Zvi Brenner

Zvi Brenner (Hebrew: צבי ברנר‎; 1915–1999) was a Jewish military leader in Palestine before and during World War II and the early days of the State of Israel. He trained under Orde Wingate and served alongside Moshe Dayan. He was one of the founders of the Israeli Defense Forces along with Dayan and Yigal Allon. After being wounded badly, he later served as the Secretary of the Kibbutzim Movement. He was a leader of Kibbutz Afikim until his death.

Zvi Brenner
Zvi Brenner
Born	1915 Siedlce, Poland
Died	January 1, 1999(1999-01-01) (aged 84) Israel
Allegiance	Mandatory Palestine United Kingdom Israel
Service / branch	Haganah Special Night Squads Jewish Brigade Israel Defense Forces
Years of service	1936–1949
Commands	Special Night Squads unit at Afikim
Battles / wars	1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine World War II 1948 Arab–Israeli War
Other work	Founder of the Israel Defense Forces, Secretary of the Kibbutz Movement

Brenner with David Ben Gurion in 1965

Biography

Zvi Brenner was born in the city of Siedlce in Poland. At the age of ten, he joined a Zionist youth movement. In 1929, following his parents' divorce, he moved with his mother and sisters to Chicago, United States, during the Great Depression. Despite his young age, he was forced to help support his family by selling fruits and vegetables on the city streets. At the same time, Zvi continued his activities with the Zionist youth movement HeHalutz.

In 1934, the movement received 40 immigration certificates, and Zvi was one of those selected by Golda Meir, the envoy from Israel, to immigrate to the land of Israel.

Zvi Brenner, along with his comrades from HeHalutz, arrived at Kibbutz Afikim in the Jordan Valley, which became his home for the rest of his life.

Activities within the Haganah

First security mission

Brenner’s first mission was to assist members of Kibbutz Ramat HaKovesh in defending against Arab gangs during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.

At Hanita

As part of the Haganah, Brenner participated in various training courses, first as a trainee and later as an instructor. He was among the Haganah members who helped establish Hanita in the Western Galilee as part of the Tower and Stockade settlements in 1938.

Zvi stayed in Hanita for several months and took part in defending the settlers from the relentless Arab attacks attempting to isolate the settlement.

At Hanita, Zvi, who spoke English, developed a relationship with Orde Wingate, who arrived in Hanita alone in his car despite the many ambushes by Arab gangs. On his first visit, Wingate requested that Zvi accompany him on a tour outside the settlement. Zvi reported this to the settlement's commander, Zvi Ben-Yaakov, who permitted the tour on the condition that it be conducted with a force of 30 men. Wingate refused, and in the end, only Zvi and one other person accompanied him. Zvi Brenner became Wingate's close companion and participated in all of his excursions outside the fence. In those days, the Arab command offered a large sum of money for Wingate’s death, and as a result, the Haganah leadership assigned Brenner to be Wingate’s bodyguard.

Brenner recounted an event during his time with Wingate in Jerusalem. While staying in Wingate's apartment, located in an area populated by British officers, gunshots were suddenly heard. While all the other residents quickly locked their doors and windows, Wingate and Brenner were the only ones to go out and chase away the attackers.

Brenner also recalled that when they traveled together in Arab cities, he held a grenade, ready to throw, due to the threats against Wingate’s life.

Brenner remained in Hanita until he was asked by Wingate to join the Special Night Squads he was forming.

With the Special Night Squads

The Special Night Squads were established in June 1938 as a British military unit to combat the uprising during the Arab revolt. Brenner was appointed to command one of the squads and played a significant role in the unit’s operations, which were aimed at protecting the Kirkuk–Haifa oil pipeline and disrupting the activities of the Arab gangs.

Special operations in the Haganah

After the Special Night Squads were disbanded in October 1939, Brenner returned to Kibbutz Afikim. During this period, he was still called upon to assist in secret security operations for the Haganah. In the book "Ish HaShura," he recounts one operation against an Arab gang that ambushed drivers and passengers:

The recruits for this operation were all experienced in fighting gangs. Among them were Shlomo Shamir, Yigal Allon, David Shaltiel, and Yossi Harel. The fighters surprised the gang members and struck them.

— Yosef Eshkol, "Ish HaShura", p. 139

Like many other operations, this one remained secret. Later, when Brenner was arrested by the British for possessing weapons, he overheard members of the Irgun boasting about conducting this operation, although they had not.

The 43 Haganah prisoners

In early October 1939, Brenner participated, along with around 60 other Haganah members, in a course for platoon commanders held in Yavne'el. Because of the British mandate’s ban on such military activities, efforts were made to disguise their military training. However, the British suspected their activities. The course participants decided to secretly move from Yavne'el toward the Jordan Valley, but they were ambushed by British soldiers who surrounded them and arrested them. The detainees, 43 in total, including Moshe Dayan and Moshe Carmel, were transferred to the Acre Prison. Brenner was the first to be interrogated, and his interrogation was conducted in English. The questioning was harsh, accompanied by physical torture. His screams were heard by his fellow prisoners in the adjacent room. In the prison trial, the British judges sentenced the 43 prisoners to ten years in prison. A character reference from Wingate in support of Brenner did not help mitigate the sentence. One of the group members, Avshalom Tau, who was caught with weapons in hand, was sentenced to life imprisonment. In his book "Pages from Prison," Noach Dgani describes the trial events:

Zvi Brenner’s personal history, which he presented before the court, was impressive. He served as a sergeant in Wingate's Night Squads from their founding until their disbandment. He had been attached to seven British battalions and worked with all the battalions stationed in the country. From Wingate himself, he received a gun license and was even recommended for a commendation by the British army’s central command for his loyal service...

