Blond Dov

Blond Dov was born in 1923 in Łódź

Yaakov Granek was born in 1923 in Łódź, Poland, to Reuven-Zeev and Pnina Granek, a family in the textile trade. He studied at a vocational high school and joined Betar as a youth. When Germany invaded Poland, he volunteered to defend Warsaw, was captured, and escaped by jumping from a train.

He reached Vilnius as a refugee and studied mechanics there. In 1940 he came to the Land of Israel through Moscow, Turkey and Syria and settled in Rosh Pina. His parents and sister were murdered by the Nazis.

In 1941 he joined Lehi, where he took the name Dov. He took part in the failed 1944 attempt on High Commissioner Harold MacMichael and led the 1946 rescue of Lehi leader Israel Eldad from a clinic in Jerusalem. He was wounded in a failed 1946 bank robbery and commanded raids on Barclays Bank funds in 1947 and 1948.

In the IDF he commanded a company in Battalion 89 of the 8th Brigade under Moshe Dayan, with the rank of captain. His company fought in Operations Danny and Yoav and broke into the Iraq Suwaydan police fort in November 1948. He was killed on 26 December 1948 near Nitzana during Operation Horev and was buried at Nahalat Yitzhak military cemetery.