Stern The Man and his Gang

by Zev Golan

The Man and His Gang traces Abraham Stern s evolution from hated gangster to folk hero and chronicles the military and political deeds of the thousand Jews who joined his war against England. In the 1940s, before there was an Israel, the Holy Land was rocked by warfare and violence, and no militia was fiercer than the band of Jewish revolutionaries known as the Stern Gang. The Man and His Gang by Zev Golan is the first English-language account of the life of Abraham Stern, the charismatic poet who founded the underground that called itself the Fighters for the Freedom of Israel. The Man and His Gang also provides a comprehensive history of the gang s operations in the years 1940-48, when it fought what it called British imperialism in the Mideast.

Genres: Israel

300 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2011

Reviews

[Eric Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I asked a friend recently what he knew about the Stern Gang, and he replied that they were “very small … and vicious”. That pretty much sums up the group known as the “Fighters for the Freedom of Israel” which waged a bloody 8-year-long fight to kick the British out of mandatory Palestine. Their leader, Avraham “Yair” Stern, was murdered in cold blood by British police in 1942. In turn, his followers murdered many others, including the UN peace emissary Count Folke Bernadotte in 1948. Zev Golan’s book makes no attempt to be impartial; this is a view of the Stern Gang that is entirely sympathetic. The book includes a long list of every single military action carried out by Stern’s followers, running over several pages, and one reads through these with numbing effect. Incredibly, decades after their war against the British ended, the Sternists were rewarded with recognition by the state of Israel, whose prime minister in the late 1980s was one of Stern’s acolytes, Yitzhak Shamir.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

🇮🇱 💙🤍 עם ישראל חי 🤍💙🇮🇱

חיילים אלמונים הננו בלי מדים,
וסביבנו אימה וצלמוות.
כולנו גויסנו לכל החיים,
משורה משחרר רק המות.

בימים אדומים של פרעות ודמים,
בלילות השחורים של יאוש.
בערים, בכפרים את דיגלנו נרים,
ועליו, הגנה וכיבוש

לא גויסנו בשוט כהמון עבדים,
כדי לשפוך בנכר את דמנו.
רצוננו: להיות לעולם בני חורין,
חלומנו: למות בעד ארצנו.

אם אנחנו ניפול ברחובות, בבתים,
יקברונו בלילה בלאט;
במקומנו יבואו אלפי אחרים,
ללחום ולכבוש עדי עד.

בדימעות אימהות שכולות מבנים,
ובדם תינוקות טהורים –
במלט נדביק הגופות ללבנים,
ובנין המולדת נקים.

[Warren Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, but not authoritative

A fascinating part of recent history that still resonates, however this account is far from authoritative and serves only as a sketchy introduction. Worth reading though.