David Raziel
David Raziel ( Hebrew דָּוִד רְזִיאֵל Dawid Rəsi'el , born David Rosenson; * December 19, 1910 in Smorgon , Russian Empire (today Hrodsenskaja Woblasz Belarus ); † May 20, 1941 in al-Habbaniyya near Baghdad / Iraq ) was the commander of the Zionist underground organization Irgun Tzwai Le'umi (Irgun for short).
Life
At the age of three, Raziel was taken to Palestine by his parents , which at the time was part of the Ottoman Empire . As a teenager he showed literary talent and wrote essays and plays on biblical topics.
When the Hebron massacre broke out in 1929 , Raziel joined the Hagana and after its split in 1931 became one of the founding members of the Irgun. He soon became known as a talented instructor and wrote, partly in collaboration with Avraham Stern , military instruction manuals.
About a year after the Irgun's first split (1937), Raziel became the commander of the underground organization and led anti-Arab measures during the Arab uprising .
On May 19, 1939, he was captured by British authorities and sentenced to prison in Akkon Prison, where he was released after the start of World War II in October of the same year and the Irgun's willingness to support the British in the fight against the Axis powers . He continued to be in command of the Irgun and also held a leading position in the Betar youth organization .
On May 17, 1941, Raziel, in collaboration with the British secret service, led a group of Irgun members to al-Habbaniyya, the British-held air base 80 km from Baghdad . On May 20, the vehicle he was traveling in was hit by a German bombing raid, killing Raziel and a British officer. He was first buried in the British military cemetery in Habbaniya.
David Raziel married the teacher Schoschana Spitzer, who was also an Irgun member, in Tel Aviv in 1938. She had a boy who was born after his father died but died three days after he was born. His sister Esther Raziel-Naor was elected to the Knesset for the Cherut in 1949.
In 1955, Raziel's remains were exhumed , first transferred to Nicosia in Cyprus and finally buried in 1961 on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. The moshav Ramat Raziel west of Jerusalem is named after him.
The Israeli Post issued a postage stamp with his portrait in 1978.
literature
- Encyclopaedia Judaica . Volume 13, pp. 1593/1594
References and comments
- ↑ On the Anglo-Iraqi War in May 1941, see Military Putsch in Iraq 1941 .
- ↑ David Raziel . In: The complete guide to Israeli postage stamps from 1948 onward . Boeliem. Retrieved December 21, 2010.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Raziel, David |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Zionist underground fighter, commander of the Irgun Tzwai Le'umi organization |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 19, 1910 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Smorgon |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 20, 1941 |
| Place of death | al-Habbaniyya near Baghdad , Kingdom of Iraq |