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By webmaster@schlissel.org.
Foreword
I was born in Krakow, Poland in 1916 to religious parents. As a child I received a religious education.
I write this bibliography 55 years after the events of which I am telling took place. You will easily understand that it is difficult for me to remember the events from so long ago, particularly since my memory has weakened somewhat in recent years. I will, however, attempt to attain this goal for my dear ones.
Even if there are some inaccuracies or chronological errors I would like to tell you about the desire of a young Jewish boy to reach Israel, at all odds.
Translator's Note : At times the language of the story was difficult and unclear. I have tried not to change to much in the translation. I have tried to keep it as true as possible to the original version (and at the same time have tried to make it more understandable) so as not to lose the flavor and style in which the story is told.
My parents were middle class religious Jews. The income of the family was adequate. My father had a grocery store in a Christian neighborhood and was forced to turn it over to a Christian. He then became a agent for a candy company.
Since I was not a good student my parents sent me to learn the furrier trade from my neighbor. By then I was already a member of the Zionist movement, Betar, whose goal was aliyah to Israel. The day came and my friend and I decided to start on the path that would lead us to Israel.
At the time the 18th Zionist congress was being held in Prague in Czechoslovakia - that is where we were headed. We collected information - how we could cross the border from Poland to Czechoslovakia without encountering the border patrol because we did not have any border passes, only passports. When we reached the border, we connected with a man who was supposed to show us how to cross the border and continue on our way. We went on a mountainous path in a forest for many hours. Along the way we encountered hunters. One of them approached me and asked me “What are you doing here?”. I said we were hiking but he understood that that we were Jews and that we wanted to cross the border. He asked if it were not better to eat Cholunt at home rather than hike around here (it was Shabbat when we were there) and even warned us that there were border patrols in the area. We continued on our way until we reached a small town, there we asked the farmers as to our whereabouts. To our surprise we were in a Czech town. In other words we made it to Czechoslovakia.
Since we walked on Czech soil we saw this as our first accomplishment. Now we had to continue to the city of Prague so that we could be among the people at the 18th Zionist Congress. To that place would come Zionists from all over the world and from all political parties. We did not have much money so we could not travel by train. Instead we hitchhiked all the way to the Zionist Congress. The Congress took place in a big building with many rooms. Every group got a room. We looked for Betar. We introduced ourselves as members of Betar Krakow and we explained to them that we were there temporarily and that our goal is to reach Israel. But they could not help us because we needed to show certificates allowing us to enter Israel. We looked for a place to sleep that night. We could not afford a hotel room so we had to sleep on the couches in the Betar room.
Of course we had to eat also and our pockets were empty. So I asked the heads of the Betar group to let me sell newspapers to earn a little money. I would go out every morning with a bundle of newspapers and walk around the building and call out the name of the paper (I do not remember its name). When I sold a bundle I would go and get another bundle.
This is what I did during the entire course of the Congress. I would work from morning to afternoon and then return to the room in the evening having eaten and with a little money left in my pockets.
One night I returned to the room and I found it locked. I was with a few other friends and we started walking from room to room trying to open doors After many failed attempts we found a room that was not locked. We went in and we locked it with the key that was left on the inside of the door. (It turned out that someone had been in the room, left it and tried to come back a half hour later, when he could not open the door he left.) Everybody grabbed a couch; but, there were not enough and I did not get one, so I had to sleep on the floor. I had a very hard time sleeping. After that night we were careful to get back to the room before it was locked. That is how my life was in Prague until the Congress ended and all the representatives returned to their countries.
I had no choice but to continue on my way. Our next destination was Vienna. It turned out that the friend I was traveling with hooked up with someone else and decided to travel with him and they left without me.
It was very hurtful to me to be left alone in a strange country, far from home with little money. But I did not want to return home and so I decided to continue on my own.
I got to Vienna by hitchhiking or by train - I do not remember. I had the address of relatives that lived in Vienna. I went to visit them and they were very nice to me. But it turned out that they had a young daughter they wanted to marry off and they wanted me to be the victim. Why a victim? Because after I met her it was quite obvious that she was not normal.
I ran away from there fast. I went to the Betar group and introduced myself as a member from Krakow.
They first arranged for a place to sleep in the entrance to the building. There was a small hallway with a bed about 70cm wide. There were already two young men sleeping there and they decided that all three of us would sleep in the one bed. We all had to sleep on our side and when one wanted to turn we all had to turn. We awoke in the morning exhausted. Fortunately, this only lasted a few days and then I was sent to a family. There I got a good bed and food.
In the meantime they learned that I worked in Furs. They had a friend that was a furrier and was interested in me. I started working for him I was pretty content there. The owner of the house had 2 sisters in law living in an apartment with 2 rooms They gave me one of the rooms. One of the women worked in the same place as I did and she would always remind the owner of the house that it was time to give me food.
I worked there for a few months until I decided that I did not come to Vienna to stay there and it was time for me to move on with my plans. The next destination was Yugoslavia.
I packed my bags and took a train to Zagreb, Yugoslavia . The girl who worked with me took me to the train and even boarded the train with me until the departure was announced. She parted from me with kisses and crying. It turns out that she really loved me, but she got off the train and I continued on. I passed through Zagreb and then through Belgrade. From there I went to Novi Sad, a small town that the language spoken there is Hungarian. ( It was part of Hungary before WW1).
There was a Jew In Novi Sad who had a grocery store in town. He also had a large farm about 20km from the town. I was hired as a supervisor on the farm. The owner of the farm had an older uncle that was responsible for the farm. He lived in a small house with two rooms and I lived in one of the rooms. The uncle had a servant living with him and she catered to ALL his needs. (to those who understand - no explanation needed) Though she wasn’t much younger then him.
The farm dealt in raising pigs and horse breeding. There were many workers on the farm.
In a few places in the yard there were large stacks of straw. Underneath them were tunnels that allowed you to go from one side to another. In these stacks the chickens would make nests where they would lay their eggs. I would find the nests and take the eggs. I would climb a ladder to the top and I would wear a long coat with big pockets which I would fill with eggs. When my pockets were full, I would slide down the stacks to the bottom. Once, when I was sliding down all the eggs (about 20) broke in my pockets and made a big mess. I hid in a corner and washed out my coat then returned to the yard to supervise the farm.
After a while I had a fight with the servant who was very sure of herself because of her relationship with the uncle. I could not stand the situation and decided to leave. I informed the owner of the farm. When one of the carriages passing by the farm was riding into the town I got a ride and went to see the owner. I told him everything that had happened and told him that unfortunately I could not continue. He understood and gave me some money and we parted. I decided to continue on my way to my final destination - Israel.
