The existence of a secret tunnel under the Acre fortress, which permitted the escape of prisoners and which was never discovered by the British, was revealed here today at the Acre military trial of Nathan Friedman-Yellin, Stern Group leader, and his aide, Matatiahu Shmulevitz.
The chief defendant, referring to yesterday’s closed session of the trial at which secret documents allegedly referring to espionage by Sternists were read by the prosecution, said today that it was a “shame to call an organization whose soldiers fought at Lydda, Ramleh, the Negev and Galilee an ‘organization of spies.'”
Declaring that “I think this is a second Leipzig trial,” and that “you are using Bernadotte’s death to destroy our movement,” Friedman-Yellin told the prosecution: “You need a Reichstag fire.” Cress-examination of the defendants is expected to begin tomorrow.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
