Very informative museum. Excellent videos. Multilingual. Very pleasant guide. Very clean and easy to book. Highly recommended this view into history.
The Museum of Underground Prisoners
Photo: The Museum of Underground Prisoners
The years leading up to the establishment of the State of Israel were marked not only by bitter conflict between the Jewish and Arab populations in Mandatory Palestine but also by an at-times violent Jewish revolt against the colonialist British presence in the Holy Land. The Jewish underground targeted British officers, infrastructures and key buildings, their most famous attack being the bombing of the King David Hotel in July, 1946.
The anti-British activities were spearheaded by three underground organizations: The Haganah, the Irgun and Lehi. When the British captured Palestine from the Ottoman’s in 1917, they converted the Russian Compound in downtown Jerusalem into an administrative headquarters, and part of it became a central prison. During these years of British occupation, hundreds of prisoners were kept in this facility, many of them members of the Jewish underground. During the 1948 War of Independence, the prison was captured by Jewish fighters in a military campaign known as Operation Pitchfork.
After the State of Israel was founded, the compound was used for various purposes, until 1991, when the prison was restored by the Defense Ministry and turned into a museum. The museum’s exhibitions are the rooms themselves: The prison cells; the synagogue room; a cell that housed Jewish prisoners and is associated with legendary Jerusalem saint Rabbi Aryeh Levin, who would come there to meet with the prisoners on Shabbat and holidays; the exercise yard; the solitary confinement room; and more. The walls and spaces of the Museum of Underground Prisoners are filled with memories and stories from the pre-state days. A tour of the premises is a somber, sobering experience, but rewarding nonetheless.
Photo: Moshe Cohen
TripAdvisor Reviews
Based on 37 traveler reviews“"abandoned" complex with no supervision..”
This museum definitely warrants a considerably higher rating, so the reason for rating it poorly is not for the museum itself, but rather for those who are supposedly running it. We came on a rainy cold day and entered the empty corridor. There was nobody neither to check our identity nor ask for a...
MoreThis museum definitely warrants a considerably higher rating, so the reason for rating it poorly is not for the museum itself, but rather for those who are supposedly running it. We came on a rainy cold day and entered the empty corridor. There was nobody neither to check our identity nor ask for a " green pass", or to even ask for an admission fee... For the better part of three-quarters of an hour, we roamed the empty former prisoners' rooms, the solitary confinement booths, the gallows chambers, and the former warden's office, during the period of the British mandate ( 1920-1948). As there was no one to guide us, we simply read the signs and tried to understand from them what, where and when certain events took place. It is really a shame that such an important museum, honoring the Jewish underground prisoners during the pre-statehood era, is run in such a disrespectful manner. For the record, this museum falls under the responsibility of the Israeli Ministry of Defense..
Less“Well worth seeing”
“Interesting museum right outside the old city!”
I stumbled on this museum after I visited Yad Lakashish. This history behind this museum gives great insight into Lechi, Etzel, and Hagana. These were all resistance groups to the British occupation. It is a self guided tourwith a short movie. I would give it 1-2 hours.