I got to Bucharest in Romania. I do not remember how. Apparently I went from Novi Sad to Belgrade . I may have stayed in Belgrade for a time and then continued to Bucharest.
When I got to Bucharest, I turned to the Betar group there. (I had no one else to turn to.) It was a very lively place. They had a lot of members. At the time Aharon Prophas was there, one of the leaders of Betar in Poland I thought he would help me and give me guidance on how to get to Israel in the easiest and safest manner. Unfortunately, he had no interest in guys like me - and there were many even before I got there. So I knew I had to take my destiny in my own hands as I had done in the past.
At the time I met a guy named Sabak Golomvak. He was a few years older than me. We became good friends We rented a room together . Sabak found work as a carpenter and he supported us. We were living very well until one day he came back from work upset. He said he fought with the owner of the business because the owner refused to pay him his salary. The police came and after a short interrogation they freed him. But they also told him his passport expired and he must go to the Polish consulate to renew his passport or he would have to leave Romania. In the meanwhile we were left without any income.
Help came from a women that Sabak met. She was from Czechoslovakia. They had a love affair. I too became involved with her She was the first to teach me about love. But only a platonic love. She said I was too young for a physical relationship. The girl wrote to her parents about Sabak and they insisted that she return home or they would not send her any money. She had no choice. She returned home to her parents.
After she left we, again, had no income. Sabak decided to go to the Polish Consulate to renew his passport so he would be able to get a job. Not only did they not renew his passport but they told him that he had to return to Poland for army service. I was devastated. Not only did I lose a friend but I was alone in a foreign country. We had no choice. We parted. He gave me his address in Warsaw and we parted with great sadness. He returned home and I remained alone . My decision to continue was clear.
After my friend Sabak went home, I met two boys from Romania that wanted to join me and continue with me to Israel. Since we had no money and you cannot move around without money, we developed a plan to get money. The plan was to put our pictures on postcards and write on it that we want to go to Israel. We printed tens and maybe hundreds of cards and we started going into stores belonging to Jews in Bucharest. It can be said that the Jews gave with a very open handed; however, not everyone gave.
We finely had enough money and we decided to go to Constanta, the port city where there were ships to Israel. We hoped to get on one of these boats and travel as stowaways or the devil knows how.
First we got a place to stay near the port. Every day we would go to the port and check out the situation. It continued this way for a few days. Then one day two undercover policemen came up to us and wanted to know who we were. Of course my two friends were not concerned since they were Romanian citizens and they knew the language. They began talking and I followed behind them. Slowly the distance between us began to grow until I saw that they were not even paying any attention to me. I decided this was a good time to disappear. I don’t remember if I went back to the apartment, or hid elsewhere until the danger passed or until I knew what happened to my friends. I only met them at night. They told me that the detectives went crazy when they saw that I disappeared. They thought that I was up to something illegal and they are determined to find me.
Given the situation I had to leave the town. We returned to Bucharest before it was to late. From there we developed a travel plan. Throughout Romania we walked , hitchhiked, and in many other ways we went through many cities. I remember once over the course of 2 days we went 130 kilometers.
We went in the mountains until we reached the home of a nice farmer who gave us food and a place to sleep for the night. The next day we continued to the town of Kloosh . A large town were they spoke Hungarian and there were many Jews. We managed to sell many of our postcards. We passed through many places but I do not remember the names.
One day one of my friends got sick and said he wanted to go home. We were not far from their home. (They both came from the same place but I do not remember the name.) He could not continue with us and decided to go home. The other friend had to go with him. He was afraid if he continued with me the people of his town would not think well of him. So they went and I was alone once again in a strange land where I do not speak the language. But I must go on. I wandered from town to town. At that time hitchhiking was not easy like today because then there were not as many cars, especially in Romania, which was a poor country. The only thing I could do was hide on trains or trucks.
One time I was at a train station and I went to the last car so that people would not see me. I went on the freight car. I sat in the corner and waited for the train to move. I was calm and was not afraid that someone would see me. We reached a hilly area and suddenly the train went into a tunnel and it became dark. The coal that ran the train filled the tunnel with smoke and I was sitting in a open car. I started to suffocate. I was coughing and swallowing smoke from time to time. I thought the end had come. There was no point to shouting since no one could hear me and I was not able to shout. Fortunately for me it did not continue for a long time and we were out of the tunnel. From then on, I swore I would not travel in an open car.
This is how I continued on my way from town to town from city to city. One day I reached a town that was inhabited by gypsies. When I saw the gypsies I got scared. I remembered the stories from my childhood about the gypsies kidnapping children and raising them to increase their manpower. In Poland there were no towns with gypsies. They would travel in carriages tied to horses and if they did kidnap children this could never be determined since they did not live in one place.
Even though I was no longer a child, I was afraid to stay alone among the gypsies, so I walked faster until I passed through the town. (The truth is, if they wanted to kidnap me no one would have ever found out.)
As I continued on my way, I reached a train station. This time it was a train that carried passengers. I got on the train without a ticket and we off went. When the ticket collector came into the car I got up and went to the bathroom, locked the door and I stayed there until I was certain that the ticket collector had left the car. They tried to open the bathroom door but I did not open it and I stayed there until I was certain the ticket collector was gone.
I wanted to reach the border with Bulgaria. I got to a city whose name if I am not mistaken is Roshchok. Through this city ran the Danube river that divided Bulgaria and Romania. To get to the Bulgarian side I had to go on a boat or ferry that transfers passengers to the other side of the river. So I got on a boat and went to Bulgaria. I reached some city that I do not remember the name and from there I continued by train to Sofia the capital of Bulgaria. My intention was to continue from Bulgaria to Turkey and from there to Syria and from Syria to Israel. When I got to Sofia I looked for a synagogue so that I could talk to Jews about my reason for being there. I tried asking a few people in the street but no one understood my language. Suddenly I was surrounded by a lot of people that were staring at me as if I were from another planet. I was fortunate there was no policeman around or he would have for sure taken me to the police station.
Finally, someone came along who understood what I wanted. He took me to the synagogue. There I managed because the people there knew at least some Hebrew. I explained to them that I must get to the Betar group that was well established in Sofia. They took me there and I explained my reason for being there. They arranged for food and for a place to sleep. There were a few other people who were there for the same reason. I got to know them and acclimated very well among them.
