At Age 89: The Famous Company Commander from the Battle of Ammunition Hill Has Passed Away
David "Dudik" Rotenberg, the company commander from the Battle of Ammunition Hill in the Six-Day War, passed away at age 89 after battling illness. His name was mentioned in the song "Ammunition Hill," where it says "contact with Dudik the company commander was cut off at the beginning of the battle."
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Blessed be the true judge: David (Dudik) Rotenberg, who served as company commander in the mythological Battle of Ammunition Hill in the Six-Day War, passed away last night at age 89 at his home in Mishmar HaYarden after battling illness. His funeral will take place today (Wednesday) at Kibbutz Gonen.
Rotenberg's name was mentioned in the song "Ammunition Hill" by Yoram Taharlev and Yair Rosenblum, which says: "I didn't know where the others were, since contact with Dudik the company commander was cut off at the beginning of the battle. At that moment I thought everyone was killed." The song, which was written after the war and originally performed by the Central Command Band, became a precious cultural asset in Israeli culture.
The Ammunition Hill compound was established in the 1930s during the British Mandate as a bunker for storing ammunition for the police school. During the War of Independence in 1948, Jordanian forces captured the compound, and it became a Jordanian outpost in northern Jerusalem. On the night between June 5-6, 1967, Ammunition Hill was recaptured by paratroop forces as part of the battle to liberate Jerusalem. 36 IDF fighters fell in the battle, 24 of them on the hill itself and 12 at the police school.