Simcha Applebaum died on Tuesday at the age of 99. Applebaum was a Holocaust survivor, a partisan fighter, and a veteran of the Yom Kippur War, where he served as deputy commander of the 188th Armored Brigade.

Applebaum was born in Malch, in the Pruzhany district, in 1927. His father, Yaakov, was a Zionist activist. In November 1941, Applebaum, his parents Yaakov and Rachel, and his sister Ella were deported to the Pruzhany ghetto. He escaped to the forests with other Jewish youth in May 1942. Applebaum returned to the Pruzhany ghetto in November 1942 to obtain food and clothing.

In January 1943, following the liquidation of the Pruzhany ghetto, Applebaum and his family were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. His parents and sister died there, and he was assigned the prisoner number 78524. He was transferred to an SS-run ammunition factory in September 1943. In April 1944, he was moved to the Siemens factory in the Bobrek camp.

Applebaum escaped from a train in the Czech Republic in January 1945. After hiding for five weeks, he was captured by the Gestapo and subsequently sent to Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen camps. The United States Army liberated him on May 3, 1945.

After liberation, Applebaum joined the Buchenwald Kibbutz in Germany. He immigrated to the Land of Israel in March 1946 aboard the ship Tel Hai. He underwent agricultural training at Kibbutz Afikim in the summer of 1946. Applebaum settled at Shapira farm near Be'er Ya'acov on June 20, 1948, and was a founder of Kibbutz Netzer Sereni.

Applebaum was appointed platoon commander in the Negev Brigade at the end of 1948. He returned to Kibbutz Netzer Sereni in January 1950. He reached the rank of reserve colonel in the armored corps. During the Yom Kippur War, Applebaum said, "Look, boys, I am no longer so young, and this is my fourth war in this country. The worst was in Europe. They took my parents, my entire family, without even being able to defend ourselves, to raise a hand, to make a sound. I have not seen them since. If you ask what a man my age is doing here? Here is your answer: I am fighting! I am fighting like crazy, so that what happened to my generation does not happen to your generation, to your children."

Applebaum was among the founders of the memorial site for the 188th Brigade's soldiers in Latrun. He was married to Naomi, and they had three children and nine grandchildren. Lior Simcha, Secretary General of the Kibbutz Movement, said, "Simcha was a guide in the fullest sense of the word. A Holocaust survivor, partisan fighter, survivor of concentration camps, and hero of the Yom Kippur War. As deputy commander of the 188th Brigade, he took a battered brigade and rebuilt it. He was one of the leaders of the kibbutz industry and among the heads of industrialists in Israel."