After a while, we decided to create a group that would put on the play “Kuni Lemel” in Yiddish. If the play was successful we would have enough money to continue on our way. We had a number of rehearsals. I was supposed to appear with the other men and sing with them a song that I remember until today ‘Eich Bin Fralibt” - ‘I am in love’. We put up notices on the street and rented a small hall. We knew in Bulgaria there were few who spoke Yiddish.
The day of the performance arrived and to our surprise a lot of Jews came even those who did not speak Yiddish. That was the first time in my life I appeared on a stage in a play and singing.
The play was a success and we were very satisfied. We returned home and after we paid all our expenses there was still a nice amount of money for each of us.
Now came the time to continue to Israel. As you remember, the plan was to go from Bulgaria to Turkey to Syria to Israel. However, unfortunately this plan was not possible since there was no way to cross from Bulgaria to Turkey. So I chose an alternate route - to try and get to Trieste in Italy - there were boats that left from there to Israel. So I found myself one day in Milan, Italy. (Unfortunately, I do not remember my travels from Bulgaria to Italy. I do not remember how I got there or with whom I traveled. I have no choice but to skip this part and continue on.)
So I got to Milan and from there to Trieste. There I got the address of a place were men met who had the same purpose as me - to get on a boat to Israel. I was sent to someplace that had rooms for rent or, more accurately, beds. I lived there for some period . Every morning I would go to the port to check out the situation and I would return empty handed. I saw no way I could get on a boat to Israel. The security was very tight and there was no point in trying and getting caught. One day, I decided to travel to Venice. One cannot be in Italy and not see the city of Venice. I looked for a boat that would agree to take me. I finally found one and for a few pennies I got on the boat. Of course, I did not get a cabin but I slept on the deck. Venice is a very special city. I toured around and enjoyed it very much. Then I returned to Trieste and sat down to figure out what to do next.
I began to understand that I would not reach Israel in this way. I tried many countries and many ways. It had been almost 2 years since I left home. I would get letters from home saying enough already - come home. I would send letters from everywhere I was, and even if I did not have an address, I would give the address of the main post office so I could get letters from home.
So in Trieste I felt I wanted to go home but not before I went to France and maybe the famous Paris.
And so I, with two other young men that I do not remember how they got to me or who they were, started out to the French border. We wandered by foot and hitchhiked until we reached the Italian - French border. We got over the border without any problem and we got to the French town of Monte Carlo. This is the famous Monte Carlo of the gambling world to which all the wealthy people of the world would come to make and lose millions.
So we too, the “millionaires” were there. Maybe that is what the people there thought. But the police that were stationed there thought differently. They approached us and asked us for our passports. After checking them they discovered we did not have a visa to enter France. They asked that we accompany them to the police station. When we got there they arrested us. It was a room lined with beds. Here you will stay until we determine your fate - they told us. That day they took us out of the jail and told us that only I was free to go the other two were being taken back to the border and returned to were they came from. The reason was they were already once in France and were kicked out before. I was never in France before so they gave me a chance to stay.
So once again I was alone. But the French were cultured people and I got along with them. I walked a long way until I realized it was getting dark and I still had no place to sleep. I passed by the beach and there were little cabins. I started checking the cabins for an open one. I found one with just a bench inside. I sat on the bench and tried to lay down and sleep but I was cold. I looked up and saw an opening to the next cabin but it was very high up. Nonetheless I climbed up to see what was in the next cabin. There I saw a robe hanging on a nail, exactly what I needed to cover up. But how would I reach it? Well, when you are in need you can do it all. I climbed as much as I could and tried to reach the robe. I tried a little harder and managed to catch it between my fingers. Then suddenly it slipped and fell to the ground. How I messed up! I almost slipped and fell myself. That is how the story ended. No robe and I had to go through the night without a cover. But as expected this night also passed somehow.
According to the plan I was to get to Marseille, the port city of France. Fortunately, a women driving a car stopped and agreed to take me as far as she was going. I do not remember where. From there I continued to Marseille. I stayed there a few days. I had to give up seeing Paris and I continued on to Lyon. I stopped at the Polish Embassy to arrange my passage through Germany were the Nazis already ruled. It was very dangerous traveling in Germany without papers. I got on a train and traveled toward Germany. From there I would continue to Poland. We crossed the border and we got to Munich. There we had to get off the train and wait for another train that would take us to Poland. We passed through border patrol and there the policeman reminded me that Germany was different now. I waited in the train station for about 2 hours for the train to Poland. I started thinking about a wealthy aunt that lived in Berlin. She had 5 stores. I knew if I went to see her I would not leave empty handed; but, I was afraid of getting in trouble with the Nazis.
I think I also did not have enough money to go to Berlin. So I gave up on that adventure and I waited for the train to Krakow and I arrived home. With this ended a 2 year adventure in 7 countries I returned home without anyone knowing that I was returning. I stayed there for about 3 years. I got a job in my profession and during this time I met Sarah, my future wife. We dated for 2 years. We had fun, we went to parties and danced. Until one day, I told Sarah that I did not see my future in Poland and that I must try to reach Israel. This time in a different way. About that in Part B.
In 1938 I decided that the time had come to try my luck again and to reach Israel. This had not been a quiet year at all with respect to the relationship with Nazi Germany. The Nazis had begun conquering. They captured Austria. I had the feeling that we were getting closer to the situation in which we could no longer live quietly in Poland. I told my fears to my girlfriend, Sarah. I told her that I must try to reach Israel. I asked her to join me. This was the period during which the Zionist organizations were renting boats in order to bring people to Israel - illegally. (These Jews were called the Maapilim.) I wanted to be one of them. Sarah did not agree that we travel together without asking her father and suggested that I speak with him. Even though I was not very brave, I went to speak to him. He listened to me and then he said he could not send his daughter off to Israel without knowing what would happen to her. He suggested that I go alone and after I settle in there we could talk about Sarah. He said he already had a son in Israel. Having two children there is a lot. His son lives on a Kibbutz and cannot support himself on his own and therefore he has no property. I had no choice but to start this on my own. So I turned to the appropriate place. (I do not remember what or where it was.) I paid a large sum of money and I waited to be notified when I would join the trip. On February 20, 1939, I started my journey. I said goodbye to my family and Sarah in the hopes that not to long would pass and she would join me in Israel. None of us dreamt that it would be 8 years until we would we see each other again. However, I will tell the story in the order of events.
The organizers also provided food for the trip. When everything was ready we went on our way. During the day I would hang out on the deck and in the night I would go downstairs to sleep.
