One of Them was Jewish
In 1947, Palestine Jewry’s underground struggle against the British — which ultimately forced them to turn the Palestine Problem over to the UN– reached its height.
Here are some of the dramatic events of that year:
On April 16, the British executed four members of the Irgun Zvi Leumi- Dov Gruner, Mordecai Alkahi, Yehiel Dresner and Eliezer Kashani — at the Acre prison. A week later, Meir Feinstein, a member of the Irgun and Moshe Barazani, a member of the “Fighters for the Freedom of Israel” (Stern Group) blew themselves up in the Central Prison of Jerusalem, shortly before they were due to be executed. In the first week of May, the Irgun Zvai Leumi attacked the Acre prison freeing many of the inmates. In July the British executed three more members of the Irgun– Avshalom Haviv, Yaakov Weiss and Meir Nakar — who had participated in the attack on the Acre fortress. In retaliation, the Irgun hanged two British sergeants whom they had taken hostage in order to prevent the execution of its members.
The hanging of the two sergeants dealt a terrible low to Britain’s prestige, as did the flogging by the Irgun of a British major and three sergeants several months earlier.
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary this month of the hanging of the two British sergeants, I have permitted myself to dwell here on some newly discovered facts.
Clifford Martin, one of the two British sergeants, was according to Halacha, a Jew. He was the son of a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish father. The Irgun, of course was not aware of this. Martin obviously did not tell his captors that his mother was Jewish. He apparently was used to hiding his Jewish origin and he did so even when its revelation, could have saved his life.
I learned about this during my recent visit to Israel, from my comrade Israel Medad (Winkelman) a former Betar leader from New York, who was instrumental in bringing to light the new facts about Sergeant Martin. My good friend Ephraim Even, editor of HaUmma, the quarterly published by the Jabotinsky fraternal order, drew my attention to Aryeh Eshel’s Shevirat HaGardumim published in 1990 which presents in detail Martin’s life and death in the light of the newly discovered facts.
In 1981- 34 years after the execution of the British sergeants – a young English Jew told Israel Medad, who had been his leader in Betar, something which Medad found “strange and impossible to believe.” The young man said that he heard from his father who was a physician in Coventry (Britain) in the 1960s about one of his woman patients who told him that she too, was Jewish. The woman was bitter about her people, who, she said “hanged her son in Palestine.”
She was the mother of Clifford Martin.
Israel Medad wrote immediately about this to the editor of the Jewish Chronicle and asked him to find out whether there was any truth to the story. The editor sent a correspondent to Coventry to interview Clifford’s sister Viki Kemp (Clifford’s mother was no longer alive). The Jewish Chronicle, subsequently published a long article to the effect that Clifford Martin – one of the two British sergeants hanged in July 1947 in Netanya by the Irgun Zvai Leumi– was Jewish.
Following are some of the statements made by Clifford’s sister to Jenni Frazer, the Jewish Chronicle correspondent.
The mother, Fernanda Martine, was the daughter of a large Cairo Jewish family. Her parents are buried in Cairo. She married Arnold Martin, a Gentile of Anglo-French origin, who was the governor of a prison in Khartoum.
Viki, her sister Joanna and Clifford grew up and were educated in Cairo. Clifford was circumcised. The grandmother — the mother’s mother who was religious lived with them for some time. Though the children were brought up as Catholics, they knew that their mother was Jewish. The mother and the three children moved to England in 1938.
All members of the family were proficient in several languages. Clifford’s knowledge of languages brought him to the army intelligence corps. He also spoke Hebrew. He was sent to Palestine in 1946. The mother was pleased that he was sent there. Through him, she hoped to establish contact with members of her family who resided in Haifa. After Clifford was captured by the Irgun, his mother wrote to Buckingham Palace for help. She turned to two members of Parliament who represented Coventry, Richard H.S. Crossman, (a member of the Anglo American Committee of Enquiry on Palestine) and Maurice Edelman (a Jew) asking for their assistance. She also wrote to a cousin of hers, Isaac Cohen, who was active in Jewish communal life in Cairo, to intervene on behalf of her son.
(Continued next week)
The Jewish Press, Friday, July 4, 1997
(Continued from Last Week)
Mrs. Viki Kemp, Sergeant Martin’s sister, told the Jewish Chronicle that she blamed both Menahem Begin, the Commander of the Irgun, and Clement Attlee, who was Britain’s Prime Ministers at the time, for the death of her brother. Richard Crossman had begged Attlee not to hang the three members of the Irgun. Mrs. Kemp said that her mother was greatly hurt that her son was killed by one of her own kind.
Viki Kemp further stated that after her brother was hanged, the family received a letter from the Irgun which said that they were lucky he was not crucified. Because of his Jewish connection, he was regarded as a traitor to the Jewish people. He had spied on the Jews. The sister denied this accusation, saying that her brother, of his own choice was gathering information, not among Jews, but among Egyptians living in Palestine.
The correspondent of the Jewish Chronicle asked Mrs. Kemp to show her the letter of the Irgun. She said that it was kept together with other family papers at her son’s home. Despite repeated requests, the letter was never produced.
The Irgun never sent such a letter to the family. According to Aryeh Eshel, in his above mentioned book Shevirat HaGardumim, neither the Irgun nor the Stern Group, regarded Jews, who were serving with the British forces in Palestine as traitors. In addition, the Irgun was well aware that Sergeant Martin did not engage in intelligence work among Jews.
Moreover, the Irgun never knew that the sergeant had a Jewish mother, During the 18 days in which he was held captive by the Irgun prior to his execution, he never said or intimated to his captors that he was of Jewish origin. Contrary to the assertion of his sister, Sergeant Martin Didn’t know Hebrew. One of his Irgun guards, who didn’t know English but spoke Arabic, had to communicate with him in that language.
