Lehi

At the beginning of World War II, most of the participants in Irgun were in English prisons. The Jewish Agency called on the people to cooperate with Britain in its struggle against Germany . Many people voluntarily joined the ranks of the British army. Even David Raziel , the leader of the Irgun, who was in prison at that time, ordered the Irgun to suspend the fight so as not to interfere with Great Britain's fight against the Third Reich .

The call of Raziel provoked an internal struggle in Irgun. Opponents of the order were led by Abraham Stern. After the release of David Raziel from prison in October 1939, the conflict between him and Stern led to a breakaway of a small group, which became the basis of Lehi.

In August 1940, the separation of the Stern group from Ezel became a fait accompli. Stern supporters saw themselves as the successors of the цetzel case and initially called themselves “Irgun Zwai Leumi be-Israel” (“National Military Organization in Israel”), in contrast to the main organization “Irgun Zwai Leumi be-Eretz-Israel” (“National Military organization in Eretz Yisrael ”, for short -“ Etzel ”) ^[11] . In September 1940, Abraham Stern changed the name of his organization to “Lohamey Herut Israel” (“Fighters for the Freedom of Israel”, abbreviated as “LeHI”).

The group set itself the goal of becoming a factor that has a decisive influence on the political situation in Palestine by force of arms on behalf of “fighting Jewry”. Lehi was the only Jewish organization in Palestine fighting the British authorities during World War II. To this day, accusations are heard at Lehi, as an organization that objectively helped the Third Reich .

In fact, at the beginning of World War II in 1939, few in Yishuv could have guessed what would happen to European Jewry. Here is what, for example, wrote later, in the winter of 1941-1942, Dr. S. Gross in the newspaper Ha-Arez :

... In a vast territory subject to Hitler, grandiose changes are taking place in the material and spiritual position of Jewry. Their civil equality has been abolished everywhere. Everywhere Jews were removed from public office. Jewish economic activity is kept to a minimum, as, for example, in Belgium, where the Jews of Antwerp are expelled from the diamond industry. In Poland and Germany, Jews are completely excluded from economic life. Jews lose jobs requiring professional qualifications. And this serves the Nazis as one of the reasons to send Jews to forced labor. This hard labor is today almost the only source of livelihood for tens of thousands of Jews. The deportation of hundreds of thousands of Jews from one region to another, sometimes over hundreds and thousands of kilometers, became a common, everyday occurrence. The Jewish population of European cities is enclosed in a ghetto. Every Jew is obliged to wear a special distinctive sign on his clothing - a yellow star ... The moral and educational level of the young generation will undoubtedly fall sharply if such living conditions exist even if only for a few years ^[11] .

This description shows a deep concern for the persecution of the Jews, but there is no indication that Gross suggests their death in the Holocaust .

Stern himself wrote these days:

By the beginning of the war, all of Zionist politics was about England, whatever it wants, it will. And the Jewish Agency (Sokhnut), with fear and servility, complied with English orders, completely “disinterestedly”, not demanding anything for the Jewish people ... It turned into a mobilization point of a foreign army instead of becoming the main headquarters of the Jewish army. Such a policy is based on only one wretched little thought mixed with weak hope: the Arabs refused to fight on the side of England, and the Jews, on the contrary, are full of fighting spirit and gladly go into battle. And therefore, England, having won, will not remain in debt and will repay the Jewish people deservingly.
... The swearing rants about a peace conference and about the hopes that will come true after democratic England reorganizes the world are completely groundless. The peace conference at the end of the last war gave Zionism the Balfour Declaration . Today, Zionism has a “ White Book ” instead of the Balfour Declaration. The peace conference at the end of this war will begin with the White Paper. What, then, can it end with? Zionism has no answer to this question. The last and decisive answer can only be given by Jewish weapons, Jewish power ^[11] .

Stern also changed his own name to Abraham Ben Yair. It should have been reminiscent of the name of the last commander of a group of Jews fortified on the top of Masada, Eliezer Ben Yair. Very soon, Yair became the nickname of Stern.

After the split, Ezel Yair ended up at the head of a very close-knit group of talented and loyal like-minded people, which included several of the most capable and experienced combat commanders of Ezel. On September 16, 1940, Lehi successfully robbed APAK Bank (Anglo-Palestinian Bank) on Ben Yehuda Street in Tel Aviv . As a result of the robbery, Lehi had a very substantial sum of money at its disposal, which allowed the young terrorist organization to make a successful start as an underground movement.

One of the main activities of Yair was ideology. He had contacts (possibly in 1941) with Aba Ahimeir, who headed the Brit a Biryonim organization in 1931-1933. He also met with Israel Shaib (Eldad) , who later became Lehi’s main ideologist, and with Uriel Shelah, at that time an original and stormy poet who wrote in Hebrew. Yair first met Shelah at Hebrew University, where they both studied. Shelah was then busy developing a distinctive ideology and moral concept, which should have contributed to the emergence of a new type of Jew. The ideology of Shelah and his group of associates gained fame under the name "Canaanite." Shelah helped Yair to write several journalistic works, and after Yair was killed, dedicated a pathetic poem to his memory.

