Born on May 10th, 1927 in Lozovaya, a small town in the Kharkov province, he enrolled at a flying school in 1946 graduating in 1949. As a fighter pilot he served in the Soviet Air Force for 11 years and in 1960 retired with the rank of Major. After the Six-Day War he began to feel deep concern for the fate of the young Jewish State, and about the anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli atmosphere that pervaded the Soviet Union. From that point on he formed a strong identification and self-determination as a Jew in every way, deciding to leave the Soviet Union by any means possible It was he who initiated the idea of hijacking a passenger aircraft to fly to Sweden, and from there, to Israel. On June 15th 1970, after thorough preparation, Dymshits and a group of Riga and Leningrad Zionists, decided to take the aircraft, but they were all arrested at the Smolny airport an hour before the planned operation. All the members of the group of the “never-even-started” hijacking were put on trial receiving unusually severe sentences. Mark Dymshits, as the initiator of the hijacking and the putative pilot, was sentenced to be executed. However, as a result of extensive international protests, the death sentence was commuted to15 years imprisonment in the Gulag. The process created a large international resonance: it stimulated world public attention and pointed to the disenfranchised position of Jews in the Soviet Union, to the fate of those who desired to live in their historic motherland - Israel-, and to the hostile attitude towards them by the Soviet regime. The “Aircraft trial” contributed greatly to the sharp awakening of national self-consciousness in the Jews of the Soviet Union and initiated the wide movement of Soviet Jews for emigration to Israel. As a result of this, over a period of several years, approx. 200, 000 Soviet Jews obtained visas for travelling to Israel. In 1979 Dymshits was unexpectedly released, put on an airplane and sent to America, from where he promptly emigrated to Israel. He is currently a member of the Council of the Organization of the Prisoners of Zion. Remember & Save website
