On Shabbat, October 6th, 1973, in the middle of Yom Kippur, the armies of Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack against the State of Israel. At the time, only the regular IDF army stood against the enemy forces, and they did their best to stop the attack – with no backup. The Israeli reserve forces then began to leave their homes, traveling to their emergency bases in order to join the fighting. Thousands of Israelis who were overseas at the time also made their way to Israel.
Natti Golan (he changed his name from Horowitz to Golan), was one of those soldiers. He had been a tank commander in the Golan Heights in the 1967 Six-Day War, and received a medal of honor for his bravery. Six years later, in the Yom Kippur War, he was a reserve tank company commander who became a tank battalion commander, head of “Natti Force”. He was seriously injured, but the force continued to fight – successfully – against much larger Syrian forces.
The quote that appears on the memorial is taken from a poem written by the WWII paratrooper Chana Senesh, who wrote: “A voice called and I went; I went because a voice called.” This sentence expresses in words, the feelings and spirits of those who came to defend the State of Israel in troubled times.
