A Journey Into the Past

by Gad Nahshon

Recently, Israelis learned that their younger generation are ignorant as the history of pre-1948 era. Some were shocked to find that some youngsters can not sing Hatikvah, the national anthem (written by Naphtali H. Imber in 1878).

I happened to visit the Lehi Museum located on Abraham Stern Street (Florentin) Tel Aviv. (Many remember the old name of this street: Mizrachy B, because Abraham Stern, the founder-leader of Lehi, the secret underground of the Freedom Fighters of Israel, was murdered there in 1942 by British agents.)

Abraham Stern is a legend today. Since 1942, the commanders of the Lehi were Yitzhak Shamir, Natan Yelin-Mor, and Dr. Israel Shieb. Inside the museum you can still visit the room in which Stern was murdered in cold blood. Many visitors come to this place. Also there are classes for Israeli teachers which were organized by Shulamit Livnat of the 'National College' and the teacher-instructor was Dr. Uri Milstein, Israel's distinguished military historian.

Officially, this museum is under the supervision of the Museum Department of the Israeli Defense Ministry. From its official newsletter (Dr. Yoseph Kister, editor), we learn about other important museums which tell the story of the secret underground history of Israel. For example, Museum of the Prisoners of the Undergrounds in Acre (The Gallows), Museum Hahagana (Tel Aviv), Museum Haetsel (Irgun) in Tel Aviv, Museum Hapalmach (Tel Aviv), Museum Hashomer (Kibbutz Kfar Giladi).

There are 11 museums dedicating themselves to our military-defense history. They are a must to everyone who wants to know how to counter the Arab propaganda. In process: the establishment of a special project of the history of the Israeli army (Tsahal) 1948 to present.

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