not intend to let them in, because they were Jewish. Together with fellow escapees, they formed an all-Jewish unit in the forests and swamplands of Western Belarus. Against all odds, they survived, acquired some guns and fought back the Germans and their collaborators. Later they joined a unit of the Soviet partisans and waged guerilla warfare against the retreating German troops, ambushed convoys, blew up bridges and railroads and derailed German trains. In 1944, Belarus was liberated by the Soviet Union and Jewish partisans were drafted into the Red Army. Later some of them were allowed to join the Soviet-controlled Polish Army. Postwar After the end of the war, they illegally crossed a number of European borders to Italy, where Selim illegally worked for the British Army. In 1946, he made his way to the British Mandate of Palestine using false identification to evade the limitations imposed on the Jewish immigration by the British White Paper of 1939. While recovering in a hospital following surgery, he recorded his wartime experiences in Polish and put the notebooks away. He assumed the name of a deceased cousin in order to obtain an identity card. Later he joined the newly formed Israeli Air Force for many years. Later he played a major role in developing Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI), eventually serving as IAI's Senior Vice President. Shalom Yoran was a founding board member of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City and a governor of Tel Aviv University. He was a chairman of a commercial aircraft company in Long Island. Publication of wartime memoir In 1991, he found his old manuscript and in 2003 published his wartime memoir. He dedicated the book to his parents. He died on 9 September 2013 in New York. See also Occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany References External links Shalom Yoran's bio at jewishpartisans.org Virtual Zemlyanka by Adam Dickter. The Jewish Week. May 6, 2005 3-D virtual model of Shalom Yoran's zemlyanka Heroic Actions of the Few by Tom Tugend. The Jewish Journal. Honoring The Jewish Resistance by Kate Taylor. The NY Sun. April 13, 2007 World War II resistance fighter recounts harrowing story for captive audience by Christina Holder. Naples News. December 7, 2004 Israeli memoirists Israeli military personnel Tel Aviv University Jewish partisans Jewish resistance members during the Holocaust Polish resistance members of World War II Soviet partisans Polish military personnel of World