Beschreibung:

Two handwritten letters by Lehi fighter Matityahu Shmuelevitz, addressed to Rabbi Aryeh Levin. The letters were composed during the period when Shmuelevitz was tried by the British authorities for his underground activities and sentenced to death by hanging. One of the letters is dated: 11 Tammuz 5704 (July 1944). The second letter appears to have been written a short time earlier. Hebrew. Both letters were written on graph paper. One, written mostly in pencil, opens with the address "Rebbe" and is signed "Matityahu Ben Zvi Hayim Shmulevitz". The second is written in ink and addressed to "Dear Rabbi Levin!". It is signed "Raphael Matityahu Ben Hayim Zvi and Sarah". The letters reveal Shmuelevitz's mood during his imprisonment and trial, his belief in his cause, the importance he accorded to prayer (and to the prayers of others on his behalf), and his willingness to accept his own fate and divine law. The letters also reflect the efforts of Rabbi Aryeh Levin, the "Prisoners' Rabbi", to assist Shmuelevitz. In the first letter Shmuelevitz writes: "G-d in Heaven knows that all I have done, I did not do for myself, but for the sanctity of Israel… and I am prepared to sanctify the name of G-d with all my soul and all my heart, even when my soul is taken away from me I will not bow down before the law of the goyim, I will not beg for mercy, for that is a disgrace…" In the second letter (dated 11 Tammuz) Shmuelevitz writes of the efforts to mitigate the death sentence handed to him. He describes his dissatisfaction with the appeals of the Histadrut to the military commander ("I do not believe in the pure intentions of this appeal…"), and writes to Rabbi Levin: "You told me that during prayers, in all of the synagogues the worshippers recite the 'He who blessed' prayer on my behalf. That caused me great joy. I suddenly felt as if a great many good, pious Jews had each spread his tallit over me, and I felt so happy and carefree beneath those tallitot, as if I had been brought under the wings of the divinity…". Matityahu Shmuelevitz (1921-1995) was born in Lodz (Poland) and immigrated to Eretz Israel as a youth, as part of the "Af Al Pi" [Despite It All] Aliyah (the illegal immigration enterprise of the Revisionist Movement). Upon arriving in Eretz Israel, in 1938, he joined the Betar Platoon, and later, following the split from the Irgun, joined the Lehi organization (Stern Gang). In 1941 he was arrested for the first time and sent without trial to be detained at Latrun. About a year later he was among twenty Lehi members who managed to escape the internment camp via a tunnel they had dug. After his escape he resumed his underground activities, but in April 1944 was arrested a second time, after having been caught in an exchange of fire with British police officers in the course of which he wounded one of the officers. Shmuelevitz was imprisoned at the central prison in Jerusalem, and his trial, which was extensively covered by the press, afforded him the opportunity to present his arguments against British rule. At the end of the trial he was sentenced to death by hanging, but following public pressure his sentence was mitigated to life imprisonment. In the course of his imprisonment he was transferred to Acre Prison. In 1947 he attempted to escape during a raid by Irgun forces, but was caught. Later he was transferred to the prison in Jerusalem, whence he escaped in 1948, along with other prisoners. Shmuelevitz was arrested for the third time by British forces following the assassination of U.N. mediator Count Folke Bernadotte in September 1948 (arrested together with him was Nathan Yellin-Mor). The two were tried for operating a terrorist organization and sentenced to a number of years in prison, but were pardoned a few days after their verdict was published. In 1972 Shmuelevitz joined the Herut Movement, and later served as Director General of the Prime Minister's Office under Menachem Begin. Rabbi Aryeh Levin (1885-1969), Israeli r