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PALESTINE – PALESTINE POLICE FORCE AND THE STERN GANG (LEHI)
PALESTINE – PALESTINE POLICE FORCE AND THE STERN GANG (LEHI) Reward poster (405 x 292mm) issued for information leading to the arrest of three Jews suspected of the attempted assassination of three high-ranking Palestine Police Force officers. Jerusalem: 5 May 1942. Text in English and Hebrew. (Light vertical and horizontal creasefolds, some minor marginal nicks to upper margin.) RARE POSTER DEMONSTRATING THE STERN GANG’S REPRISALS FOR THE DEATH OF THEIR LEADER . Originally a leader within the Jewish paramilitary organization Irgun , Avraham Stern (1907-1942) rejected collaboration with the British in support of their war against Germany, and formed a breakaway Zionist terrorist group named Lehi in September 1940. Lehi undertook various terrorist attacks on the British authorities, as well as staging bank robberies to fund their activities. A £1000 reward was offered for Stern, and eventually he was traced to a Tel Aviv apartment on 12 September 1942. After some witnesses to his arrest had left the building, Stern was shot by two of the three policeman guarding him. His death has never been satisfactorily explained, although Geoffrey Morton, Assistant Superintendent, CID, the most senior officer present, claimed in his memoirs that he thought Stern was about set off explosives. The present lot makes reference to an attempt on Morton’s life on 1 May 1942 in revenge for Stern’s death, where he narrowly avoided being caught in a massive roadside bomb.