In October 1940, Stern published the first issue of the Bamakhteret newspaper (“Underground”), and in the second, November issue, he published nine paragraphs entitled “Principles of Revival”. Supplemented in the fifth issue to eighteen paragraphs, the "Principles of Revival" determined the ideological foundations, goals and political line of the organization. This declaration served as the ideological base and guidebook for Lehi throughout the years of the underground's existence. It affirmed, with emphasis on Tanakh sources, the divine destiny of the Jewish people, their exclusive right to the land of Israel within the biblical borders, and the need for the revival of the Jewish people on the land of Israel until the construction of the third Temple. ^{[11] [12]} The main provisions of the “Principles of the Renaissance” were explained in the newspapers “Ha-Hazit” (“Front”) and “Ha-Maas” (“Action”), as well as in the broadcasts of the underground radio station “The Voice of the Jewish Underground”. Radio announcer Geulla Cohen ^[13] , subsequently a member of the Knesset from the Herut party, and then the leader of the Thiya movement, enjoyed enormous popularity in Yishuv ^[14] .

From 1940 to 1942, Lehi, under the leadership of Stern, fought against the British using methods of individual terror. The organization openly called for the expulsion of the British from Palestine and the restoration of the Jewish state - the sooner the better. Stern even sought connections with the Nazis ^[15] as allies in the struggle against Britain, but attempts to establish contact were unsuccessful.

Lehi was a group to which neither Hagan nor Aetzel felt sympathy, not to mention the English. In Yishuv, she was considered terrorists, and members of the organization were persecuted. On February 12, 1942, police discovered an apartment where Stern was hiding; he was shot dead during arrest by a British police officer Morton (according to Morton, while attempting to escape, but there are also eyewitness accounts according to which Morton shot Stern without any reason on his part ^{[11] [16]} ). There is an unconfirmed theory according to which the location of Stern was reported to the police by representatives of the Hagana ^[17] . Subsequently, “Lehi” tried to avenge Morton for the death of Stern, but to no avail.

By the time Stern died, the majority of Lehi’s members were in prisons. The organization was in the process of disintegration. In September 1942, two members of Lehi, Yitzhak Shamir-Jezernitsky and Eliyahu Giladi, escaped from an English camp in Mazra, and, together with Yehoshua Cohen, Anshel Shpilman and others, began to recreate the organization. In 1943, Giladi (Green), who was in conflict with Shamir and other members of LEKHI ^[8] , was killed, possibly by order of Shamir. ^[18]

In the summer of 1943, the collective leadership of Lehi began to take shape. Shamir, Eldad (Shaib) and Nathan Elin-Mor belonged to him (after his escape from the English camp in Latrun on November 1, 1943). The British arrested Eldad in April 1944. Shamir was also arrested, but later, in 1946. Thus, the period during which all three actually headed “Lehi” was short-lived, and the responsibility lay mainly on the shoulders of Shamir and Elin-Mora.

Shamir and Elin-Mor understood that for Lehi it was no longer possible to act in the same way as in the days of Stern. They realized that the organization needed widespread public support - and took measures to achieve this goal. From the fall of 1942 until 1944, Lehi carried out many operations, using mainly - as before - individual terror. The turning point was November 6, 1944, when an assassination attempt was made on a member of the British government, Lord Moyne. As a result of this action, “Lehi” again suffered persecution from the British authorities and “Hagan”, and the organization decreased its activity.

After the war ended in July 1945, Irgun and Lehi entered into an agreement on coordinating actions against the British. In November of the same year, Hagana joined this agreement, however, after 9 months, it left it. Since September 1946, "Lehi" again acted independently. ^[nineteen]

“Lehi" was a relatively small organization and numbered from 800 to 1000 participants. Despite the small number, she carried out many attacks both against Arabs and (mainly) against Great Britain. "Lehi" attacked the British military points and mined police cars. The group organized attacks on banks to obtain financing ( expropriation ). On October 19, 1944, the British authorities conducted an operation against Lehi. Arrested members of the organization were exiled to Africa; after the founding of the state of Israel, they returned to Palestine.

During the Second World War (since 1944), the Hagan organization acted against Lehi and assisted the authorities in arresting the latter. During the Israeli War of Independence, Lehi acted independently. After the founding of Israel, the organization was dissolved, and some of its militants engaged in political activities.

Stern did not believe in the possibility of the victory of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition and believed that the Jews had no choice but to contact the Germans and Italians so that they would help in the struggle of Lehi against the British. He wrote that Italy and Germany have an interest in “clearing” Europe of the Jews and, on the other hand, preventing England from ruling in the Middle East.

