Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

Alex Gutman, as amember of haNoar haTzioni in Bedzin, joined the underground.

Alex Gutman set up the Pioneering Underground Mahteret haChalutzit, and together with a group of friends, his mother and his sister, Tushia, became a a group of 30 members, who using forged documents, attempted to smuggle their way into Austria, and from there they hoped to continue to Hungary.
He obtained a weapon, and laid out aplan tp undertake a operation: to steal weapons from his German employer’s private collection, which included 5 rifles and 20 pistols.

On June 22, 1943. Alex Gutman, and his friends, Yaakov Rosenberg, Harry Blumenfrucht, Marcus Fohorila and one other, went on the operation, which went wrong,
Alex Gutman escaped, but Harry Blumenfrucht was caught, interrogated and tortured, and then sent to Auschwitz, where he was hung.

At the end of 1943, Alex Gutman and Haim Tannenwertzel crossed into Slovakia and were received by members of the “Jewish Center”, the leadership of Slovakian Jewry.
Alex Gutman paved the way for additional groups from the area of Zaglembie to cross the borders, with the help of Polish smugglers, to the Slovakian border, and form there, were taken by pickup truck to Zhilana, where they found underground members, or went on to Budapest.
Alex Gutman joined the absorption activities in Slovakia, but felt the need to go on revenge missions.
In September, 1944, he reached Hungary, where he joined haNoar haTzioni, and he and his friends from the movement in Poland trained the Hungarian members in the use of weapons.

On June 22, 1943. Alex Gutman, and his friends, Yaakov Rosenberg, Harry Blumenfrucht, Marcus Fohorila and one other, went on the operation, which went wrong,
Alex Gutman escaped, but Harry Blumenfrucht was caught, interrogated and tortured, and then sent to Auschwitz, where he was hung.

Alex Gutman was attached as translator to a special unit inthe Red Army, where his job was to discover saboteurs and German paratroops who had been sent behind enemy lines to carry out sabotage.

Alex Gutman spent two years within the framework of the “Mercaz” organization, to revenge operations, roaming the POW camps looking for SS soldiers.

In 1947, Alex Gutman joined ITzL in Europe.

In August, 1947, Alex Gutman took part in the first sabotage operation in Austria: the bombing of the Sacher Hotel in Wien.

The explosion caused light damage to the Sacher Hotel building, but the propaganda value of the impressive overseas operations was outstanding.

Lieutenant Monroe Fein served as Captain aboard Altalena אלטלנה.

Julian Barenson served as Chief Steward aboard Altalena אלטלנה.

Monroe Fein cites in Days of Fire, written by Shmuel Katz
"The ship continued to receive heavy firing from the shore for a period of about one and a half hours. Some of the heavy machine guns ashore were using armour-piercing ammunition which passed right through steel bulkheads of the ship. This fact began to cause numerous casualties. We had no doctor on board and some of our casualties were very seriously wounded. We contacted the army command and requested a cease-fire in order to allow us to remove the wounded men from the ship. We arranged that we would use our own LCVP for this purpose. . . . "
"During this time one of them [the wounded] died. One hour and a half later, and after repeated requests, there was still no sign of any boat. At this time, we were suddenly taken under fire by a large gun which was located on the coast to the north of the city. This gun fired three shots, all of which passed over the ship and exploded in the water beyond. . . . "
"During this time I conferred with the commander-in-chief of the Irgun and told him that if the gunfire should hit the ship, the ship, the cargo and possibly a good many lives would be lost and that he should at all costs maintain the cease-fire order until there could be further negotiations. This he agreed to do, but as he himself came up to talk on the radio to the headquarters ashore, the heavy gun resumed firing."
"As soon as the gun started a second time, I struck the flag as a sign of surrender. We again inquired of the Palmach commander whether the cease-fire order was in effect and the reply came that the cease-fire order was in effect but that he had been 'unable to contact all fronts.' Within a few seconds after this message was received, there was a direct hit on the ship which started a large fire in the cargo hold. The ship's crew made immediate and valiant efforts to put out this fire, but because of the nature of the cargo it proved beyond our capacity and I ordered all men aboard to prepare to abandon the ship."
"The first thought all of us had was to remove the wounded men. There was no panic. Everyone behaved in an extremely calm and heroic manner. As the men began jumping off the ship and swimming towards the shore, those of us still on board saw that they were being shot at continuously from rifles and machine-guns on the beach. I rushed to the bridge and began waving a white flag and shouting to stop the fire on the men who were swimming for their lives. At the same time another man hoisted a large piece of white canvas on the halyard, but these efforts were of little avail, as the firing continued."

Alex Gutman was one of the Maapilim on board Altalena אלטלנה.

Moshe Perlman Porat sailed for Israel on Altalena אלטלנה., arriving in Israel on June 20, 1948.
He had crossed into the French zone, and made it to in Reutlingen
With help from Yuta Plavner, who provided identity papers as an officer in UNRA, Moshe crossed into France, where he stayed until June, 1948.
His mother and sister joined him in July 1947, and he attended the ORT School.
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Dov Shilansky sailed for Israel on Altalena אלטלנה, landed at Kfar Vitkin, on June 21, 1948.
Dov Shilansky cites: He encountered an Israeli soldier in a command car, and “I spoke to him in Hebrew. It was my first speech in Israel.”
He told the soldier “We’ve just arrived. We survived the Holocaust. We’ve come here to fight by your side. The homeland is in danger. We will join the army.”
The soldier instructed him to go no farther. and Dov Shilansky replied: “We have no other way. I won’t go back to Dachau. If we can’t come to Israel, we’ll go back to the sea.”
The soldier replied: “I don’t care. Go back to the sea.”

Alex Gutman joined TzaHaL, a month after landing in Israel.

Alexander Gatmon fought in the 1948i War of Independence, and continued to serve in TzaHaL IDF, earning the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Alex Gutman was appointed Commander of the Israel Air Force חיל האוויר הישראלי זרוע האוויר והחלל.