Aryeh Eshel writes that several months after the publication of the article about Sergeant Martin, in the Jewish Chronicle, the man who was the sergeant’s superior in the British army intelligence unit, wrote to the paper that Martin’s fellow soldier never knew that he was of Jewish origin. After his execution by the Irgun, there were nebulous rumors to that effect. Some time after he was demobilized, he met Richard Crossman who told him that the mother of Sergeant Martin had come to see him. He– Crossman — added that the mother was Jewish or he believed that she was Jewish.
Eshel concludes that Sergeant Martin, who knew nothing about Jews and the Jewish religion, could not imagine that the fact of his being born of a Jewish mother and of being circumcised, might affect his captors’ attitude towards him. All his life he had hidden his Jewish origin, had not spoken of it. He continued to do so even after he was taken hostage by the Irgun.
Some time ago, the world press wrote at length about the life of Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright. Her Jewish parents brought her up as a Christian, not telling her of her Jewish origin, in order to “shield her from trouble.”
The case of Sergeant Martin presents exactly the opposite situation. A man finds himself in trouble because he didn’t reveal his Jewish origin!
The sergeant’s mother, who was Jewish and was never baptized, certainly realized that she might save him by revealing his Jewish origin. She wrote to her Jewish cousin. She apparently told Crossman that she was Jewish. However, the private communications, could not reach the command of the Irgun. This could be achieved only by approaching the news media, which would have informed the entire world that Sergeant Martin was Jewish. Why didn’t the mother talk to the media? Answers Eshel. Perhaps she, too, was hesitant to reveal that she was Jewish thereby uncovering the Jewish origin of her two daughters who were married to Gentiles. Perhaps her daughters or others advised her not to talk to the media.
Eshel, finally deals with the question of what the Irgun command would have done had it known that Sergeant Martin had a Jewish mother. He provides us with a definite answer, based on a precedent.
(Conclusion next week)
The Jewish Press, Friday July 11, 1997
Conclusion
Aryeh Eshel is convinced that if the Irgun had known that Sergeant Martin was the son of a Jewish mother, they would not have hanged him.
In support of his view, he tells of a little known action of the Irgun, which took place about three and a half months before the hanging of the two British sergeants.
During the night from the 15th to the 16th of April, the British executed Dov Gruner and three other members of the Irgun in Acre Prison. The executions were carried out in secret, without prior announcement, without relatives being permitted to take leave of the condemned. The executions were carried out while endeavors were still being made to get the death sentences commuted.
Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog had been assured that if the authorities decided to carry out the death sentece, they would inform him 24 hours in advance so that a rabbi could recite Vidui with the men. The promise was not kept.
Helen Friedman, sister of Dov Gruner who had come from the U.S. to see her brother, was told that she could visit her brother, one more time before returning to her country on April 16th at 8 o’clock in the morning.
About five o’clock that morning she was informed by a British officer that she wouldn’t be able to see her brother anymore, but she could attend his funeral. Breaking into tears, she said: “All over the world relatives are permitted to take leave of people, who have been sentenced to death. I was not permitted to do so.”
Writing about the execution of his comrades, in his book The Revolt, Menachem Begin declared:
“I believe there is no precedent in history of a government carrying out a death sentence in such fear and in such secrecy. The authorities promised to wait for the decision of the Privy Council; and misled us. they announced that the postponement was still in force; and deceived us.,,,”
“On April 16th, 1947 tens of thousands of people in Eretz Yisrael tuned on their radios to hear the early morning broadcast. The voice of the announcer came through: Leah Porat reading an official communique. But it was not an announcer’s voice. It was the voice of a young Jewish woman, choked with tears: “This morning in Acre Jail, Dov Gruner, Dov Rosenbaum (alias of Yechiel Dresner), Mordecai Alkahi, and Eliezer Kashani were executed by hanging.”
“They had not been permitted the ministrations of a rabbi in their last moments.”
The high command of the Irgun decided to retaliate- to kidnap Englishmen and hang them. It was not an easy task. The British in Palestine knew what to expect from the Irgun. British officials dared not show themselves in the streets. They kept to their well-fortified security zones, nicknamed by the people “Bevingrads.”
A squad of Irgun fighters led by legendary Dov Cohen whose underground name was Shimson, were looking about in Tel Aviv for an Englishman.
(Dov Cohen served during War War II with the British forces. He returned from the war laden with decorations for bravery. He became the commander of the assault unit of the Irgun. About two weeks after the execution of Dov Gruner and his comrades, dressed in a British captain’s uniform, he led the Irgun’s attack on the Prison. He didn’t return from that mission.
After a prolonged search the squad located a man on the beach of Tel Aviv. who they thought looked like an Englishman. They kidnapped him and brought him in a car to a large park in Tel Aviv. The man was terror stricken when he learned that he was to be hanged in retaliation for the execution of Dov Gruner and his comrades. He could hardly speak. With great difficulty he managed to tell the Irgunists that he was an Englishman, but he was Jewish. Dov Cohen didn’t know any other language, except English and his name didn’t sound Jewish. Yaakov Amrami of the intelligence service of the Irgun who had been also to the park, interrogated the man. He wanted solid evidence that he was a Jew. The man’s claim that he was circumcised did not impress his captors. Many English men were circumcised. Dov Cohen, holding a rope in his hand urged Amrami to hang the man. Amrami hestitated. Several minutes passed. Then all of a sudden to the amazement of all– the man began to mumble words of the Kaddish. All were deeply moved, especially Dov Cohen who fell upon the man and embraced him. He also brought him to his hotel. Until this day, Amrami gets greatly excited– about it. “Kaddish which is required after a person dies, saved a man from death,” he comments. “How lucky we were, he and us!”
The Jewish Press, Friday, July 18, 1997