Israel Carmi
Encyclopedia
Israel Carmi (Former name Israel Weinman), born 1917 (exact date unknown), was the founder of the Tilhas Tizig Gesheften
(TTG Brigade).
(now Gdańsk
) sometime in 1917. At the age of 17 he immigrated to Israel, changing his surname from Weinman to Carmi. Carmi worked at a farming kibbutz
in the area of Givat HaShlosha
in central Israel
. At the age of 19 (1936) Carmi was recruited into the Haganah
(anglicised Hebrew: "The Defense"), and in the winter of 1936 Carmi volunteered for the Palestine Police Force
on orders from Haganah
. During the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Carmi fought whilst outnumbered by the revolvting Arabs who tried to overrun Kfar Yehezkel
, and in 1938 at the age of 21 Carmi was selected for the Special Night Squads
, receiving the Colonial Police Medal of Valor for his duties.
In 1939 at the end of the Arab Revolt, Carmi returned to Givat HaShlosha
and married Tonka, promising to stay on the farm and grow oranges and melons. However this changed with the issuance of the White Paper of 1939
. Carmi joined the PUSH (Haganah unit), whose goal was to 'prevent the British from arresting the underground leaders and messing up covert training grounds.
When World War II
broke out Carmi joined the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) under orders from Haganah
and became the rank of sergeant. During the summer of 1942 Carmi was stationed in Sinia
where he stole British arms for future use. Then during July 1943 Carmi was in Benghazi
as part of the 2nd Battalion of the Palestine Regiment
, a supporting unit of the Jewish Brigade
. Carmi caused mutiny in the 2nd Battalion after the commander ripped down the Israeli flag Carmi had raised instead of a British flag.
In 1944 Carmi joined the Jewish Brigade
. Around October 1944 Carmi travelled to Alexandria and then directly to Italy where he smuggled two Haganah
operatives as British soldiers, their mission was to determine the truthfulness of the gas chamber rumors. From here Carmi travelled north to a base established in Fiuggi
. After this Carmi and operatives left Italy
for Germany
, on the way there was an incident in which the group attacked wehrmacht
POWS and as a result the British ordered them not to enter Germany and to stay in Tarvisio
.
In June 1945 Carmi and operatives left the encampment in Tarvisio
to visit the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Carmi asked to be transferred to the intelligence units, where he gathered information regarding the whereabouts of Nazis. Together with Australian born Robert Grossman, Carmi travelled back to Italy this time Treviso
and gathered information from locals around the area, including touting for information. Treviso
was considered the perfect location because the SS stayed throughout the war and the local trainstation was used in connection with the deportation of Italian Jews, and the area was also full of refugees and recovering wehrmacht
soldiers. Here Carmi got information regarding a high-ranking Gestapo
officer in charge of confiscation of the property of Italian Jews
. In turn Carmi went to the home of the Gestapo officer disguised as a British officer and searched the home, finding bags of jewellery, guns, and cash. Upon threats to kill him, the Gestapo officer offered information providing the addresses and other personal information of other SS or Gestapo officers - receiving 18 pages of names. Carmi gave the list of minor officers to the Allied Intelligence Bureau
(AIB), but kept the major officers list. Carmi then organised a group of fellow Jewish Brigade
officers to track and kill those whose guilt was "definitively established" by evidence. Members of the group included Meir Zorea
, Haim Laskov, Abram Silberstein, Marcel Tobias, and Orly Givon. Some offered membership to the group due to the extrajudical nature of their actions. The group began killing officers from the list, typically stating "in the name of the Jewish people, I sentence you to death." before carrying out a quick field trial, later the officers where killed by strangulation, and two SS officers were pushed over a mountain ledge. The group was also approached by Abba Kovner
the founder of Nakam
in request for their assistance. Kovner wanted to poison the major water supplies to major German cities to kill 6 million Germans in revenge for the holocaust, Carmi refused however seeing the murder as indiscriminate, telling Kovner, "We use tweezers, you want to use a bulldozer". Because of this Carmi and Kovner came to blows and Kovner accused Carmi of being a "coward"
Tilhas Tizig Gesheften
Tilhas Teezee Gesheften was the name of a group of Jewish Brigade members formed immediately following World War II...
(TTG Brigade).
Life
Carmi was born in the quasi-state of the Free City of DanzigFree City of Danzig
The Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig and surrounding areas....
(now Gdańsk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
) sometime in 1917. At the age of 17 he immigrated to Israel, changing his surname from Weinman to Carmi. Carmi worked at a farming kibbutz
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
in the area of Givat HaShlosha
Givat HaShlosha
Givat HaShlosha is a kibbutz in central Israel, about 4 km east of Petah Tikva, near the Yarkon river.A member of the Kibbutz Movement, it falls under the jurisdiction of Drom Hasharon Regional Council...
in central Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. At the age of 19 (1936) Carmi was recruited into the Haganah
Haganah
Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...
