Yitzhak Shimkin, a Hagana veteran who planned and almost carried out an attempt to assassinate Hitler in 1939, died at his home in Haifa last night at the age of 72. Shimkin was born near Odessa in 1905 and settled in Palestine in 1921 where he studied at the Herzliya Gymnasium and joined the Hagana. Later he studied electrical engineering in Europe and became a manufacturer of electrical appliances in Palestine, many of which he invented and patented.
In 1938, he saw films of Hitler’s triumphant entry into Vienna after the Anschluss. After the Munich pact, he predicted that the Nazis would soon take over all of Czechoslovakia and presented a plan to the Hagana command to assassinate Hitler when he entered Prague.
The plan was rejected but Shtmkin decided to attempt it alone. In 1939 he went to Europe by way of Beirut with two hand grenades concealed in a pillow. He was in Prague when H’tler entered the city but had to abandon his plan at the last minute because Hitler rode in a closed car. Shimkin was awarded the anti-Nazi fighters medal by Israel.
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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.
