Meir Dagan — mossad chief with roots in the USSR
Meir Dagan was an Israeli military commander and intelligence officer who served as Director of Mossad (2002-2011) — arguably the most effective tenure in the agency's history. Under his leadership, Mossad conducted a series of audacious operations targeting Iran's nuclear programme, Hezbollah, and Hamas.
Tracing the roots — Novosibirsk (USSR)
Born in Novosibirsk, USSR in 1945 — his family had been deported there from Kherson, Ukraine during WWII — Dagan's very existence was the result of Soviet geography saving a Jewish family from the Holocaust. His grandfather was executed by Nazis as Dagan's father watched. That photograph of his grandfather's death hung in his Mossad office.
Born on a train in Siberia to Polish-Jewish refugees.
Novosibirsk (USSR). At the time, this region was one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union.
A career defined by ambition
"The photograph of my grandfather's murder hangs in my office. It is the reason I do what I do."