— Noach Dgani – Pages from Prison – Diary of a Haganah Prisoner in Acre Prison, p. 44

The sentences of the 43 Haganah prisoners were commuted after the outbreak of World War II, and they were released in February 1941 after about a year and a half in prison.

Several months later, in early May 1941, Zvi was instructed by Yitzhak Sadeh to be ready for an operation planned with the British army. While waiting for Sadeh at the entrance to the kibbutz, Haganah commanders from the northern region, Nahum Shadmi and Yosef Avidar, arrived. A dispute ensued over Sadeh's authority to recruit Zvi for the operation. It was eventually decided that Zvi would not participate and remain in his position in the Jordan Valley.

Zvi limited himself to traveling to the Port of Haifa with Yitzhak Sadeh to bid farewell to the fighters. By the time they arrived, the 23 Sailors had already set out on their mission to sabotage the refinery facilities in Lebanon, a mission from which they did not return.

In the Jewish Brigade during World War II

In July 1942, at the age of 27, Zvi enlisted in the Jewish Brigade of the British army and fought against the German army. He served as a platoon sergeant in the Brigade’s Third Battalion. Due to his imprisonment in Acre, Zvi was unable to receive an officer's rank. Zvi participated in battles against the Germans on the Italian Front near the Senio River.

On the night of March 17, 1945, while the brigade was in defensive trenches, Zvi’s platoon encountered German soldiers. He volunteered to leave the trench to fire and throw grenades at the German forces. During this exchange, a grenade was thrown at him and exploded nearby, severely wounding him. Due to his injuries, he was transferred to a field hospital, and later to various hospitals where he underwent numerous surgeries. His recovery was marked by both the physical pain of his injury and the challenges of adjusting to his new disability.

In the Israel Defense Forces

In early 1948, shortly after the outbreak of the Israeli War of Independence, Brenner was recruited into the Israel Defense Forces, despite still using crutches due to his injuries from World War II. He was appointed the chief instructor of the army’s newly established officer training course.

A few months later, Yisrael Galili, head of the Haganah National Command, approached Zvi with an immediate request to serve as the deputy to Teddy Kollek in the military procurement mission in the United States. This request found Zvi in Tel Aviv without a passport or personal belongings. He was immediately issued a (forged) Palestinian passport and asked a friend from Afikim to inform his wife and two children that he was flying to New York. His wife, Ruth, and two children, Eliezer and Noga, joined him several months later.

During the procurement period

While the Israeli War of Independence raged, procurement missions in Europe and the United States worked to provide weapons and ammunition for the fighters in Israel. The procurement mission operated on two fronts: Teddy Kollek was responsible for legal purchases, while Zvi was in charge of purchasing "black market" weapons — from pistols and rifles to fighter aircraft. At the time, the United States had placed an embargo on arms sales to Israel, and those involved in such activities faced severe penalties under American law. The "black market" procurement involved secret dealings with a wide variety of people. Considerable assistance was provided by Jews, many of whom had served in the United States Armed Forces during World War II, including pilots who delivered planes to Israel and stayed to continue fighting in the War of Independence. Additionally, merchants and business owners donated money for purchasing weapons and provided warehouses to store the secretly purchased arms.

Jewish gangsters also contributed by helping to buy weapons and ensuring the success of transactions through the use of methods common in the criminal world. The weapons purchased were used by the Israel Defense Forces during the War of Independence and for years afterward.

Return to the Kibbutz

In 1949, at the age of 34, after the birth of his two additional children, Rina and Ran, Brenner and his family returned to Israel. Upon his return, Zvi was offered the rank of Major and asked to continue his military service. However, due to his disability, he was unable to serve in combat, and he declined. David Ben-Gurion accepted this decision after a long conversation between the two. This conversation marked the beginning of a close personal relationship between the two until Ben-Gurion’s death in 1973. In his will, Ben-Gurion wrote that his home should become a library and research institute for the history of the state and the War of Independence. Yossi Ciechanover, who drafted the will, asked Ben-Gurion, "Who would you like to be on the managing committee to implement the will?" Ben-Gurion replied, "The only one I know for sure is the guy from Afikim, Zvi Brenner."

Over the years, Brenner took on various roles in the kibbutz, serving in key positions in the kibbutz and in the Kibbutz Movement as the internal secretary of the United Kibbutz Movement.

Later life and death

He spent his last years as a family man and passed away in 1999 at the age of 84. He was buried at Kibbutz Afikim in the Jordan Valley.

References

• Eshkol, Yosef (1993). A common soldier: the story of Zwi Brenner. MOD Books. p. 356. OCLC 29952830.

• Roman, Yadin (2005). Eretz: The Book. The Eretz Group. p. 338. ISBN 978-9659079704. OCLC 61263055.
• Bierman, John; Smith, Colin (1999). Fire in the night : Wingate of Burma, Ethiopia, and Zion. Random House. pp. 448. ISBN 978-0375500619.
• Eshkol, Yosef (1998). "I Didn't Think Twice". In Michael, Bar-Zohar (ed.). Lionhearts: Heroes of Israel. Warner Books. ISBN 9780446523585.