A History of a Mysterious Young Jewish Boy...

Avraham Stern, born on December 23, 1907, in Suwalki, present-day Poland (then part of the Poland that was under Russian partition). During the First World War, Stern and his brother David left Germany with their mother and took refuge in Russia for a while and moved back to Poland.

In 1925, at age 18, Stern immigrated to Mandatory Palestine (Palestine under British rule). He founded a student organization whose stated purpose was "solely to the revival of the Hebrew nation in a new state." In 1929 riots in Palestine, Stern served with the Haganah (a Zionist paramilitary group).

Avraham Tehomi, Haganah’s (main Zionist paramilitary organization) commander and Stern’s friend, left Haganah because of political differences. He wanted a more active military approach to acquire his goals, so to accomplish that, he founded “Irgun Zvai Leumi." And Stern joined him shortly after.

Meanwhile, Stern became a top student at a university in Jerusalem and was awarded a stipend to pursue a doctorate in Italy. The founder of Irgun and his friend Avraham Tehomi made a trip to Italy (Florence) to ask Stern to be his deputy.

Stern in the 1930s was interesting; he was travelling back and forth to Europe to organize revolutionary cells in Poland for the immigration of the Jewish diaspora to Palestine (Mandatory Palestine) even though it was prohibited under the British colonial regime and was considered illegal.

Anyways, Stern somehow enlisted its plan to train 40000 Jews to take over Palestine (Mandatory Palestine) under the British colonial regime and got agreement from the Polish government. The Poles started training Irgun members, and arms were set aside.

The plan didn’t go well as the Second World War started and Poland was invaded; training couldn’t continue any longer, and the supposed routes for immigration were cut off.
Stern was in Palestine at the time, so he and the entire high command of Irgun were incarcerated in Jerusalem Central Prison and Sarafand Detention Camp.

A split happened during Stern’s and Irgun members' time under arrest, and a disagreement led to the foundation of a Zionist paramilitary group called "Lehi."
whose aim was to get rid of British colonial authorities through the use of violence and help the immigration of Jews to Palestine (considered illegal under British authorities).