(anglicised Hebrew: "The Defense"), and in the winter of 1936 Carmi volunteered for the Palestine Police Force
Palestine Police Force
The Palestine Police Force was a British colonial police service established in the British Mandate for Palestine on 1 July 1920, when High Commissioner Herbert Samuel's civil administration took over responsibility for security from General Allenby's Occupied Enemy Territory Administration...
on orders from Haganah
Haganah
Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...
. During the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Carmi fought whilst outnumbered by the revolvting Arabs who tried to overrun Kfar Yehezkel
Kfar Yehezkel
Kfar Yehezkel is a moshav ovdim in northern Israel. It is located in the Jezreel Valley, six kilometres southeast of Afula. It is under the jurisdiction of the Gilboa Regional Council. In 2007, the moshav had a population of 755.-History:...
, and in 1938 at the age of 21 Carmi was selected for the Special Night Squads
Special Night Squads
The Special Night Squads were a joint British-Jewish counter-insurgency unit, established by Captain Orde Wingate in Palestine in 1938, during the 1936-1939 Arab revolt. The SNS comprised British infantry soldiers and Jewish Supernumerary Police...
, receiving the Colonial Police Medal of Valor for his duties.
In 1939 at the end of the Arab Revolt, Carmi returned to Givat HaShlosha
Givat HaShlosha
Givat HaShlosha is a kibbutz in central Israel, about 4 km east of Petah Tikva, near the Yarkon river.A member of the Kibbutz Movement, it falls under the jurisdiction of Drom Hasharon Regional Council...
and married Tonka, promising to stay on the farm and grow oranges and melons. However this changed with the issuance of the White Paper of 1939
White Paper of 1939
The White Paper of 1939, also known as the MacDonald White Paper after Malcolm MacDonald, the British Colonial Secretary who presided over it, was a policy paper issued by the British government under Neville Chamberlain in which the idea of partitioning the Mandate for Palestine, as recommended in...
. Carmi joined the PUSH (Haganah unit), whose goal was to 'prevent the British from arresting the underground leaders and messing up covert training grounds.
When World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
broke out Carmi joined the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) under orders from Haganah
Haganah
Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...
and became the rank of sergeant. During the summer of 1942 Carmi was stationed in Sinia
Sinia
Sinia is a genus of butterfly in the family Lycaenidae....
where he stole British arms for future use. Then during July 1943 Carmi was in Benghazi
Benghazi
Benghazi is the second largest city in Libya, the main city of the Cyrenaica region , and the former provisional capital of the National Transitional Council. The wider metropolitan area is also a district of Libya...
as part of the 2nd Battalion of the Palestine Regiment
Palestine Regiment
The Palestine Regiment was a regiment of the British Army that was formed in 1942. During World War II, the regiment was deployed to Egypt and Cyrenaica, but most of their work consisted of guard duty....
, a supporting unit of the Jewish Brigade
Jewish Brigade
The Jewish Infantry Brigade Group was a military formation of the British Army that served in Europe during the Second World War. The brigade was formed in late 1944, and its personnel fought the Germans in Italy...
. Carmi caused mutiny in the 2nd Battalion after the commander ripped down the Israeli flag Carmi had raised instead of a British flag.
In 1944 Carmi joined the Jewish Brigade
Jewish Brigade
The Jewish Infantry Brigade Group was a military formation of the British Army that served in Europe during the Second World War. The brigade was formed in late 1944, and its personnel fought the Germans in Italy...
. Around October 1944 Carmi travelled to Alexandria and then directly to Italy where he smuggled two Haganah
Haganah
Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...
operatives as British soldiers, their mission was to determine the truthfulness of the gas chamber rumors. From here Carmi travelled north to a base established in Fiuggi
Fiuggi
Fiuggi is a comune in the province of Frosinone in the region of Lazio in central Italy.-History:Fiuggi, originally called Anticoli di Campagna, gained fame as early as the 14th century, when Pope Boniface VIII claimed his kidney stones had been healed by the mineral waters from the nearby Fiuggi...
. After this Carmi and operatives left Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
for Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, on the way there was an incident in which the group attacked wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
POWS and as a result the British ordered them not to enter Germany and to stay in Tarvisio
Tarvisio
Tarvisio is a town in the Province of Udine, in the northeastern part of the autonomous Friuli–Venezia Giulia region in Italy...
.
