A Long Journey Home

Friday, May 8, 2009

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!

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Getting married

10 Getting Married

The date for the wedding was already fixed and, having delayed my departure several times, we had to take out a special licence, but we actually got married on time, attended by many relatives and friends, mainly from Friedel's family. From my side, only Philip and his wife Henny came from Antwerp. Yoine unfortunately could not get a visa at the last moment. Some cousins who resided in London also came. It was a great pleasure to have Rabbi Dr. Ansbacher attending. He was a Rabbi in Wiesbaden and a close friend of my father's.
In spite of the food rationing restrictions still in force in Britain, the affair was well arranged and we all had a good time. Still, I was sad and upset, thinking of all my family, who could not be with me on that important day. I cannot remember the exact wording of my speech which I delivered during the dinner, but I do remember clearly two themes that I mentioned. First was the home in which I grew up, and the education which I received from my parents, and I was glad that Rabbi Ansbacher could confirm the high standard which ruled in our house. Then I told our guests that Friedel and I were determined to live in “Israel”, whatever the difficulties. Today this doesn't sound remarkable, but in 1947, conditions were not favourable in Palestine, to say the least. The State was not established yet; there were only deliberations at the UNO and the future looked very bleak. We were determined to settle in Palestine for ideological reasons. We had both been brought up in the religious Zionist movement of Bachad. It felt like a new beginning, a fresh start for us after the horrors and devastation of the Holocaust.

Against the advice of the family and other well-wishers, we went straight ahead and applied for an entry visa from the British Home Office. This was not an easy task, but we were determined to get on with it, until we got the permit. Meanwhile Friedel's family tried to persuade us to settle in England for some time, until times were better. We would not hear of it. At the UNO, various parties were active in trying to reach a majority for the establishment of a Jewish State, and we wanted to be there when it happened.
While we were waiting for our papers to come through, we prepared for our journey, shopping and packing wedding gifts and other personal belongings into big trunks. Between May and September, I worked at Santor Paper (my father-in-law’s business). We had a rented room in Hampstead. Finally, in September 1947, we were granted permission to enter Palestine as legal immigrants, and received all the necessary documents. We booked our journey to go to France by train, spend a week in Paris, then proceed to Marseilles to board the "Kedma", the first Jewish ship to go to Palestine.
The day arrived when we took leave of family and friends. With a lot of emotional good wishes, and many bits of advice, we boarded the train taking us to France. Friends in Paris had booked us into a hotel, and we spent a few very nice days there. We were very upset when we were informed by the travel office in Paris that the “Kedma” was undergoing repairs, and it would take a long time to make it seaworthy. We did not want to wait that long, so we changed our booking to a Romanian ship sailing in a few days from Marseilles. Upon boarding the boat, we found that most of the other passengers had done as we did. Among the passengers, we also met a widow by the name of Tiefenbrunner - the wife of a cousin of my father's from Strasbourg. Accommodation on the boat was not of the best, as the ship was overcrowded. However, nothing mattered - we were looking forward to a new life!

