Kartin
Submitted by his son Avi Kartin
Elimelech Kartin z”l (August 28th, 1919 – February 2nd, 2016) passed away at the age of 97.
He was a Zionist, loving, honest working man. He was born in Drohobycz in 1919 to Wella (Backenroth) and Moshe Kartin. When he was young, the family moved to the nearby town of Stryj. He started learning Hebrew at the age of 10 by a private tutor who came to the family home. As a teenager he joined the Hebronia youth movementת an affiliate of the Revisionist party. In Hebronia he received weapons training at the age of 16.
After graduating high-school at the age of 18 he decided to take part in building Eretz Israel. With a British certificate in hand, he sailed on a ship headed for Haifa. In 1937 he enrolled at the Technion to study civil engineering. He joined the Hagganah and became an instructor in the organization’s training camp in Ramat Yohanan.
The Second World War changed Elimelech’s plans completely. In 1941 he enlisted in the Jewish brigade and fought the Nazis in Egypt and North Africa and later in Italy. At the end of the war he remained in Europe and was an active participant in bringing holocaust survivors to Israel. During his stay in Europe, he was able to connect with his family, who had been hidden by Poles for a considerable payment. During the war of independence he fought with the Kiryati brigade.
Elimelech was one of the first inhabitants of Ashkelon. At the end of the war of independence in 1949 he arrived in Migdal Gad to establish and then manage the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company (which later became Sonol). He and his wife Lea (may she live a long life) who was a nurse in Tipat Halav (a clinic for mothers and babies) were among the first families to build their home in the newly established Afridar neighborhood.
