Chaim Duke

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Chaim Herzog (1989)

Chaim Herzog ( Hebrew חיים הרצוג; born on September 17, 1918 in Belfast , United Kingdom ; died April 17, 1997 in Tel Aviv ) was a lawyer, officer and the sixth President of Israel (1983–1993).

Life and career development

Chaim Herzog was born on September 17, 1918 in North Belfast (now Northern Ireland ) as the son of the respected Rabbi Isaak HaLevy Herzog , who was Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1948 , and his wife Sarah Herzog. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Dublin . Here he grew up and received a traditional Jewish education. He completed his school education at Wesley College in Dublin. In order to study, Chaim Herzog emigrated to Palestine in 1935 and completed various courses at the Merkaz Harav Kook, the Hebron Yeshivot and the Evelyn de Rothschild School, the latter in law. During the Arab uprising from 1936 to 1939 he served in the predecessor organization of the Israeli army, the Hagana , but occasionally also traveled to London to complete his legal training in London and Cambridge . During these stays he also attended the Officer Training Course and the British Military Academy in Sandhurst in order to acquire the knowledge necessary for a military career . He completed this with the rank of second lieutenant. He graduated from UCL as a lawyer and graduated from Cambridge University in 1942.

From 1942 he took part in the Second World War as a soldier in the British Army . Here he was used as an officer in the British secret service in the field of infantry units and armored forces in France (Normandy) and in Germany. During this time Chaim Herzog was involved in the liberation of several concentration camps, such as the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on April 15, 1945. Even in the days of the last fighting, he was called in to accompany the surrender and demobilization of the German armed forces. In addition to questions of disarmament, this mainly concerned the exposure and interrogation of military personnel who were complicit in the crimes of the Nazi regime. Among other things, he was involved in the interrogation of Heinrich Himmler . Until 1947, when he was demobilized, he was head of the military intelligence service of British troops in northern Germany. He was discharged from the British Army with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Immediately after the war, Chaim Herzog returned to Palestine to help establish an Israeli state. After the UN partition plan of 1947 had made the creation of a state possible, Israel was proclaimed an independent state on May 14, 1948 . After his return, Chaim Herzog worked for one year as the head of the security department of the Jewish Agency Israel, the Israeli migrant organization, in close cooperation with the representatives of the British government.

In the Defense Forces (IDF)

Due to the territorial and political situation of the young state of Israel, it was imperative to make efforts for its military protection. As early as 1947, in the turmoil of the smoldering Arab-Israeli war, the first forerunners of the later Israeli defense forces formed suitable structures. On May 31, 1948, a few days after the establishment of the Israeli state, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was formed. The first Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973) asked him in July 1948 to help establish the military intelligence service of the Israeli armed forces. This is where the experience he had gained alongside the British Army during World War II was invaluable. Here he was deployed as Operations and Intelligence Officer of the 7th Panzer Division in the Israeli War of Independence and gained further military experience in the fight for Latrun - to open the road connection to Jerusalem. Initially as a deputy to Isser Be'eri - the head of the military secret service Aman of the Israeli IDF - he later took over the management of the intelligence service. He held this position from 1948 to 1950 and again from 1959 to 1962.

In the meantime he was military attaché at the Israeli embassy in the USA (1950-1954) and from 1954 to 1957 the commanding officer of the Jerusalem district . When he left the army in 1962, he had the rank of major general .

Professional development in the civil sector

After retiring from the army, Herzog worked as a businessman and private law attorney for the next two decades (during which time he was the manager of an industrial development company and a senior partner in a Tel Aviv law firm). However, during the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War , he reappeared in public as a military commentator for the Israeli radio news. His reports were reputed to improve the morale of the population. He wrote down his experiences from the wars he had experienced in several books (including Decision in the Desert: The Lessons of the Yom Kippur War , 1975 and Wars for Israel , 1984). After the Six Day War he became the first military governor in the West Bank . In 1975 he was appointed Ambassador of Israel to the UN ; he held this office until 1978.

Political career

Grave of Chaim Herzog in the national cemetery of honor on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem

His younger brother Ja'akov Herzog (1921–1972) was a highly respected diplomat and had been a close advisor to four Israeli prime ministers: Ben-Gurion, Sharet, Eshkol and Meir. This had brought Herzog into close contact with politics earlier. In 1981, Herzog became a politician for the first time and won a seat in the Knesset as a member of the Israeli Labor Party (Avoda) .

On March 22, 1983, he was elected sixth President of Israel by the Knesset for a five-year term. He was confirmed in this office in 1988 (at that time two terms were the maximum possible term of office of the president). Herzog saw himself as the “President of all Israelis” and visited the Arab and Druze minorities as well as the settlers in the occupied territories . He made countless trips and was the first Israeli head of state to visit Germany (April 1987) and China.

Herzog also commented on controversial issues. He called for the rights of political groups that incited violence to be restricted and used the presidential pardon in controversial cases, such as E.g. with three Jewish terrorists who murdered Arabs.

Withdrawal from politics

In 1993 he retired from political life. His son Yitzchak Herzog has been a member of the Labor Party in the Knesset since 2003, held various ministerial posts between 2005 and 2011 and has been the opposition leader since November 2013.

Published books

  • Israel Today: Three Lectures. 1970
  • Judaism: Law & Ethics. 1974
  • The war of atonement. 1975
    • German: Decision in the desert: the lessons of the Yom Kippur war. Ullstein Verlag, Frankfurt / Main / Berlin / Vienna, 1993, ISBN 978-3-550-07314-4
  • Where stands accused? 1978
  • The Arab-Israel wars. 1982
    • German: Wars for Israel: 1948–1984. Ullstein Verlag, Frankfurt / Main / Berlin / Vienna, 1993, ISBN 978-3-550-07962-7
  • Heroes of Israel: Profiles of Jewish Courage. 1989
  • Living History: A Memoir. 1996
  • with Mordechai Gichon: "With God's help": the biblical wars . Langen-Müller Verlag, Munich, 1998, ISBN 978-3-7844-2705-8

Web links

Commons : Chaim Herzog  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chaim Herzog. Office of the Israeli Prime Minister, July 17, 2011, accessed September 4, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Ami Isseroff: Biography of Chaim Herzog. In: Zionism and Israel. December 4, 2014, accessed September 17, 2018 .
  3. ↑ 3 Israeli Terrorists Are Released In 4th Reduction of Their Terms. In: The New York Times . December 27, 1990, archived from the original on July 29, 2009 ; accessed on September 17, 2018 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Duke, Chaim
ALTERNATIVE NAMES חיים הרצוג (Hebrew)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli politician, President of Israel
DATE OF BIRTH September 17, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Belfast , Northern Ireland
DATE OF DEATH April 17, 1997
Place of death Tel Aviv