In his book “The Dawn Will Take Blood,” one of Stern’s associates, Arie Kocer, quotes Stern’s words explaining the motives he was guided by when deciding on contacts with the Nazis to save the Jewish people:

It is quite clear to me: European Jewry will be destroyed if we do not come to an agreement with Germany. And you should once and for all clarify for yourself - who is our enemy? Or who are our enemies? What benefit can we derive for ourselves from the war, and against which of our enemies should we fight in order to achieve independence for our country and save our people, all those millions of Jews who are now in Europe? It’s obvious to me that our enemy is Britain. Britain could save millions of our brothers! But it’s also obvious that she won’t save them! On the contrary, she is interested in their destruction. She needs it in order to establish the power of the Arabs in a country that will be an obedient tool in her hands. The benefit of our assistance to the allied powers is small. But for us, it is simply zero. Therefore, only one thing remains: an agreement with the Germans on the salvation of European Jewry. The Germans can “cleanse” Europe of the Jews by transporting them here to Eretz-Israel. And Germany can agree to this option if we start to fight against the British ^[11] .

At the end of 1940, a representative of Lehi Naftali Lubinchik left for Vichy Lebanon and handed a letter to German diplomats in Beirut offering Germany “Lehi” cooperation for the resettlement of European Jews in Israel and participation in the war against Britain. The letter was forwarded to the German embassy in Ankara, and from there on January 1, 1941, to the German Foreign Ministry. The letter, which became known as the "letter from Ankara," remained unanswered, and was captured by the Allies in the archives of the German Foreign Ministry in 1945.

In December 1941, Elin-Mor left for Syria, from where he planned to make his way to Turkey for a personal meeting with more senior German diplomats, but was arrested by the British in January 1942.

According to E. Katsu, the first to establish contacts with Nazi Germany as early as 1935 ^{[ specify ]} , there was the head of the political department of the Jewish Agency, Dr. Haim Arlozorov , who became a key figure in negotiations with Nazi Germany in working out the terms of the Haavar agreement ^{[20] [21]} , according to which Germany was obliged not to prevent the expatriates from exporting their property to conditions that violate the boycott of German goods by the Western powers. Thanks to this treaty, tens of thousands of German Jews repatriated to Eretz Yisrael, and their lives were thereby saved.

An even broader plan to evacuate the entire Jewish population of Nazi Germany, numbering about half a million people, was developed by Georg Karsky, one of the leaders of the revisionist movement in Germany and the head of the Berlin community. However, Karski's proposal was met with hostility by the leaders of German Jewry ^[11] .

According to the CIA , Lehi had contacts with the Soviet Union and received financial support from it ^[22] . The CIA also believed that the Soviet intelligence agencies introduced their agents into Lehi ^{[23] [24]} .

When the State of Israel was established in 1948, the Lehi Organization Center, which included Nathan Yelin-Mor (Friedman), Yitzhak Shamir (Jezernitsky) and Israel Eldad (Shaib), decided to join the fighters of his organization to the army, after negotiations that Elin-Mor and Eldad led with Israel Galili and Levi Eshkol. On May 29, 1948, all Lehi fighters were first brought together after leaving the deep underground. According to the testimony of Dr. Israel Eldad, out of hundreds of fighters, he personally knew there might be fifty or sixty people. Eldad addressed the soldiers standing in the ranks with words dedicated to the memory of the founder of the organization, Avraham Stern (Yair), who was killed by the British in 1942, and other dead soldiers:

Remember Yair, who created us with his clear understanding, who cast us from the steel of his soul, who gave birth to us with his holy blood. Remember Yair. And remember all his student fighters who gave their blood for the freedom of the Motherland, who sanctified their bodies for hunger, torture, bullets, scaffolds ... Their blood pours in our blood. Their life, heroism and death is the fire that burns in us. This fire will burn enemies. This fire will burn in the heart of the Third Temple, in the heart of free Jerusalem, in the heart of the Kingdom of Israel. This is the fire of Yair. This is the fire of all the freedom fighters of Israel who shed and who shed their blood in the holy war ^[25] .

After that, the Lehi fighters were mobilized into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Most of them mobilized together, but there were those who mobilized individually; In total, about a thousand Lehi fighters ^{[25] [26] [27]} entered the army.

In Jerusalem, Lehi fighters continued to operate independently under the command of Yehoshua Zetler (underground nickname: Meir). His fighters liberated the Jerusalem quarters of Romem, Elevator and Sheikh Bader from the Arabs. On May 14, the Lehi squad tried to break into the Old City, but, without receiving help from Hagana , was forced to retreat ^[25] .