After 3 days of peaceful travel, I was sleeping and awoke with fear - the boat was shaking and it sounded like things were breaking. I ran upstairs - the boat hit an underwater rock and could not move. People panicked and ran for the deck. The organizers set up guards and would not let people pass They calmed us and told us that everything would be OK and that we would get help. But who was going to help us in the middle of the night in the middle of the ocean. Do not forget we had with us women and children. The first thing we did was send out an SOS signal. After that we lowered the 3 boats we had on the ship to the ocean. Each one could only hold 140 people. First we lowered the women and children and took them to a deserted island about 2 km away. The problem was the rowers were not experienced and it was very hard for them to get to the island - they were dragged back to the ocean. Finally they made it but it took a very long time to get back to the ship. In the meanwhile, daylight came but there was no help. The water began to rise. Before I went upstairs I put on as much clothing as possible. I had a feeling that whatever stayed down there would be lost and gone forever. I was not even sure I was going to make it as I could not swim.
On the deck were a lot of people staring around and wondering where was help going to come from. Suddenly something appeared, as it got closer we realized it was a ship like ours. We all cheered. The boat stopped about 200 meters away from us so as not to get stuck. They lowered their life boats. They had 8 smaller ones than ours but it was a great help. The people did not need to go to the island. They were transferred directly to the other ship which name was Katina. And so continued the rescue effort. After about 2 hours my turn finally came to get on the life boat. ( I never pushed ahead to be among the first.) When I left the Chipo the water was already very high. After about 2 more hours the ship sank. I was already on the boat Katina.
Now hell started all over again that we didn’t expect at all. Before we boarded the ship “Katina” there were 600 people. They were left without enough food because they were already on the ship for two months and couldn’t go to shore. We were 750 people from the ship “Chipo” which means that there were now 1350 people on the Katina! There was not enough food or space. People sat on steps and life boats… after all this was a merchant boat and not a large passenger ship. There were no cabins, no bathrooms and no showers. We lived in terrible filth with lice and endless diseases. People began to rebel. There were people yelling “We want to go home! We don’t want to die of starvation!” The organizers could not control and calm the people. The discussed it amongst themselves and decided to go to Greece to buy food. When they announced their decision the people calmed down and we sailed Greece. After 2 or 3 days we arrived at the port of Pilos in Greece. The organizers went ashore, bought a large quantity of food and contacted Palestine. They notified them that they could not continue with so many people for a long period of time. Apparently this warning had some effect because after 5 days of sailing toward Palestine, we received signals from shore that people could come ashore. That night about half the people on the boat got off. Of course, this was all done at night so as not to be detected by the British police boats. At dawn we had to go further out to sea, intending to return the next night and getting the rest of the people off the boat.
The next night we returned to the Netanya coast. To our disappointment, there were no signals from the shore this time -- meaning there was no one there to get us. We waited and waited until daylight came and we needed to return back out to sea. This is how it continued the next two days. We would go toward the shore and return out to sea until it felt like there was no way out of this situation. We contacted Palestine again (I don’t remember how, I think we returned to Greece and there we made contact). The people in Palestine told us when we get close to the Palestine coast a boat from Greece will come and be able to take about 150 people. It will be easier for that boat to avoid the British because they use planes that take pictures of all the ships in the ocean. The boat arrived and that night about 150 people got off our boat and onto the Greek boat. They made it to the Netanya shore. The next night another 150 people got off and so the following night. In the end there remained about 80 people on the ship and I among them. Finally, we too got off the ship and got close to the shore but didn’t get any sign. Without any choice, we returned that night to our mother ship to get more food for the day. It was a terrible situation. We were in the middle of the ocean on a small boat without anything. The conditions were not livable. There were no bathrooms. We would take off our pants and sit at the edge of the boat and go directly into the ocean. This scene repeated itself every day as many people would sit at the edge of the boat that was closest to the water. Often, the rear ends would get from the “schpritz”. These scene could have been very funny if it were not so tragic. After a discussion, it was decided to collect from all the people money and valuables. Everybody gave what they could, money, jewelry, etc. It was decided to sail to Lebanon. The port of Sur was not too far away. At the time, the French ruled Lebanon and were known for their support of the Jews. We hoped they would help us a little. When we got to the port of Sur, we were all sprawled out on the deck of the boat looking pathetic. When the French police boarded the boat and saw us, they understood that we needed immediate help. Two of our leaders got off the boat with the police and organized food and drink that would last a few days. (I think they also tried to make contact with Palestine but I don’t know if they succeeded.) After they loaded food on the boat we left Sur and sailed toward Palestine. We went back and forth along the coast but did not get a signal. This continued for a few days. At night we didn’t sleep; but rather, sat with our eyes toward the shore praying for help.
One night, when we finally fell asleep from despair and exhaustion, we were awakened suddenly by gun shots and a few English police jumped on our boat. They surprised us because they approached quietly in a police boat and we couldn’t hear them. The police ordered our captain to sail toward Haifa. I think we were happy about that. Maybe the nightmare would finally be over. We sailed all night and the next day we got to Haifa. There they already knew that a refugee boat was caught. The Jewish community brought prepared food to us, which we almost forgot what it tasted like. We hoped that all this was ending for the best. In Haifa, there was another refugee ship that was caught before us. That ship was docked at the port not far from us. On that boat, everything was clean and orderly. We were dirty, neglected, and full of lice.
After two days at the port, they took us to the big ship. They prepared a segregated area so that we wouldn’t come into contact with the refugees already on the boat. They gave us big bags to put our cloths in and took the cloths to be sterilized. They took us to the showers for a cleaning and we returned as new people. In the meanwhile, they sterilized and cleaned our ship. After that they returned us to our ship. We did not understand why we were not kept with the refugees on the big ship – after all we were clean – but these were the orders and we couldn’t go against it.
And so, we were again on our boat. This time the conditions were completely different with a different feeling. After a few days, a boat arrived filled with food of all kind. They began to transfer the food to our ship and were surprised. What is happening here? What is this for? Someone explained to us that after the food is transferred to the boat, they will tie you to the big ship and together with it, they will throw us out of Palestine.
