Roman Ritter was born in 1922 in a Jewish family. He had many siblings.
Roman's grandfather had been a rabbi in the town of Bircza, Poland, where the Ritter family had resided since 1928. His father David had been a platoon commander in the Austro-Hungarian Army.
In 1935, having completed seven grades of school, Roman Ritter set out for Krakow, traveling on foot. There, through the assistance of a distant relative, the 13-year-old Roman was apprenticed to a furrier. He combined this vocational training with classes at an evening gymnasium After the occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany in September 1939, Roman, along with the other local Jews, found himself in a ghetto 30 kilometers from his native Bircza. The ghetto was located on the opposite bank of the San River from Bircza. As a result, following the annexation of Western Ukraine by the Soviet Union on September 19, with the new border passing along the San River, the ghetto was officially assigned to the German zone.
In 1935, having completed seven grades of school, Roman Ritter set out for Krakow, traveling on foot. There, through the assistance of a distant relative, the 13-year-old Roman was apprenticed to a furrier. He combined this vocational training with classes at an evening gymnasium After the occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany in September 1939, Roman, along with the other local Jews, found himself in a ghetto 30 kilometers from his native Bircza. The ghetto was located on the opposite bank of the San River from Bircza. As a result, following the annexation of Western Ukraine by the Soviet Union on September 19, with the new border passing along the San River, the ghetto was officially assigned to the German zone.
After reaching Bircza, Roman completed procurement courses, and later worked as the manager of a receiving station for agricultural produce.
In 1940, Roman Ritter joined the Red Army, substituting for his older brother Yehiel. After finishing a sergeant school, Roman was sent to a border checkpoint in Olszany (in present - day Olshany, Belarus). Alongside his other duties, he also served as an interpreter from Polish.
On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. However, the border checkpoint in Olszany had been ordered to ignore provocations. A squad commander who had disobeyed the order and tried to repel the attack was arrested by the army's Special Department.
Roman Ritter's unit retreated rapidly. Roman was wounded twice, once in a hand-to-hand street battle. As a result, he fell behind his unit. However, he later managed to break out of encirclement with another group of soldiers, and reached Kiev.
Roman Ritter was assigned to a new, freshly formed unit, and he saw action in the area of Kiev. Shortly afterward, his unit was encircled by the enemy and taken prisoner. Facing certain death at the hands of his captors, the Jew Roman Ritter decided to escape from the column of marching POWs. He hid in a vegetable garden, and was able to flee into the forest with the assistance of local residents.
Roman later rejoined a Red Army regiment, where he was investigated by the Special Department, since any Jew or Communist who had survived German captivity was automatically suspected of being a spy.
After being cleared of suspicion, Ritter was assigned to a regiment in the area of Belgorod, where he took part in numerous operations in the enemy rear.
In 1942, Roman Ritter, as a former Polish citizen, was posted to the delegation of the Polish Army Command. The group was later attached to the Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division, which was being formed in the area of Ryazan.
In July 1943, after completing his training, Second Lieutenant Ritter was appointed platoon commander and sent to the front. He was wounded in one of his first engagements.
In March 1944, following lengthy medical treatment,RomanRitter returned to active duty, now as a company commander. With his division, Ritter passed through Ukraine, Poland, and Germany. He was wounded in action yet again, but refused to be hospitalized. Instead, he took a leave of absence and traveled to his native Bircza. His entire extended family – his parents, 14 siblings, and the siblings' families – had perished in the war: some had died in ghettos; others had been deported to concentration camps, while a few had been killed in action as partisans.
After returning to the front, Ritter deemed it his duty to avenge his murdered relatives. His company took part in the Battle of Berlin.
Over the course of the war, Roman Ritter was awarded the Order of the Red Star; the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class, and some medals.
After the end of the war, Roman served as head of an officer school in Krakow. In parallel to his official military duties, he was unofficially involved in facilitating the immigration of Jews to the British Mandate of Palestine, and was also an active member of a Zionist circle whose members studied Hebrew. These activities could not go unnoticed, and in 1946 he was arrested for aiding the Zionists.
However, he was released 9 months later and appointed manager of a port in the delta of the Oder River. Taking another risk, he was able to illegally arrange passage to the Land of Israel for three shiploads of Jews.
In 1951, after completing courses for battalion commanders, Roman became battalion commander in the Tadeusz Kościuszko Division. However, he quarreled with the divisional commander, who was a virulent antisemite. Their relationship reached such a nadir that it resulted in a shoot-out. The incident was hushed up, out of a desire to avoid scandal.
In 1957, Roman Ritter immigrated to Israel, where he continued his military career. After changing his last name to Yagel, Roman began to serve in the Israeli Border Police. He later completed courses for staff police officers. Roman Yagel took an active part in the Six-Day War. Afterward, he handled various conflict situations in the Gaza Strip. Alongside this, Yagel continued to be involved with questions of aliyah (the immigration of Diaspora Jews to Israel).
In 1971, Colonel Roman Yagel became security chief of the El Al company. In 1985, after his retirement, Roman Yagel served as the representative of the Israeli Police at Interpol. In 1986, he was promoted to brigadier general.
As a retiree, Yagel headed the Union of Warriors and Partisans – Disabled Veterans of the War against Nazism. He died in 2016, at the age of 93.
