The Holocaust survivor David (Dugo) Leitner, who, as a teen, marched on the Nazi death march from Auschwitz, passed away overnight at 93.
The funeral will take place on Thursday at 6:00 PM at the funeral home in the Nir Galim synagogue. Under his name, the death announcement includes the number B-14671, which was tattooed on Leitner's arm by the Nazis.
Dugo immigrated to Israel and was among the founders of Moshav Nir Galim.
Dugo came to notoriety due to his story: Dugo, along with 60,000 Jews, was on the death march from Auschwitz at the age of 14. Exhausted and starving, he marched for miles, dreaming of the “bilkelach” rolls he would eat in Israel. When he arrived and first visited Machane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, he saw falafel for the first time, and they reminded him of the rolls that he had dreamed of when times were hard. Since then, every January 18, the date on which he was saved, Dugo celebrated the fact that he is alive by eating falafel. Dugo's saying was, "The people of Israel live and eat falafel!"
In 2016, the House of Testimony in Nir Galim instituted "Operation Dugo" and offered the public to join Dugo in his custom. Since then, every year, many in Israel and abroad have joined Dugo in eating falafel.