Friday, May 1, 2009

Arrival in Palestine

11 Arrival In Palestine

After five days on the Mediterranean Sea, we approached the coast and soon saw the port of Haifa with the Carmel mountain in the background. It was in the latter part of the month of October, a beautiful day, and whoever came by boat to Haifa on a clear sunny day knows the feeling we had, looking at the scenery. For Friedel, especially, it was something difficult to express. After disembarking from the boat, we had to go through all the formalities of new immigrants, taking nearly the rest of that day.
We were welcomed by one of Friedel's relatives, Shmuel Sturm, who lived in Haifa, and were invited to stay for the weekend, before proceeding to Tel Aviv. I also met many friends, some from the Army and others whom I knew from Europe. It was a very happy time for us. But we hadn't just come for a holiday, we were going to settle down in Tel-Aviv.
First we looked for an apartment. With the help of Friedel's uncle who lived in Tel Aviv - Norbert Sturm - we found something to our liking, and as it was also in the vicinity of most of our relatives and friends we decided to take it and move in. Other than some personal belongings which we brought with us, we had no furniture. Nevertheless we were still in good spirits. We bought some folding beds, a kitchen table and a couple of chairs, and made the best of it. Most Shabbatot we were invited by relatives. During the week Friedel became a housewife and I started to look around for work.
Times were not easy here in 1947. Tension between Jews and Arabs on the one hand, and the Jewish population and the British authorities on the other, increased from day to day. On the evening of the 29th of November, we were walking on the main street of Tel Aviv and we stopped to listen to a loudspeaker van in the square announcing the YES and NO votes at the UNO in New York, for the establishment of the Jewish State. It was a most memorable experience and every minute was getting more exciting. It was very close until, finally, the voting was in our favour. When they announced the end result, for a moment or two, people were stunned. Then excitement broke out; complete strangers embraced and kissed each other and many were crying for joy. After that dancing went on during the whole of the night.
However, after the sunshine comes the rain. By the next morning, Arabs had started sabotage by throwing bombs and shooting wherever they found Jews unprotected. Of course, the Hagana replied in kind, and the British Army intervened. All this caused tension and, alas, victims. Places of work and factories found themselves very often in the fire-line, and some had to close down. This happened to the place where I worked in diamonds. Altogether the diamond trade went into a crisis because of difficulties in export, and I had to look for something else.
By sheer chance, while I was waiting in a cafe for someone, to discuss diamond business, I met my old friend, Jimmy Friedland, from the British Army and POW camp. We discussed old times and new problems, and it turned out that we were both thinking of ways to make a living. Jimmy had already started carrying out a bit of work in interior decoration, specialising in curtains. With a lot of building going on, prospects were good, but he needed someone to assist him, as this kind of work involved discussion and signing of work agreements with the customers, as well as executing it. We decided to become partners and work together. We celebrated the partnership with a cup of coffee and a handshake, and began the next day. He already had a few customers, and I went to relatives and friends to offer my services, and asked to be recommended to whoever needed this particular kind of work.
Gradually the circle of our customers increased and we were fully occupied. Profits were still meagre as we had to buy materials with capital that we really did not have. Nevertheless, we worked hard, and, in order to carry out all the work we had, we put in long hours, sometimes until late at night. Meanwhile, both of us being ex-soldiers, we were called to register for army service. That made our work very difficult, because we knew that any day now, we would be called to serve.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The New State

