World War II

5 World War II

We were free, we were in Palestine, but most of us had no possessions and were virtually penniless. Those who had relatives to go to were lucky. They could get some help - the rest had to fend for themselves. We were given vouchers to receive meals in certain places for the first three days, then we were on our own. I remember that at that time I had two invitations for Shabbat lunch, plus a voucher from the Jewish Agency. With the memory of hunger still fresh in my mind, I went to all three!
The economic conditions then were extremely difficult. Those who were fortunate enough to have a job, worked extremely hard and only just eked out a living. I had no near relations in Palestine, but knew of some people in Tel Aviv. I found out their address and went to visit them. I desperately needed to find work. After running from place to place for a few days, I happened to meet a friend from my hometown. He was a head waiter in a cafe Although they were not in need of more help, through his intervention I landed a job as assistant waiter! My salary was a light meal and a little pocket money.
I worked there for a few weeks until someone told me that there was a possibility of working for a transport firm. They were bringing cases of oranges from orchards near Petach Tikva to the Tel Aviv port. My job, which was only 3 days a week, consisted of carrying these cases from the orchard through soft sand and load them onto the lorries. Carrying a few hundred cases like that and still working at the cafe on the odd days certainly exhausted me. Still, I earned enough to get by.
However, I was not happy. I received letters from my brothers in Belgium. The news from my parents was not good. My mother and the two youngest sisters had gone from Wiesbaden to join my father and brother in Tarnow. My eldest sister Sala, too, was in Poland together with her husband and baby daughter, who was 2 years old in 1939. One knew that the condition of all Jews in Poland was getting desperate, but there was no way that I personally could do anything to help them. Here I was, working tremendously hard to earn my living, but my thoughts were constantly with my family in Europe, who no doubt lived under much harder conditions. Somehow, I was not satisfied with this way of life. I felt that I must do something, personally, to help. But what could I do from thousands of miles away?
I heard from friends that the British Army was accepting volunteers to enlist. Here was my answer - I would join a fighting force and, in this way, help to destroy the Nazi evil. So, in December 1939 I enlisted into the British Army and became a private in the Pioneer Corps. Their original purpose was as non-combat soldiers, helping with organising supplies, building and preparing camps for the arrival of the combat soldiers. However, they eventually underwent basic training and later were sent to fight.
Here I met with some others who had come with me on the “Parita” and some who had come on other illegal transports. Our group consisted of two companies of 300 men each. The majority were Jews, but we also had some Palestinian Arabs. We were trained by British officers, together with some Jewish and Arab NCOs who had had some previous military training. We went through basic training and, after about two months, were shipped off to France.
Arriving there in February 1940 we were taken by train to the north, where our job was to build a railway line to reach the English Channel, so that British supply could be ensured. This was a far cry from what I had envisaged to help my parents! But I realised that I had become a tiny cog in a vast military machine whose purpose was to destroy the Nazi regime, and I comforted myself with the thought, that even my seemingly unimportant activity helped towards this goal.
Life in the camp was at that time not unpleasant. I made many friends, many of who were in a similar position to me. I also managed to stay in contact with my brothers in Belgium, who in turn received news from Poland. At least I was not completely cut off. At that time Belgium was still neutral, until they were invaded on May 10th 1940. From then on my contact was broken. The Germans advanced into France, and our position became very dangerous.
At that time, although we had gone through basic training, we had no experience in fighting. There were not even enough arms so that every soldier could have his own rifle. However, our commanding officer, Col. Caytor, was a most experienced soldier, from the First World War. He was also very daring and inspired us all. The Germans advanced more and more. Finally our camp in Rennes, Northern France, was on the front line! On the 14th June, Marshal Petain, the then President of France, surrendered. Meanwhile we were training madly in order to defend ourselves and to find a way out of this danger zone. Our resourceful commanding officer, who knew the terrain well, actually found a way out towards the coast, and exactly two weeks after the surrender of France, we reached the port of St. Malo, slipping through the German lines without losing a man! We boarded two of the last three British ships still waiting for us.
On our trip to England we were bombed but, by some miracle, the ships that held our company were not touched, whereas the third ship was hit and lost many of its men! Furthermore, we had picked up an assortment of rifles and machine guns, which had been abandoned by those fleeing before us. Thus we arrived in England after two days, fully armed, with a full complement of men. We were hailed as the heroes of the day!