Jacob Salomon

Jacob (Yankele), Eugen, Jean Salomon (Hebrew: יעקב (יענקלה) סלומון; May 30, 1916 – October 17, 1963) was a member of the Haganah and Palmach.

He commanded the Palmach's Fourth Battalion and served as commander of the Haganah in Eastern Europe.

Salomon was the youngest of eight brothers and sisters, two of whom died in infancy.

He was born to an Orthodox Jewish family in the village of Shoyomko.

Known in Hungarian as Sólyomkő and in Romanian as Șoimeni, it was located in the Transylvania region of Austria-Hungary, becoming part of Romania several years later, and is situated north of Cluj.

His parents made a living from farming.

In 1920, Salomon's father, Mordechai, traveled to Mandatory Palestine.

He and two friends, one of whom was the son of the rabbi of Cluj, set out to investigate the possibility of bringing a group of one hundred farming families to settle there.

In 1924, the family immigrated to Mandatory Palestine and were among the founders of Kfar Gidon (in the Jezreel Valley), where they worked in agriculture.

In 1929, economic difficulties led several families (among them the Salomon family) to relocate to Jerusalem.

Later, in 1934, Salomon's family moved to Petah Tikva.

Salomon joined the Petah Tikva branch of the Haganah (the Jewish underground in the British Mandate period) in summer 1934.

At this time, the branches of the Haganah in various Jewish settlements were relatively independent, and they mainly engaged in defending Jewish settlements from within.

During the "Great Arab Revolt," Eliyahu Ben Hur, commander of the Petah Tikva area, appointed Salomon deputy commander and later commander of the "Company of 100 [fighters]" (so called because it was made up of 100 fighters).

This was one of the first units of the Haganah to adopt the tactic of going out beyond the settlement's borders, thus extending the lines of defense and taking initiative.

The unit was also among the first to espouse the perception of the Haganah as a national organization, and accordingly its members were willing to be sent wherever they were needed.

At the end of 1937, the Haganah established "The Field Companies"—national units that were created to combat the Great Arab Revolt.

The commander of these units, Yitzhak Sadeh, asked Salomon to join their training program and subsequently to become an instructor himself.

In this period, Salomon joined two patrols under the command of Orde Wingate, learning to work in larger units.

Shortly afterwards he was appointed deputy commander of "HaSharon Company," later becoming its commander.

This company, one of two serving on the "Eastern Front," controlled the area from Hadera to the Yarkon.

Together with the British, it fended off groups of Arab aggressors.

The activity of The Field Companies on the eastern and southern fronts is considered the peak of Haganah operations in the period of the Arab Revolt.

In summer 1939, following the suppression of the Arab Revolt and the dismantlement of The Field Companies, Salomon was sent to instruct a course for Haganah commanding officers under the command of Rafael Lev.

His fellow instructors included (among others) Yigal Allon and Moshe Dayan.

The course was to train commanders for the Field Corps (Hish), a new and larger force designed to replace The Field Companies.

In October 1939, the British, who withdrew their support of Zionism after seeing the results of the Arab Revolt, discovered the second session of this course and arrested the participants and instructors.

Those arrested were tried and sentenced to ten years in prison, which was reduced by the regional military commander to five years' incarceration.

This group was known as the "43 Haganah prisoners."

Salomon was chosen as one of the members of the prisoners' committee.

Furthermore, his command of Arabic enabled him to mediate between his comrades and the guards and Arab prisoners.

An additional change in the British policy, following the developments in World War II and the growing fear of a German invasion, led to the early release of Salomon and his fellow prisoners in February 1941.

In mid-1941, as fear of an invasion by Germany and the Axis powers grew, the Palmach—the Haganah's elite fighting force—was established.

Salomon joined the Palmach upon its establishment and at first served in various positions at its headquarters.

In 1942, he was appointed commander of the first national course for applied sports, and at the end of 1942 he was chosen to command the first naval courses.

Salomon had no experience in these fields but was chosen because of his command and organizational abilities.

In parallel, at the request of Moshe Dayan, Salomon began recruiting Hungarian-speaking volunteers to parachute into Europe.

Among them was his nephew, the paratrooper Yona Rosen, through whom he also located further volunteers, including Hannah Senesh (Szenes).

From the end of 1943, Salomon joined the activities of the "Balkan Platoon," which was to reach southeast Europe, where it would endeavor to save local Jews and organize armed resistance.

At the end of 1943, Salomon was appointed to command the southern company of the Coast Guard.