12 The New State

The British forces evacuated Palestine. By the 13th May 1948, no British soldier was left in the country. Both Jews and Arabs were prepared for this eventuality and juggled for places to occupy, such as army bases, police stations and other strategic places. In most cases, these positions were handed over by the British officer-in-charge to the Arabs. However the Hagana, Palmach and Etzel managed to seize some positions which were then used as bases for the defence of the whole country.
On 14 May 1948 the Jewish State, to be known as the State of Israel, was declared. The first pronouncement by the provisional government was the dissolution of the various militias into one fighting force - the Israeli Army. This was a slow process; however, under the leadership of Ben Gurion, the Army eventually consolidated. Those with experience of fighting under foreign armies, or in local forces like Hagana, were promoted to the ranks they held before. I became a sergeant, the rank I held in the British Army.
After undergoing some basic training I was posted to the reception camp of "Kelet 5", near Beit Lidd. With immigrants and volunteers coming in from all over the world, it was important to have people with knowledge of several languages to receive them. Together with about 20 others, it was our job to enlist these people, swear them in and supply them with clothing and some equipment. The problem was that we hardly had any equipment. All we had was secondhand clothing from British Army stores, which were left behind, and from the American Army stores in Germany. One day, we had trousers, socks and underwear in store; another day, it may be shirts, belts and berets. We never had sufficient boots, and during my time of serving we never had everything. This situation very often caused bitterness amongst the new arrivals, and more than once we were attacked for not being able to supply all.
On the home front, our daughter Miriam had been born on 12th April 1948 in the Assuta Hospital. When I left home for the Army, Miriam was four weeks old and Friedel was left alone with a newborn infant. Miriam spent most of the war in a laundry basket in order to be ready to be taken to the lower floor or to an air raid shelter whenever there was a warning.
My base was about 80 km from Tel Aviv, and I could not always get transport when I had the chance to spend a night at home. Very often I spent hours on the road getting a lift to Tel Aviv. One day I was told by one of the staff who had just returned from Tel Aviv that a bomb had been dropped on the corner of the street in which we were living. I was given immediate leave to rush home. Hours passed, until I arrived home in the middle of the night. Thank G-d, the bomb fell on an empty lot, creating a large crater in the middle of it. The pressure of the blast caused windows to be broken and blinds bent. The shock for the residents of the neighbourhood was tremendous. Imagine Friedel being alone with the baby when the bomb exploded, a few metres away! I was certainly relieved that, but for the shock, no serious damage had been caused. I could only stay for the night, and the next morning, I had to return to the camp. That incident happened at the beginning of the war and, as time went on, many more bombs fell, and people got into a routine of reaching the air raid shelter and safety. I tried to get home as often as possible, even for a few hours, day or night.
In camp we were getting more and more people to deal with. One day, we received a new batch of people, coming from the camps in Europe. It was a very busy day, and we worked into the late hours at night, supplying these people with some clothing, whatever we had in store. We were nearly at the end, when a tall fellow came forward. I asked his name, and he said: "Zvi Tiefenbrunner". Imagine both our surprise and joy - my cousin from Poland had arrived, and was received by me.
This was one of the incidents that made life in the Israeli Army different from anywhere else. Life in the camp continued with some pleasant incidents. We arranged sports events and lectures and, when we had leave, we'd go out and have a good time. This broke up the dull routine of our duties. On two occasions, when the situation on the front line was getting very serious, more trained people were needed. During my time of service, I volunteered twice to be sent to the front, but was rejected for reasons of being needed in the camp to deal with newcomers.
The War of Independence came to an end, and soldiers were discharged. However as I was in charge of stores I was given the duty to break up the camp. With a handful of soldiers, we worked very hard, in order to shorten the time in which we could get all the equipment, clothing and blankets etc., and return it to the stores at headquarters in Tel Aviv. Finally, the lorry load of goods was ready and, in buoyant mood, we said goodbye to our camp and left for Tel Aviv. It was an emotional moment to arrive home and, this time, for good.
My service during the War of Independence lasted just over a year. That is a long time, considering we had only recently married and had a month-old baby when I left. Of course, Israel needed a regular army after this experience with our not-so-friendly neighbours. All able men, between the ages of 18 and 49, were recruited for reserve duty. At that time, the minimum per annum was four weeks, and NCO's and officers had to serve about six weeks. You could be called at any time of the year, and whenever the call came, you had to go. For me, like many others, it was a very difficult time. After coming home, I tried to pick up the business where I'd left off. The economy as a whole was not very promising, and who wanted to spend money on curtains which were considered a luxury.
We had won the war, and we had a State - this compensated us for every shortcoming. Although life was hard, I believe that most people were content and there were fewer complaints than twenty, thirty and forty years later, when the standard of life was much higher. Like everyone else, we adjusted to these conditions, and tried to make the best of it.

During 1952, our son Benny was born. We enjoyed life with our two children, who gave us lots of pleasure. We had lots of friends, as well as relatives, and on Shabbat we spent many joyful hours either at home or on visits to them.
So life went on until the year 1956. During that year, we were subjected to heavy pressure from the family to return to England and join Friedel's father's business. At first, we did not want to hear of it and refused outright, but pressure increased, not only from Friedel's parents, but also from her uncle, Bernard Blasbalg in the USA, and relatives in Israel. As time went on, my father-in-law became ill, and found it hard to cope with the strain of the business. He owned a manufacturing plant of tissue paper, and employed about 30 people. He did not like to take in any outsiders, but wanted to keep the business within the family. I consented to come over for a trial period of a year or two.