That was all we needed. How could we agree to this after all we have been through. We all began to scream and cry. We threw the bags and crates filled with food into the ocean. Some people wanted to jump into the ocean to commit suicide. Among the police guarding us, was a high ranking officer that never saw such a horrible scene in total despair that could do anything. He approached us begged us to stop our cries and throwing food into the ocean. He promised us he would do everything in his power to influence his superiors to leave us in the country. But, he said the refugees from the big ship would have to leave the boarders of our country. If they hear our cries, they to will begin to do so. After he spoke, we calmed down and waited for what was to come. The officer went ashore and returned to us after an hour with the news “you are staying in the country.” Of course, there was no end to our joy. After two more days, they brought buses for us and we traveled in a convoy in the streets of Haifa that were filled with Jews on both sides of the road. When our convoy passed by we heard calls like, “hooray for the heroes” and applause. Because we were the first refugees that the British agreed to allow to stay in the country after they were caught. All the other refugees were sent back to sea. And so, our buses traveled to Atlit, to a refugee camp. We got off at the camp and stayed under heavy guard for three weeks. This is the first time since I left home that I could send a letter to my family and let them know I am alive and well and in Palestine. Because, at home they thought I drowned because the newspapers reported that the boat Chipo had sunk and for three months they did not receive any sign of life from me.
After three weeks of the refugee camp, people from the Jewish Agency came and made lists of where each of us asked to go. There were those who had relatives and they, f course, went to them. I did not know that I had relatives in the country, so I turned to Betar. I was sent to Yisod HaMaala. When I got there I found an old building, with drab rooms. There were about 15 boys and girls who had outside jobs. In other words, we were employed with work instead of the Arabs. They gave me combine – a machine that cuts the wheat. I would get up at 6 AM, go out to the field, go on the combine, and start collecting wheat in bags. At the end of the day, I would come back completely blackened because of the soot from the combine. I also got many bee bites. I did this work until the harvest season ended. After that, I was sent to be a shepherd. I would go out with many sheep early in the morning with a stick in my hand. Me! Tsvi, a shepherd! The only thing I was missing was a Challil. The first time I went out with the sheep, we crossed a road with wheat fields on both sides. The sheep ran into the fields and began to eat. I ran after them like a crazy man with a stick in my hand to chase them from the wheat and return them to the road. Unfortunately, I was not successful. Fortunately, some farmers passed by and helped me.
At night, I would go out to guard in the fields. We had a outpost. Every night, two people would go out to guard so that the harvest was not stolen. After some time, I became a cowhand. They gave me 12 cows and with them I went out to the pasture. One day, in a heat wave, I took the cows to drink water. Near the water hole were bugs that bit the cows. The cows began to go wild and ran all over the place. Of course, I could not control them by myself. I returned to the kibbutz without the cows. I told them what happened and the people of the settlement who owned the cows went out to look for them. They found them in various barns.
I would like to tell you about our living conditions. The food was minimal. A half a piece of bread would be a meal and of course we were not satisfied. There was no talking about money. We didn’t even get a penny (“prutah”). When I wanted to write home or to my girlfriend Sarah, I had to as that they send international stamps because I didn’t even have money for a stamp.
One day, I went out to tend the sheep and not far from me there was a large group of ducks brought by Arabs. When I saw the ducks, I said to myself “here’s a chance to catch one of them to bring back to my friends for some food to eat.” Without anyone seeing me I grabbed a duck. With a penknife in my pocket I slaughtered the duck, a kosher slaughter and I put it in a sack. I hid the sack between the trees and sat there until the Arab left with the rest of the ducks. After that I dragged the sack home to bring to my friends. It is hard to describe the joy of my friends when they discovered the had a royal feast waiting for them. Although, the Arab complained to the people of the moshav that someone stole one duck, he could not point to the thief.
Another similar incident happened when I went out to the grove that was behind our home. I found a lamb. I didn’t know to whom it belonged but I knew my friends and I had to eat. I didn’t hesitate and I slaughtered that one also. I left it in the grove intending to come back and get it that night. In the meanwhile, one of the people from the moshav found the lamb dead in the grove. He, of course, didn’t know who killed it. He brought it to us and said that a jackal had killed it. He said that if we wanted it, he was willing to give it to us. We, of course, knew whose work this was. We agreed graciously to take it. We made from it a royal feast. This is how life continued in Yisod HaMaala.
During that period, malaria was very common and I was very afraid of catching it. One day we went to Rosh Pinah. I got fever and thought I got malaria. It turned out that it was not malaria but a disease called ?popdatzah?. This disease weakened me so much that I couldn’t go to the bathroom alone. I stayed in Rosh Pinah a couple of days until I got better and returned to the moshav. Of course, I didn’t return to work until I was completely well.
After that, I started working in the grove digging irrigation trenches. This was hard work for someone who was not used to it. That is when I started worrying about my future. What would happen if I got malaria. I knew that a body that was not well fed would not be able to withstand diseases.
Exactly at that time I received a letter for Haifa from my mother’s cousin. He owned a Laundromat in Haifa. Apparently, my mother wrote to him about me and gave him my address in Yisod HaMaala. In his letter he wrote that he was about to have an operation to remove kidney stones. He added that he had a laundromat that he and his wife worked in. He asked me to help his wife with the work. He was also willing to pay me for my travel expenses to Haifa. But he didn’t ask me if I even had the money to travel and I really didn’t even have a penny in my pocket. I really wanted to jump on the opportunity and leave the group. But, of course, in the group we didn’t even get pocket money for our work. On our trips during our free time I thought how can I get to Haifa without money. Apparently, luck was with me and one day while walking in the fields I found a wheel that was part of a combine. I took the wheel and went to find a buyer from the moshav. I found a man who was willing to give me 15 peysters for it. The trip to Haifa cost 12 peysters. I was very happy and left for Haifa.
I got to my uncle. His name was Nachum and his wife’s name was Tova. I don’t remember if I went straight to the laundromat or to the apartment that was next door to the laundromat. Of course, I was greeted with joy because I came to help with the work but they didn’t ask how much my trip cost. If they don’t ask they don’t have to refund. And, of course, they didn’t.
Over time, I learned how miserly my cousin was. Before going out, he would empty his pockets of any money so that he wouldn’t have to buy a drink if he got thirsty. My cousin’s apartment consisted of two rooms and in it lived two families (1 per room). There was a joint bathroom to share. One room had an exit to a small porch with a bed for me. That is how I lived with them and started working in the laundromat.
The laundromat (on Massada street) was a nice store but on Geulah street they had another laundromat and in it was the washing machine they used to wash the cloths. The machine could not warm the water unless you put a heater under it until the water boiled. The washed laundry we would hang in the yard and then I would take it to the store on Massada street in a baby carriage. We removed the basket for the child and replaced it with a wicker crate and in it we would put the laundry. I also worked on the presser. The presser was 3 meters long. While I was working there was a lot of steam because the cloths had to be wet so that they would iron the way they should.
