Israel Carmi

{{Infobox military person

| name = Israel Carmi

| native_name = ישראל כרמי

| native_name_lang = he

| birth_name = Israel Weinman

| birth_date = 1917

| birth_place = Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland)

| death_date = {{death date and age|2008|01|20|1917}}

| death_place = Israel

| allegiance = Mandatory Palestine / Israel

| branch = Haganah, Palestine Regiment, Jewish Brigade

| serviceyears = 1936–1948

| rank = Sergeant

| unit = Haganah, Special Night Squads, Palestine Police Force, Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), Special Interrogation Group, Jewish Brigade

| awards = Colonial Police Medal of Valor

| laterwork = Founder of Tilhas Tizig Gesheften (TTG Brigade)

}}

Israel (Yisrael) Carmi (born Israel Weinman, 1917 – 20 January 2008) was an Israeli soldier and the founder of the Tilhas Tizig Gesheften (TTG) Brigade, known for tracking down and executing former Nazi officers after World War II.

Life

Carmi was born in Danzig (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.Blum p26M. Beckham The Jewish Brigade p27 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.Blum p.26 During the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Carmi fought whilst outnumbered by the revolting Arabs who tried to overrun Kfar Yehezkel,Blum p.26 and in 1938 at the age of 21 Carmi was selected for the Special Night Squads,Blum p27 / 28 receiving the Colonial Police Medal of Valor for his duties.Blum p27 / 28 / 29Soshuk Levi Momentous Century p122

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.Blum p27 / 28 / 34 / 39 However this changed with the issuance of the White Paper of 1939. Carmi joined the Posh (Haganah unit), whose goal was to 'prevent the British from arresting the underground leaders and messing up covert training grounds.Blum p. 28

When World War II broke out Carmi joined the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) under orders from Haganah and became the rank of sergeant.Blum. p28/29 During the summer of 1942 Carmi was stationed in Sinia where he stole British arms for future use.Blum p30 Carmi also served with the SIG Jewish Commando in North Africa (see Sugarman 'The Jewish Commandos of the SIG' in 'Fighting Back', London, Valentine Mitchell, 2017). 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.Blum p126 Carmi caused mutiny in the 2nd Battalion after the commander ripped down the Israeli flag Carmi had raised instead of a British flag.Blum p16

In 1944 Carmi joined the Jewish Brigade.Soshuk p224 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.Blum p10 From here Carmi travelled north to a base established in Fiuggi.Blum p25 After this Carmi and operatives left Italy for Germany,Blum p139 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.Blum p153 and p156

In June 1945 Carmi and operatives left the encampment in Tarvisio to visit the Mauthausen Concentration Camp.Blum p161 Carmi asked to be transferred to the intelligence units, where he gathered information regarding the whereabouts of Nazis.Blum p170 Together with Australian born Robert Grossman, Carmi travelled back to Italy, this time to Treviso, and gathered information from locals around the area, including touting for information.Blum p170-172 Treviso was considered the perfect location because the SS stayed throughout the war and the local train station was used in connection with the deportation of Italian Jews, and the area was also full of refugees and recovering Wehrmacht soldiers.Blum p171-172 and 174-178 Here Carmi got information regarding a high-ranking Gestapo officer in charge of confiscation of the property of Italian Jews.Blum 172 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.Blum 176 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.Blum p178 Carmi gave the list of minor officers to the Allied Intelligence Bureau (AIB), but kept the major officers list.Blum p178 Carmi then organised a group of fellow Jewish Brigade officers to track and kill those whose guilt was "definitively established" by evidence.Blum p185 Members of the group included Meir Zorea, Haim Laskov, Abram Silberstein, Marcel Tobias, and Orly Givon.Blum184-185 Some offered membership to the group due to the extrajudicial nature of their actions.Blum 185 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 were killed by strangulation, and two SS officers were pushed over a mountain ledge.Blum p196 / p198 / p200

References

Bibliography

{{cite book|author=Beckham, Morris|authorlink=Morris Beckman (writer)|title=The Jewish Brigade: An Army With Two Masters, 1944-45|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kEs4QwAACAAJ&q=The+Jewish+Brigade:+An+Army+With+Two+Masters,+1944-45.|year=1999|publisher=Sarpedon Publishers|isbn=1-885119-56-9}}{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
{{cite book|author=Blum, Howard |authorlink=Howard Blum|title=The Brigade: An Epic Story of Vengeance, Salvation, and World War II|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=VorR3cqIy64C|year=2009|publisher=Hardscrabble Entertainment|isbn=978-0-06-093283-1}}
{{cite book| author=Soshuk, Levi |author2=Azriel Louis Eisenberg|title=Momentous Century: Personal and Eyewitness Accounts of the Rise of the Jewish Homeland and State, 1875-1978|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=N0TLvWXFIi0C&q=%22yisrael+carmi%22|year=1984|publisher=Associated University Presses|isbn=978-0-8453-4748-5}}
{{cite book| author=Kahana, Ephraim |title=Historical Dictionary of Israeli Intelligence|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pAar3TpYOt4C&q=Historical+dictionary+of+Israeli+intelligence|year=2006|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-8108-5581-6}}