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!

Back in Palestine

9 Back In Palestine

The first thing I did after getting back, was to contact friends and relatives who, of course, were both surprised and pleased to see me again. However some of my so-called friends were disappointing. All my civilian clothes that I left with them had disappeared and money, which I had loaned to others, was lost or they refused to repay me. So, I had to start again from scratch. Although technically, I was still a soldier, (I was discharged only in March 1946), I was not required to stay in camp or carry out any duties. So I looked around for ways to start making a living. As I had some knowledge of diamond cutting, which I had learnt for a short time during my stay in Belgium before the War, I contacted some people in the diamond industry. A distant relative, Yosef Nadel - his sister was the wife of my cousin -was a director in a diamond factory. I was accepted, by his firm to cut diamonds, under the supervision of another acquaintance, who was the manager of this firm. So, within a few days after arrival in Palestine, I started to cut diamonds.
My earnings were very meagre, as I was still learning, and I was paid according to my output. However, I made ends meet, as I rented a room in a village outside Tel Aviv (Arlozorov in Givatayim), which I shared with another ex-soldier. The back pay, which I received from the Army, for the time I was a prisoner-of-war, helped considerably.
I spent a lot of time trying to find out what had happened to my parents and to the rest of the family, through correspondence with Yoine and Philip, and through contact with other relatives, who gradually arrived in Palestine from Europe. We established the details of their whereabouts in Poland. At the beginning of the war they lived in Krakow but, during 1940, they moved from Krakow to the Tarnow ghetto because the facilities were better and Krakow was very crowded. They shared a flat with another family, until the ghetto was dissolved in 1942, and all the Jews were sent to the gas chambers in Auschwitz. They arrived in Auschwitz on Erev Yom Kippur and suffered the same fate as hundreds of thousands of other Jews. We keep their Yahrzeit on the 12th of Tishrei, two days after Yom Kippur, (the day we believe they were murdered).
Meanwhile, the situation in Palestine went from bad to worse, as more and more displaced persons from Europe found their way legally or illegally to these shores. The British authorities enforced more and more restrictions on the Jewish population, while resistance groups like Hagana, Etzel and some smaller groups replied with sabotage, in order to ensure that more refugees reached the shores of the homeland. This led to some violence and reprisals, and brought suffering to the Jewish population. Very often during curfews, when people had to remain indoors, I was able to help people, especially the elderly, shop for food items. I could do this as a British soldier, as I had permission to move about.
It was 1947, life went on, and I started to think about ways and means to get married and bring Friedel to this country. Travelling, in those days, was not an easy task. In particular, to go from Palestine to England was almost impossible. I made applications from here and Friedel did the same from London. I sent a letter to the High Commissioner and she sent a letter to Her Majesty the Queen. My recommendation was the fact that I had served in the British Army. However, being a fully trained commando made me the perfect man to come to England in order to assassinate the Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin, or any other personality responsible for enforcing the present restrictions on immigration! Needless to say, a visa was not granted. However, with some evidence of my clear war record, the Home Office finally granted me the permit to come to England to get married. That was all I wanted! So the date was set - 29th May, 1947.
In those days, there was no El Al service to book through. With the help of some friends in a travel office, we tried every airline. I finally got a passage on a chartered flight, which came from South Africa, with a stop over in Lod, going via Athens, Rome and Paris to London. It was the best I could get and, with various delays and breakdowns, I finally arrived in Croydon, an airport outside London.
When I went through the customs hall, the Immigration Officer told me that I had to pass through a medical check up. He directed me to a smaller room where I was asked to strip completely. Then I was taken to yet another room where the medical check was carried out. While I was in that room, the security officers made a thorough search of my clothing and my luggage. Of course nothing was found, as, apart from personal belongings and an engagement ring that I had cut for Friedel, I had nothing. I had sent a cable from Paris announcing my expected time of arrival but I was so delayed by this check-up that Friedel, who had waited patiently after all the passengers from the plane had come out, had finally gone home. By the time I came out of the Customs Hall, no one was waiting, and there were no more buses left to take me to London. The Airport Authority apologised profusely and, together with an Arab passenger, who was also delayed for some reason, we were provided with an airport staff car which took us to London - first the Arab to the Savoy Hotel, and then me to Friedel's address. The driver even helped me with the luggage to the door. Imagine the surprise of the whole family as I stood there at the door, a uniformed driver holding my luggage!