During the day when it was light out, the steam would go out through the open door. However at night we would have to close the doors and windows so that the enemy planes couldn’t see the light (one should remember that this was during a time of war and the enemy would bomb the Haifa bay and the bombs would hit the big oil tanks which would explode and burn). Therefore, the steam would stay in the room and at the end of the workday I could squeeze about a quarter of a pail out of my shirt. Two days after I arrived, my cousin went into the hospital for his kidney stone operation. That night I sat with Tova listening to the radio until she was tired and wished to go to sleep. She got up and undressed in the room and got into bed. About a quarter of an hour later, I got up and went out to the porch, got into bed, and almost fell asleep. When I suddenly heard Tova call out, “Tsvi, why don’t you come into the room. There is such a heat wave out there.” Of course, there was no need for anything else. I got up and went into the room. She was about 35 years old and very hungry for a man. Apparently, she had not had relations with her husband in a long time. And, here I come -- young, handsome – and there was no one here but us, a golden opportunity.
Two days later, Nachum returned from the hospital and there were no more opportunities because everyday the 3 of us would go the laundromat, eat lunch, go back to work until night and then together return home until the next day and so on and so forth (they of course, never went anywhere, those misers).
I continued to drag the laundry in my carriage through the streets of Haifa to a small hotel whose sheets we washed. In this hotel there worked a nice young married woman with whom I started up. Apparently, she liked me because she responded to me and even invited me to her house when her husband was at work. She explained to me that her husband had no strength for her after his work at the ports. How could I refuse her. This is how my life continued for a couple of months at my cousin’s until I decided to volunteer for the British army. Then maybe I could help my family that was under Nazi oppression. Even if I didn’t know exactly what was going on, I knew that things were not too good. (Only later did I learn about the death camps. But by then, I was also a prisoner of war of the German’s.)
And so, I packed my day to day things and left the rest at my cousin’s without knowing that it would be 4 years until I could come back to get them. I said goodbye to Nachum and Tova and went to Tel Aviv. Here I met my friend from home, Yehudah Barash. We decided to volunteer together for the army and we traveled to Tzrifin and signed up. I don’t remember if we already stayed that day in the camp or returned to Tel Aviv and only the next day we had to show up to start our duty. In the meanwhile, my friend Yehudah had second thoughts and didn’t show up at the camp. I joined the army alone and began to prepare for the war against Hitler. More about this in Part C.
The year is 1940, the war in Europe continues in full force. Poland has already been conquered as was France, Denmark, Holland & others. When I think today about 1940, I don’t understand what propelled me, a young man 23/24 years old, to volunteer for the British army and to go out and fight against the strong German army, which in a number of weeks conquered Poland, France and others. Apparently, I still had adventurous urges. That is what caused me to volunteer for the army together with my friend Yehuda who came with me from Krakow to Palestine. (I didn’t mention him until now because I just don’t remember when we separated. Whether we got of the boat together, or if he got off before me. I just remember that we went together to be drafted and in the end he had second thoughts and ran away. He had a brother in Palestine with whom he lived. Sadly, Yehuda fell in the independence war in 1948.)
I would like to remind that in the beginning of the war, the British refused to establish in Palestine a Jewish brigade. Only later when the situation became bad did the British agree to establish a Jewish brigade. By then I was already a soldier. After brief training in using rifles, I was sent with other soldiers to Egypt. From there to Libya. When we got to Tobruk in Libya, they left us in an open field under the open skies. Tobruk is the big port city where many military ships stood.
At night, Italian jets “visited us”. These were nights of non-stop shooting. The planes would drop bombs on the port and the boats would shoot at the airplanes. In the range of fire, we would lie in the open field unable to protect ourselves.
After a few days, the British officer in charge of us, took us about 40 kilometers to some field where we were told to put up tents and there was our camp. Why were we brought here? What were we going to do here? Nobody knew. What was clear to all of us was the fact that if enemy planes came we could be wiped out easily. The planes never came because it didn’t occur to the them that the British would be so “smart” as to set up a camp in the middle of the desert.
One day a higher ranking British officer came to the camp. When he saw were we were he got very angry and yelled at our commander that he endangered us. This officer ordered our commander to take down the tents immediately and return to Tobruk to underground shelter. So that is what we did. The underground shelters were built in a mountain. Hundreds of meters of trenches in rocks which were built by the Italians. (The city of Tobruk belonged for a short time to the Italians and the British got it during the war.) No bomb could get into the shelters, which were 20 meters deep into the mountain. The shelters had electricity and everything needed for an extended stay for 100s of people; however, we did not stay long.
One bright day we received and order to pack and move to one of the merchant boats that stood in the port and would transport us to Greece. We boarded the boat nervously because being in the ocean was a big danger, even if we went in a convoy of many boats with soldiers and accompanied by military boats because the German planes were flying over us along the way. They would attack our boats and sunk a number of them. Fortunately, the boat I was in was not attacked until we got to the Greek port of Piraeus. There we got down and were transported to a military base.
At that time the Germans were not yet fighting the Greek, only the Italians. We were not so afraid of the Italians. Therefore, we were able to manage well and even manage to enjoy ourselves were soldiers go to visit (those who understand will understand). In any event, we could live without fear because we were not at the front. So it continued until the Germans decided not to be quiet anymore and they entered into battle with allies. Then in a short time there was a big change in the Greek front and in Yugoslavia. The Germans advanced very quickly and the soldiers of the allied forces could not withstand them.
We retreated and retreated until we got to a small port whose name was Kalamai. There, thousands of Australian, New Zealand and other soldiers gathered. The British transferred them to boats so they would not be caught by the Germans. Of course, there was preference given to soldiers on the front (actually fighting). We were not fighting soldiers but rather assisting soldiers. So we had to wait until all the fighting soldiers were moved to a safe place. We of course waited because, did we have any choice? Except, the Germans did not wait for all the British soldiers (myself included) to get on boats. They just came before the evacuation was completed. When the Germans entered Kalamai, there were about 8000 soldiers, including 1200 Palestinian (Israelis). I had a good friend Arieh Mendelberg. He worked in the unit head quarters. He came running to me one morning and said, “Tsvi, the Germans came and we will have to go into German captivity.” We could well imagine what this might mean for us a Jews. My friend Arieh suggested to me that we both commit suicide. We still had guns. One shot and it would all be over. I tried to convince him best I could that we could always commit suicide at any time. Thanks to me my friend Arieh is still living today.
On the same day, an order came from HQ that we should throw away or break our rifles. They promised us that we would get treated as POWs even though we were Jewish. Of course, we had no choice. I threw down the rifle and waited for the Germans to come. (I just want to note, that on our jackets was a patch on which it was written “Palestine” – this is our ID that we were from Israel.)
