Born on December 19, 1910, in Vilna district in the
Russian Empire. When he was three, his family immigrated to Eretz Israel
and his father became a Hebrew teacher at a Tel Aviv elementary school.
When the 1929 Arab riots broke out,
he joined the Haganah in Jerusalem,
where he was studying philosophy and mathematics at the Hebrew University.
When the Irgun was established, he was
one of its first members, and displayed outstanding military skills.
In 1937, Raziel he was appointed Commander of Jerusalem
District and a year later Commander in Chief of the Irgun.
According to former Irugnist, Prof. Yaere Yadede, Raziel
agreed to an armistice during the Allied war against the Axis. This
decision caused a split with his friend Avraham
Stern, who started his own organization, the Freedom
Fighters for Israel (LEHI).
On May 17, 1941 he was sent, with three of his comrades, to Iraq on behalf of the British army. According to Yadede, Raziel, “had
volunteered to help the British in putting out of commission the Kirkuk
oil fields and capturing the Mufti, Haj
Amin al-Husseini, who had found refuge under the Iraqi Nazi collaborator's
protection.” The next day a bomb from a German aircraft killed
Raziel.
