KADDISHEL
A Life Reborn
100,000 soldiers in Israel, due in large part to the activities of these groups. The Irgun and Lechi routinely killed people and blew up bridges. In 1946, Etzel carried out a major attack, blowing up a wing of the King David Hotel that housed the British government offices and the headquarters of its Criminal Investigation Division and kill- ing many British officers and civilians. To do this, they managed to hijack the milk delivery truck, emptied out a few canisters of milk, load them up with dynamite, and deliver them to the lower level of the hotel. After the canisters were unloaded, the blast was set off, either by remote control or a timer, and an entire wing of the hotel was demolished. One hour before the explosion, they warned the British to evacuate the King David Hotel, but the British ignored the warning. I lived in the kibbutz at that time, and we knew what was going on. Of course, the British reacted decisively, with curfews and all kinds of restrictions. They kept bringing more policemen and re- inforcing their bases. The whole country was put on a war footing, and they decided to crack down on the Jewish establishment. They started to search for weapons, not only those of Etzel and Lechi, but everywhere. That led to the events of Black Sabbath. On Black Sabbath, June 29, 1946, the British stormed Yagur and arrested all the men, hauling them off for questioning. They left the old people, the women, and the children, but confined us to our living area with a barbed wire fence. Even the bathrooms were off limits, and we could only use them if we were escorted there and back by a British soldier. All we could do to harass them was to go to the bathroom constantly. A few times, the women started walk- ing toward them as if they were going to try to break through their cordon. Although the soldiers stood with their bayonets ready, they backed off, rather than using them. As individuals, the British sol - diers acted with a great deal of restraint while they were at Yagur. Unfortunately, however, they succeeded in finding our caches of illegal weapons, which had been smuggled in and were extreme- ly important to our cause. Only a select group of members knew
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