When the Germans appeared they gathered us and took us to a big place like a military came, but it was not a military camp. I don’t remember if it was an enclosed place. What I do remember is that when we got there everyone looked for a place for himself, some building or bunk. I think that there were some small houses there that were destroyed. The place the I found with my friend Arieh and a couple of other friends was a ditch. And there we lay. The gang (chevra) began to take off doors from the destroyed houses to build some time of roof to protect us from the rains because we did not know how long we’d be there or our fate. In the meanwhile we did not receive any food. My friend Arieh went to look for food in the trash piles and brought some moldy bread. I did not want to eat the bread even though I was very hungry. One night when I was sleeping in the ditch, I felt something touching my balls. I woke up and saw a large rat running away. I understood that this was his work. Fortunately I slept with my cloths on like everyone else. This situation continued for several days.
After a few days we received an order from the Germans to pack our belongings and stand in groups of three. After we were in line, we were informed that we were going to Germany. They brought us to trains and we traveled to Salonika. In Salonika we marched in the streets to a Greek army camp. I do not remember how long we were there.
During our stay in that camp, we heard that the Germans invaded Russia. That was in 1941. That gave us hope that the war wouldn’t last long and we would be able to return home. (Of course, this hope lasted 4 years.) After a short stay in Salonika, we boarded trains and were sent to Germany. This trip took a number of days because the tracks were filled with trains of German soldiers going to the Russian front. In the end we reached a large German POW camp named Stalag 18. There were thousands of British prisoners there. Our train went directly into the camp and we got out and stood in threes waiting for what was to come next.
Our first welcome to the camp went something like this: we stood in 3s, a German soldier guarded us, and after we stood for a long time we asked for water. The soldier responded, “Just wait, you’ll see what thirsty is.” Of course, no one answered him. We knew that before us was a Nazi monster and there was nothing to do. After not to long came an English officer. There were officers like this in the camp. Their job was to watch over the British prisoners and make sure nothing bad happened to them. This of course was done in cooperation with the Germans who knew that there were German POWs in England and that they would have to treat the English prisoners well if they wanted their prisoners treated well by the English. The British officer promised us that we were British prisoners in Germany. Even though we were Jews they would have to treat us like the non-Jewish prisoners according to the Geneva convention. We received a couple of barracks that were relatively well set up compared to what we had until now and our condition was not bad. The threat of the German guard never came to be.
After some time the Germans came to us and said that whoever went out to work would get better conditions then those we have now. We were tempted by the offer and signed up to go out to work. This was the mistake of our life. The first job we got was to cut down trees in a forest. This was hard work. We worked many hours with an ax in hand cutting trees. We did not stay at that job too long. They moved us to a cement factory. Here the work was even harder. We had to put bags of cement on cars. We didn’t stay here long also. I do not remember where they took us. I think they took us to a sugar factory. We worked on loading sugar can and bringing it to the factory. I don’t remember much about this period. The important thing is at the end we found ourselves in a camp that we did not build but we helped to complete (like putting shingles on roofs, etc.). This camp was supposed to be used by us only and from there we were supposed to work in a coal mine. The area on which the camp was erected belonged to Poland before the capture. Near the camp was the city Yokizno, a small town in which there were coal mines. The Poles who lived in the town worked in the mines. We were added to this group that worked in the mines.
The first time we came to the mine, which was 350 meters deep under ground we received work clothes and a flashlight or a sort of flashlight that worked on carbide. This means that half the flashlight was carbide and half of it was water. When the water dripped on the carbide, it created a gas that would work the entire shift, meaning 8 hours or more. Our work was divided into three shifts. Each one of us had our own cloths closet and there were also hot showers because anyone who worked in the coal mine would come up black like coal. We had to do this work for three straight weeks before we got one day off. The Germans claimed the coal was essential to the war effort and therefore we could not get the day off each week that POWs are entitled to.
So, every morning we would go down an elevator 350 meters and work in groups in different areas underground. There was, of course, ventilation. Otherwise we would have suffocated. The work in the mine was done in the following manner. You open a ditch like a street; this means you make holes in the coal, put in explosives, light the fuse, and blow it up so that the coal comes out in small pieces. This, of course, was the work of the professionals. Our work was to through the coal into wagons. The wagons would travel on tracks until they reached the elevator and from there it would go up to the ground. After they took out the coal, a space was created that needed to be secured. So they would put in thick pieces of lumber every foot after the coal was removed. That means there was a piece of lumber on every side and it was attached to the ceiling. These pieces of lumber were supposed to support 350 meters of earth and rocks so that we wouldn’t turn into “pitas”. You could see how great the pressure was when on occasion a piece of thick lumber would crumble into little pieces. The lumber was at different heights: sometimes 3 meters or more, sometimes 1-2 meters. In the low places we would have to stand on our knees. The Polish workers had special cushioned knee pads. We didn’t have those so we would work squatting. In the low places, there was a conveyor belt on which we would put the coal. Of course, in the lower areas we swallowed more dust from the coal, even though there were pipes to take out the dust. The Polish workers had one other thing we did not: a glass of milk to clear out the soot from their lungs. I worked with a couple of Polish workers and because I knew Polish I got along with them. I should note that they also did not love the Germans but they had to work. Since I told them I was from Palestine and was a POW from the British army, they treated me with more respect. This was very dangerous work because many times there were cave ins and people were buried alive in the mines.
There was a German Nazi responsible for the mine – a real murderer. He would come see the workers with a pistol in his pocket. The called him Stieger. We were very afraid of him since he already killed two of our friends. After an incident in which of our friends were killed by the German, we wanted to strike and not go to work. In my room there was me and two other friends who refused to go to work but this did not last very long. Suddenly, Germans entered our room with rifles pointed at us and gave us 5 minutes to get out. We, of course, went to work – we had no choice.
Another incident that I remember, was one day after we finished work we were ready to go back home and we were waiting for them to come get us. Suddenly, Stieger came and somehow got into an argument with one of our friends and he wanted to take him back to the mine and kill him where no one would see. He could not do this in full view. We grabbed our friend and held him tight so that Stieger could not take him down. This lasted about a half hour until the soldier came back to get us to return us to the camp.
This is how life continued in the coal mine. Once a week we would get food packages that were sent from the British Red Cross. The packages helped a lot because there were things in it that even the German’s did not have during the war. There was chocolate, canned meat, powdered milk, good cigarettes, cocoa, soap, & more. (The Polish had soap made from human bodies.) The packages were very helpful. For instance, I would give a Pole a box of chocolate and he would give me some eggs or sausages. That is how I was able to have a variety of food because all the Germans gave us was far from being enough. Once I was working on the top over the mine and I befriended the Polish workers. I should note that the Polish workers were those that were in the underground against the Germans.