On September 17, in Jerusalem, a special was killed by members of a group calling itself the “Patriotic Front” and consisting of former Lehi fighters ^[28] . Volke Bernadotte , UN Envoy for Peace Dialogues and Conflict Resolution, who took part in saving thousands of Jews from concentration camps and evacuating them to Sweden in the last months of World War II. The results of the vigorous activity of Bernadotte, according to the Israeli leadership, could negate the achievements of Israel in the war ( Ben-Gurion, David ^[29] , Moshe Dayan ^[30] ).

Ben-Gurion took advantage of the murder of Bernadotte to cease the independent activities of Ezel and Lehi in Jerusalem. The Lehi bases in the city were seized, and about a hundred fighters were arrested. But Ezel accepted the ultimatum of the government and dismissed its Jerusalem battalion ^[25] .

In January 1949, elections to the Knesset of the first convocation were held. Former Lehi members created the Fighters Party, which received 5370 votes. Nathan Elin-Mor ^[7] was elected to the Knesset ^{[2] [10]} became a Knesset deputy and was released, and in February all detainees were amnestied. In March 1949, a conference of the “Party of Fighters” was held, at which sharp disagreements emerged between the majority that supported the elected Knesset Elin Mora and the minority grouped around Israel Eldad . Elin-Mor wanted the party to become workers and socialist, and Eldad expressed his intention to create a movement that would devote a lot of time to education and upbringing and strive for a deeper understanding of the concept of "freedom of Israel." Yitzhak Shamir ^[4] , the third member of the Lehi Center, supported Elin-Mora. Shortly after the conference, Eldad lost all interest in the activities of the party ^[5] .

Later, Elin-Mor sharply changed his position and became close to the Palestinian Arabs and Communists. When the Six Day War broke out in 1967, he opposed the "Israeli aggression."

Yitzhak Shamir made a very successful, albeit late political career. In 1970, he joined the Herut party, and in 1973 he became a member of the Knesset from the Begin-led list of the GHAL . In 1977, he was elected chairman of the Israeli parliament. In 1980, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. Shamir was Israeli Prime Minister from October 1983 to September 1984, and then, from October 1986 to September 1988. After the 1988 election. he again received the post of prime minister.

An interesting conglomeration of the extreme — left, right, nationalists, and Knaanites — gathered in Lehi. In socio-political terms, "Lehi" leaned toward a socialist orientation.

Lehi adhered to an anti-imperialist ideology and considered the British Mandate an illegal occupation. Based on this, he preferred to attack British, rather than Arab targets. Since Lehi did not recognize the British judiciary, members of the organization refused to defend themselves in court.

"Lehi" declared that the Jewish people have every right to the Land of Israel. The organization preferred the military method of seizing territories inhabited by Arabs to the political or financial. “Lehi” considered the Arabs to be strangers who should be evicted.

David Ben-Gurion wrote about Stern and Lehi in his letter to Geula Cohen after the release of her book Between Night and Day:

Only in fragments did she return me to the big and deep debate that was between us ... With great excitement, I read it. The heart was full of pride and envy; in some chapters, it seemed that I myself was participating in your promotions. The spiritual storm of those who ascended the altar also captured me, and I bow my head in awe of the death of the heroes, both Eliyahu ( Hakim and Ben Tsuri ) in Cairo, Moshe Barzani, Meir Fanshtein and others ...
... I have no doubt that he (Yair) was one of the most outstanding personalities that emerged during the British mandate, and I wholeheartedly pay tribute to his work, the power of his strong soul, selfless fidelity to the freedom of Israel, despite the fact that I deny, without any compromise, his political path.

- Head of Government D. Ben-Gurion, January 20, 1962 ^[31]

In 1980, the Government of Israel established a distinction for members of Lehi as participants in the struggle to create a state ^{[32] [33]} .

The name Kochav Yair ( Hebrew כוכב יאיר - Yair Star), founded in 1981, the streets in Tel Aviv (on which he was killed ^[34] ) and in other cities of Israel, is named after Abraham Stern. The streets of many cities are also named after "Lehi", Eliyahu Ben-Tsuri, Eliyahu Hakim and its other members.

• Jewish terrorism in the 20th century
• Segal, Moshe Zvi

• Caplan N. The Stern Gang: Ideology, Politics and Terror, 1940-1949 (англ.) // The Middle East Journal. — Winter 1997. — Vol. 51 , no. 1 .

• «Лехи» («Лохамей Херут Исраэль»)
• Проф. Нахман Бен-Ехуда Разрешение конфликта в подпольной группе: Противостояние — Шамир Гилади
• Эмануэль Кац ЛеХИ. Борцы за свободу Израиля, из-во «Мидраша Леумит», Перевод Пинхаса Гиля
•   . Музей тюрьмы узников подполья, часть 1-я (неопр.) . Живой Журнал (27 октября 2013). Дата обращения 30 октября 2013.