Ashbel, Michael (“Mike”)

Son of Yehudit and Aryeh. He was born on February 2, 1922, in Vilna, to active Zionist parents and was educated in this spirit. After the outbreak of World War II, he fled to Russia and upon the renewal of the Polish army under the agreement between the Polish government-in-exile and the Soviets (1941), he enlisted in this army and arrived in the Middle East before Iraq and then to Palestine. After his arrival in Israel, he deserted from the army to settle in it, first living in his uncle’s home in Binyamina and then moving to Netanya where he was appointed deputy commander of the Betar branch, and in the ranks of the Irgun. At the end of 1944 he was arrested by the British and transferred to the detention camp in Latrun but managed to be released from detention. One night, when he was cleaning a weapon, a grenade exploded in his hand and his left hand was injured. He was brought to the hospital for healing, but he left with a defective hand. He moved to Tel Aviv where he continued his underground activities. During the day he worked in the manufacture of explosives and at night he participated in the preparation of operations, under the command of a horde guard, and in an exit for combat operations, including an attack on the secret police building in Jaffa, confiscating 35,000 pounds from a train near Hadera, confiscating weapons from a military camp in Tel Aviv. On April 6, 1946, during the Irgun attack on the Zrifin army camp for the purpose of confiscating weapons, Michael was in command of a position, and was injured while retreating and was taken prisoner with his friend Yosef Simhon, who were brought before a military court and sentenced to hanging, The death sentences were handed down to life imprisonment, and the song “Ali Barricades,” one of the most common songs of the Irgun during and after the anti-British armed struggle, was written in the cell of the Jerusalem prison. On May 4, 1947, when the Acre fortress was breached, he was among the escapees, but was badly wounded and was again captured. He lay wounded for hours on end, when the British denied him medical help until he lost his soul. He was buried in the cemetery of Moshav Shavei Zion, near Acre.