DOV GRUNER (age 34)

Dov Gruner was born in Hungry on December 6 1912. In 1940 he escaped Europe and traveled to the Land of Israel. Because the British rulers of Palestine were prohibiting Jews from entering the country, Gruner entered clandestinely aboard an illegal immigrant vessel.

Dov Gruner eventually settled in Rosh Pinah and was recruited into the Irgun Zvai Leumi. In 1941, while the organization had agreed to a truce with Great Britain (so long as England was fighting against Hitler), Gruner joined the British army and, together with his comrades in the Jewish Brigade, came to the aid of Holocaust survivors in post-World War II Europe. After his demobilization in 1946, Gruner joined the Irgun’s combat unit. The organization had broken its truce with Great Britain in 1944 by publicly declaring a revolt and joining Lehi in the struggle for Israel’s freedom.

The British succeeded in capturing Gruner after he was wounded by a bullet to his jaw during an Irgun raid on the Ramat Gan police station. After refusing to participate in his trial or to recognize the right of a British military court to judge Jews in the Land of Israel, Gruner was sentenced to death by hanging.

Dov Gruner became famous overnight. Only two years after the end of World War II, he came to personify the struggle for Hebrew liberation. International sympathy for the condemned fighter put the British administration in a difficult situation. Gruner was informed that if he were to acknowledge the British court and beg it for his life, his sentence would be commuted. But even when bribed with the opportunity to save his own life, the fighter would not accept British dominance over his country.

On April 15 1947, the British transferred Gruner, together with three other captured Irgun fighters (Mordechai Alkachi, Yehiel Drezner and Eliezer Kashani), from their jail cells in Jerusalem to the Acre prison fortress. The move was carried out in secret and the British were careful to hide their intentions from the public. At 4am the following morning, Dov Gruner and his three comrades were aroused from their sleep and taken to the execution chambers. As the condemned men walked through the halls of the fortress, all the Jewish prisoners rose to their feet and sang HaTikva. Standing by the gallows was the head of the prison service in Palestine, the governor of Acre prison, a physician and six British officers. As the execution was to be carried out in secret, no rabbi was present. All four fighters were hanged within half an hour and each of them, as his turn arrived, sang HaTikva until he died. Each was joined in his singing by those awaiting their turn.