Eric Graus

Terror gang member

Heruti arrived in London in October 1947, enrolled to study Law at the University of London, and started recruiting Jews to the cells by approaching the Right-wing Zionist youth movement Betar and the Hebrew Legion group, an association of Jews sympathetic to the paramilitaries in Mandatory Palestine.

As Heruti recalled, “Slowly, slowly – ‘a friend brings a friend’ – we started building up an infrastructure… addresses… a place for storing weapons…”

One of Heruti’s recruits was Eric Graus, who later became a prominent figure in Anglo-Jewry. Graus, Heruti recalled, “had a place where we could receive mail from abroad. And that was how we received explosive materials.” The explosives were posted by Lehi members based in the US, and arrived in the UK inside the hollowed-out batteries of a radio set.

Graus was never arrested or charged with his involvement in terrorism including the murder of Rex Farran in 1948.

Revisionist

It was in 1970 that Graus — by then a noted London-based antiques dealer — established the British Herut Movement. Two years later, it was Graus who invited Begin (then an opposition Knesset member) for his first visit to the British capital. But Graus was uniquely qualified to undertake these tasks. For, in 1947, he had himself been an active member of the right-wing Lehi underground movement in Mandate Palestine, where he formed lifelong friendships with both Begin and Yitzhak Shamir.

In 1977, following Begin’s victory in the Israeli elections, Graus relaunched Likud-Herut as an unashamed British pressure group in support of Begin’s government. He was especially proud of the State of Israel Fighters Medal that he was awarded.

See also

• Jeremy Graus
• Tel Hai Fund Ltd (Company number 01151421; Charity number 266913)
• Graus Antiques
• Likud-Herut UK Ltd / Herut Movement of Great Britain