Early Life and Activity
Cohen was born in the British Mandate of Palestine in 1922, the son of a farmer. He joined the Lehi at age sixteen, and soon became a prominent fighter within the organization. In 1942, after the arrest of a number of Lehi members, Cohen was "among the few who remained at large and recruited a new generation" of members. During the period, Cohen escaped the authorities despite a $3,000 bounty on his head, and in addition to recruiting new members, he practiced his marksmanship, training for future missions.
In September 1942, Cohen helped Lehi leader Yitzhak Shamir escape from a British prison. Cohen smuggled two Polish Army uniforms to Shamir and another prisoner, Eliahu Gilaldi, who disguised themselves in the uniforms and then crawled under the barbed wire surrounding the prison. For his role in the escape, Cohen became recognized as "Lehi's most valued fighter".
After helping Shamir escape from prison, Cohen became a leader in Lehi. He trained members in the tactics of guerilla warfare, and taught them how to build bombs and land mines.
Read more about this topic: Yehoshua Cohen
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or activity:
“We passed the Children’s Bureau bill calculated to prevent children from being employed too early in factories.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“No civilization ... would ever have been possible without a framework of stability, to provide the wherein for the flux of change. Foremost among the stabilizing factors, more enduring than customs, manners and traditions, are the legal systems that regulate our life in the world and our daily affairs with each other.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
“I suspect there isn’t an actor alive who was able to truthfully answer his family’s questions after his first day’s activity in his future profession.”
—Simone Signoret (1921–1985)