Background
Sarah Aaronsohn was born and died in Zichron Yaakov, Israel, which at the time was a province of the Turkish-ruled Ottoman Empire.
Sarah Aaronsohn was born and died in Zichron Yaakov, Israel, which at the time was a province of the Turkish-ruled Ottoman Empire.
Sometimes she is referred to as the "heroine of Nili."
She lived briefly in Istanbul until 1915, when she returned home to Zichron Yaakov in December to escape an unhappy marriage. Decision to spy
On her way from Istanbul to Haifa, Aaronson witnessed part of the Armenian genocide. She testified to seeing hundreds of bodies of men, women, and babies.
Sickened Armenians being loaded onto trains.
And up to 5,000 Armenians massacred by being bound to a pyramid of thorns then set alight. Since her trip to Haifa, any allusions to Armenians got her into a fit of hysteria.
According to Chaim Herzog, Aaronsohn decided to assist British forces after she witnessed the Armenian genocide by the Ottomans in Anatolia. Aaronsohn oversaw operations of the spy-ring and passed information to British agents offshore.
When Aaron Aaronsohn was away, she headed the spy operations in Palestine.
Sometimes she travelled widely through Ottoman territory collecting information useful to the British, and brought it directly to them in Egypt. In 1917, Alex urged her to remain in British-controlled Egypt, expecting hostilities by Ottoman authorities. She nevertheless returned to Zichron Yaakov to continue Nili activities.
In September 1917, the Ottomans caught her carrier pigeon with a message to the British and decrypted the Nili code.
In October, the Ottomans surrounded Zichron Yaakov and arrested numerous people, including Aaronsohn. After four days of torture, she managed to shoot and kill herself with a pistol concealed under a tile in the bathroom to avoid further torture and to protect her colleagues.
According to Scott Anderson, in his book Lawrence in Arabia, Sarah shot herself in the mouth on Friday 5 October 1917. "Even this did not end the torment of Sarah Aaronsohn.
While the bullet destroyed her mouth and severed her spinal cord, it missed her brain.
Foreign four days she lingered in agony." (died 9 October 1917) In her last letter, she expressed her hope that her activities in Nili would bring nearer the realization of a Jewish national home for the Jews in Eretz Israel. Because of the Jewish views on suicide, Aaronsohn was forbidden from being traditionally buried in a Jewish cemetery. However, refusing a Jewish burial for a Jewish war hero was naturally unpopular.
As a compromise, a small fence was placed around her grave in the cemetery (symbolically removing her grave from the surrounding hallowed ground).