Martin Louis Kattenburg, son of Levi and Helena, was born on July 1st, 1922 in Amsterdam, Holland, and had completed high school before World War II broke out.
The German army invaded Holland in 1940, and in the same year his father died. His brother was taken by the Nazis to Auschwitz, and was murdered there. Martin managed to hide his Jewish identity until the enemy was expelled from Holland. He was deeply affected by the loss of his brother.
After the war, he studied chemistry and physics at the University of Amsterdam. His interests included music, singing, and art. When he heard of the November 1947 United Nations Partition Resolution approving the establishment of an independent Jewish State, he volunteered to serve in the War of Independence in order to help prevent another massacre of his people.
In December 1947, he traveled to Marseilles, without a passport, and reported to the Haganah training camp for volunteers, where he was nicknamed “Popov.”
He arrived in Israel in April 1948, part of a group of refugees and volunteers, but he left them to join a combat unit. At all times he maintained his personal character, his individuality and independence; even while at the front he read from his book of poetry. Martin Louis Kattenburg fell as a soldier in the Palmach’s Negev Brigade, on the Ashdod front on July 17th, 1948.
Translated from the Yizkor (Memorial Book) by Joe Woolf – 25.2.2009