Fighter Frucht Yigal

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Yigal Frucht, the son of Malka and Arieh Frucht, was born in Petah
Tikva on November 25, 1927. He joined the Palmach in 1944 and
served in Company 5. On March 24, 1946, Yigal, was one of
several Palmach fighters to take part in an operation to defend Tel
Aviv that became known as "Wingate Night". The goal of the
mission was to enable a boat bringing Jewish refugees from
Europe to land safely on the shores of Tel Aviv, as part of "Aliyah
Bet" the illegal immigration of Jews during the British Mandate.
The ship, carrying 238 passengers, was called the "Orde
Wingate" During the operation, the commander of Yigal's cell,
Bracha Fuld, was shot and killed by British forces who, during a
patrol, spotted a member of the squad behind a balcony of a
house in the Sarona quarter of Tel Aviv. Yigal was caught and tried
in a British military court which sentenced him to 14 years in
prison. He was charged with shooting a British sergeant by the
name of Flower.
Yigal served much of his sentence in the Jerusalem prison in the
Russian compound, together with other Palmach prisoners. In
1947 he was moved to Acre prison for several months and was
there during the Great Escape of Lehi and Etzel prisoners. With his
jail cell situated next to the gallows, Yigal was also a witness to the
execution – carried out secretly – of several members of the
underground. Yigal was released on May 14, 1948. He then went
on to be one of the founders of Kibbutz Hasolelim in Emek Yizrael.
There he met and married Shoshana, an immigrant from Canada.
The two of them eventually moved to Montreal, Canada, where
they raised their two daughters, Doroni and Leora. Yigal died in
Montreal on November 11, 2005.
Information provided by: Daughter, Leora Eren Frucht