In June 1945 Carmi and operatives left the encampment in Tarvisio
Tarvisio
Tarvisio is a town in the Province of Udine, in the northeastern part of the autonomous Friuli–Venezia Giulia region in Italy...
to visit the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Carmi asked to be transferred to the intelligence units, where he gathered information regarding the whereabouts of Nazis. Together with Australian born Robert Grossman, Carmi travelled back to Italy this time Treviso
Treviso
Treviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...
and gathered information from locals around the area, including touting for information. Treviso
Treviso
Treviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...
was considered the perfect location because the SS stayed throughout the war and the local trainstation was used in connection with the deportation of Italian Jews, and the area was also full of refugees and recovering wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
soldiers. Here Carmi got information regarding a high-ranking Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
officer in charge of confiscation of the property of Italian Jews
Italian Jews
Italian Jews can be used in a broad sense to mean all Jews living or with roots in Italy or in a narrower sense to mean the ancient community who use the Italian rite, as distinct from the communities dating from medieval or modern times who use the Sephardi or Ashkenazi rite.-Divisions:Italian...
. In turn Carmi went to the home of the Gestapo officer disguised as a British officer and searched the home, finding bags of jewellery, guns, and cash. Upon threats to kill him, the Gestapo officer offered information providing the addresses and other personal information of other SS or Gestapo officers - receiving 18 pages of names. Carmi gave the list of minor officers to the Allied Intelligence Bureau
Allied Intelligence Bureau
The Allied Intelligence Bureau was an joint United States, Australian, Dutch and British intelligence and special operations agency during World War II. It was responsible for operating parties of spies and commandos behind Japanese lines in order to collect intelligence and conduct guerrilla...
(AIB), but kept the major officers list. Carmi then organised a group of fellow Jewish Brigade
Jewish Brigade
The Jewish Infantry Brigade Group was a military formation of the British Army that served in Europe during the Second World War. The brigade was formed in late 1944, and its personnel fought the Germans in Italy...
officers to track and kill those whose guilt was "definitively established" by evidence. Members of the group included Meir Zorea
Meir Zorea
Meir "Zarro" Zorea MC was a general in the Israel Defense Forces and later a member of the Knesset. He earned distinction through his combat actions in World War II and in the Israeli War of Independence...
, Haim Laskov, Abram Silberstein, Marcel Tobias, and Orly Givon. Some offered membership to the group due to the extrajudical nature of their actions. The group began killing officers from the list, typically stating "in the name of the Jewish people, I sentence you to death." before carrying out a quick field trial, later the officers where killed by strangulation, and two SS officers were pushed over a mountain ledge. The group was also approached by Abba Kovner
Abba Kovner
Abba Kovner was a Lithuanian Jewish Hebrew poet, writer, and partisan leader. He became one of the great poets of modern Israel. He was a cousin of the Israeli Communist Party leader Meir Vilner.-Biography:...
the founder of Nakam
Nakam
The Nokmim, also referred to as The Avengers or the Jewish Avengers, were alleged groups of Jewish assassins that targeted Nazi war criminals with the aim of avenging the Holocaust....
in request for their assistance. Kovner wanted to poison the major water supplies to major German cities to kill 6 million Germans in revenge for the holocaust, Carmi refused however seeing the murder as indiscriminate, telling Kovner, "We use tweezers, you want to use a bulldozer". Because of this Carmi and Kovner came to blows and Kovner accused Carmi of being a "coward"
See also
- Tilhas Tizig GesheftenTilhas Tizig GesheftenTilhas Teezee Gesheften was the name of a group of Jewish Brigade members formed immediately following World War II...
- Inglourious Basterds
- Tscherim SoobzokovTscherim SoobzokovTsherim Soobzokov was a Circassian man accused of collaborating with the Nazis during the invasion of the USSR and serving as a Waffen-SS officer. Soobzokov denied these charges and sued CBS and the New York Times...
- Jewish BrigadeJewish BrigadeThe Jewish Infantry Brigade Group was a military formation of the British Army that served in Europe during the Second World War. The brigade was formed in late 1944, and its personnel fought the Germans in Italy...
- HaganahHaganahHaganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...
- Special Night SquadsSpecial Night SquadsThe Special Night Squads were a joint British-Jewish counter-insurgency unit, established by Captain Orde Wingate in Palestine in 1938, during the 1936-1939 Arab revolt. The SNS comprised British infantry soldiers and Jewish Supernumerary Police...
- HashomerHashomerHashomer was a Jewish defense organization in Palestine founded out of Bar-Giora in April 1909. It ceased to operate after the founding of the Haganah in 1920. The purpose of Hashomer was to provide guard services for Jewish settlements in the Yishuv, freeing Jewish communities from dependence...
- NakamNakamThe Nokmim, also referred to as The Avengers or the Jewish Avengers, were alleged groups of Jewish assassins that targeted Nazi war criminals with the aim of avenging the Holocaust....