February 12, 1942
Avraham Stern Is Killed
Historical context
On this day, February 12, 1942, British police shot Avraham Stern, founder of Lehi, in a Tel Aviv apartment. The circumstances of the shooting remain disputed.
Archive record
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- Date
- February 12, 1942
- Verified sources
- 1
- Archive threads
- 8
On this day, British detectives found Avraham Stern hiding in a Tel Aviv apartment and shot him dead. Stern, born in Suwałki in 1907 and known as Yair, had left the Irgun in 1940 and founded Lehi (Fighters for the Freedom of Israel) after the Irgun suspended its campaign against the British during the world war.
The British called the group the Stern Gang. The precise circumstances of the shooting remain disputed: police accounts described an escape attempt; later critics described an extrajudicial killing. This article records the death on 12 February 1942, not a later judgment of Lehi’s campaign.
Research trail
Sources and further reading
- Avraham Stern · Jewish Virtual Library · Jewish Virtual Library View source
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