Tag #157051 - Interview #79438 (Hillel Kempler)

The Yom Kippur War began on October 6th, 1973. That was a hard war. They were many dead on both sides. I was already 48 and was exempt from the military service due to sickness, my heart was no longer so healthy, and age.  But I wasn’t totally exempt. There were also civilians in the military. You were there for ten more years. That’s changed somewhat now. You live perfectly normally as a civilian, but if an order comes, you are immediately mobilized. Every quarter has civic people, even women are part of it, who have many duties. In this area I was supreme commander of a group of older civil soldiers. During these times of war the schools are always the centers. If anything happens, we are the first aid. We need to be in all places in order to organize help, with calling the fire department or ambulances, for example. We needed to do everything for the civil population so that the military is free from these duties. We were like the police, but in war. Some of us were also chauffeurs for the military commanders or ambulance drivers.

The Yom Kippur War was also my son’s first war. It wasn’t nice that my son was in the war. But that’s how it is, you have to live with, and you live with it.