NAME: Amar, Avraham

LEHI ALIAS: Avraham

DATE OF BIRTH: 1922

DATE OF DEATH: 2010

Avraham was born in Saloniki in 1922. In 1933, he and his family made aliyah illegally. The family lived in Tel Aviv and earned its livelihood from a carpentry shop at 8 HaShuk Street in Tel Aviv.

Avraham and his brother Yaakov joined Lehi as youths. Avraham provided the underground with tools and equipment which he made in the carpentry shop. It was also used as an arms cache. In order to take weapons out of the cache, they would go through a framing store which was next to the carpentry shop (corner of HaShuk and Lewinsky). A courier for the underground would then go into the courtyard shared by the carpentry shop and the framing store, delivering the weapons directly to them. The equipment made in the carpentry shop served a number of the underground’s most prominent operations.

One time, Avraham was asked to make three wooden boxes, each larger than the previous one. These boxes served as a makeshift ladder, which was then put next to the railroad on Herzl Street, in order to allow the underground operatives to flee easily.

Another time, Avraham had to build a large wooden roll cylinder for telephone wires. The cylinder was split into two parts, and within it was a box filled with explosives. The cylinder was used by underground operatives to blow up the PMF communications center in Sarona in Tel Aviv. Avraham made many other things in the carpentry shop for operations he knew nothing about.

Michael would visit the framing store from time to time. Avraham did not know who he really was — Yitzhak Shamir, Lehi central committee member. Yaakov “Blond Dov” Granek (who was killed in the War of Independence) was also one of the underground figures Avraham was in contact with.

The cache was on the basement level, within a pit with a hidden hatch. One day, a British officer arrived to search in the carpentry shop. Yaakov put a pistol in Avraham’s hands and hid him in the cache. Yaakov, whose English was very good, was able to distract the British officer. Avraham was shaking with fear, but the officer did not discover the cache. (Avraham would later say he had never been so scared in his life.)

With the establishment of the State, the weapons were moved out of the cache by underground members, and Avraham and his brother filled it with concrete.

In the War of Independence, Avraham enlisted in the IDF and served in Battalion 82 of the 8th Brigade. Among other battles, he fought to capture Ramleh-Lod. Avraham would tell that he was repeatedly saved from the Egyptian bombers by his ability to run fast.

After the war, Avraham returned to work in the carpentry shop. He married Shoshana (Rosa) née Nahum. They had a son and a daughter. In 1980, the shop closed. Avraham passed away in 2010, and he was buried in the Holon Cemetery.