Dov Gruner

Dov Gruner emigrated from Hungary to Mandatory Palestine in 1940 and served in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army during the Second World War before joining the Irgun underground. In 1946 he took part in two arms raids against British military and police installations, including the Ramat Gan police station, where he was shot in the face and captured. Tried by a British military court in January 1947, he refused to recognise its authority or to seek clemency, and was hanged at Acre Prison on 16 April 1947 with three other Irgun members. His execution, and his refusal to plead, made him a widely known figure in the campaign against British rule in the year before Israeli independence; the Irgun's armed campaign remains a historically debated subject and is presented here as fact rather than endorsement.