of. But that day he died in battle. The battalion commander, in a letter of condolence to his parents, noted his steadfastness in the battles and his courageous fighting spirit. He was buried in the emergency military cemetery in Bari and was put to rest at the Kiryat Shaul military cemetery.