And so, after a few days, one of the Poles I befriended promised to fix me up with a Polish babe (woman) in exchange for two boxes of chocolate. I was young then and it had been 2 or 3 years since I have had relations. I accepted the offer gladly. And this is how it was. He arranged for the woman and an empty room. She was supposed to wait for me near the empty room. I took 2 boxes of chocolate with me and came to work waiting for an opportunity. The girl was already waiting for me in the room and I was waiting for the chance that I could get away from the Germans watchful eyes and go into the room. I waited and waited but I waited for naught. Exactly at that time came the order to move to another place and I didn’t have the opportunity to complete the plan. I was left with the chocolates and didn’t have another opportunity like this until the end of the war.
In the meanwhile, life continued normally. We would go into town to shop and take pictures there. The relationship between us and the Germans was not bad. Our guards were older men and not young soldiers and of course not from the SS or the SA. Therefore, our conditions were not like the Jews in the concentration camps. In any event, when the war in the east began to favor the Russians, the Germans moved us to a German coal mine (Uberschalzen). Here too, there were coal mines and the Polish worked. So I was able to establish good relationships with them and exchange with them from the items I received in the packages.
After the invasion of the allied forces in Normandy, the allied forces began to advance into France and South into Italy. (I do not remember this period, I think the Russians also advanced in the East.) We stopped working in the coal mines.
One day, we traveled somewhere in Germany in a passenger train to work there but we did not make it very far. Suddenly, two American planes appeared and dropped bombs on the train. We were at a small station and I like everyone else jumped from the train to escape from there. When I got off from the train, I found myself between two trains: one filled with coal. I got under the coal train and lay down between two wheels until I heard the planes go further away. I got out of there and ran away from the train. There was a small village that I wanted to get to except that after a couple of meters I heard the planes returning. Fortunately, there was a ditch there and I jumped into it and sat on the side. It covered my head and body and only my feet were not hidden. My problem was that instead of running in the opposite direction of the train engine, I ran in the direction of the engine. All the bombings were towards the engine because they wanted to immobilize it. Many bullets hit my ditch but fortunately, I was not hit.
(Interestingly enough, during the time I was laying in the ditch and the bullets were flying over my head, I saw in my mind my girlfriend and future wife Sarah and no one else. Why? I have no explanation.)
Finally the planes decided to leave after they managed to hit the engine and steam began to escape from it. A couple of our friends were injured from the bullets. One of them was trying to jump over the station fence was shot and was left hanging on the fence. He apparently looked like me because my friends thought it was me. The told me this when I got back to the camp. Because, everybody made it back to camp on their own.
You might ask why we returned to the camp instead of running away from German captivity? The answer is that there was no place to run except to the Germans who would have handed us over immediately to the SS and from there it is a short trip to Aushwitz.
In addition, we knew that the war was coming to an end. The Germans were pulling back from all the fronts so what was there to lose after a few years of captivity. The fact is that the Germans were already not taking us out to work. We sat in the camp and waited to see what would happen. One day the Germans came and gathered us and informed us that since the Russians were advancing on the fronts and getting closer to us, we had to leave by foot. Everybody got two red cross packages and left. To where? They didn’t tell us.
It was the winter of 1944. We took our backpacks on our back and began to march in a direction known only to the German soldier that accompanied us. We walked 100s of kilometers. As far a I can remember, we walked through Czechoslovakia and back into Germany. It seems to me that they themselves did not know what to do with us. They just moved us around so that we wouldn’t get caught by the Russians because then the Russians would have help to continue the war against the Germans. We shouldn’t forget that the roads we marched on were filled with hundreds of marchers, like Russian prisoners, Polish prisoners, British and other people the Germans captured. These were thousands of prisoners that if released would have looked for revenge against the Germans.
In addition to the prisoners, marched thousands of Jews from concentration camps that the Germans had to empty with the withdrawal. Any marchers who could not continue would be shot in the head by the Germans. This happened very close to us. There were Russian prisoners marching near us and there were a few who not continue. They were weak because their conditions were much worse than ours. They did not receive Red Cross packages and to live only on the food that the Germans provided was very difficult and everyone had to work.
And so for many weeks we marched and marched, about 30 kilometers a day. We would march all day and then in the evening we would reach a village and they would put us in a silo to sleep for the night. They, of course, did not ask the owners if they were willing to host us. In the morning we would get up and wash as well as we could (the water was freezing) and we continued. One time when we got to a village like this, the owner of the place cooked us some lentil soup with sausages. We attacked the hot soup that have not had for weeks. This was actually a German farmer who apparently understood that the end was near.
We continued to walk until we got very close to a long bridge where thousands of prisoners were congregated. Our group was supposed to go under the bridge except that the Germans decided that the British prisoners should go first. This decision saved our lives. When the British reached the bridge, American bombers dropped bombs on the bridge to cut the German connection. Of course when you drop bombs from a high place they fall around the general area. After the bombing, many of the British prisoners were killed. We were saved and stayed there until the next day. The next day we continued to march. We reached a small village at night and found a large silo filled with hay. We lay down on the hay except that the hunger was beginning to bother me. I had no more food left from the packages. I decided to do something to get food. When it got dark outside I went outside. I climbed over a low wooden fence and I got to a place where there was a long house and in it were a number of apartments. There were glass doors and I saw in one a woman and a small boy. I knocked on the door and entered. When the woman saw me she got very frightened. I told her I only came to ask for some bread but she did not stop shacking from fear even though I promised her that I had no intention to do anything bad to her. I did not have the heart watch this woman hugging her little child. I left without anything and returned to the silo hungry. One thing that kept us going is that we heard from the Germans themselves that American soldiers were coming and that it was just going to be a couple of days. And that is what happened. When we heard from afar the tanks approaching, we stopped walking and waited for them to come and free us. On the roof of the silo we wrote in big letters “here were POWs” That way, the planes could also see and not bomb us. We waited 2-3 days until we could see American tanks coming toward us. It is of course impossible to describe the joy of being free after four years of captivity.
Now, without fear, we entered the village looking for food. Everyone went someplace else. When we entered the farms we found a lot of food. They had cellars where they stored food. Everybody stuffed themselves with anything they could find. This only caused more sicknesses. I just took a little bit. I only took a leather bag with a large sausage inside.
Now there was no fear of hunger. The Americans gave us everything. I should note an interesting thing that even though we could get revenge against the Germans for everything they did to us none of us had the heart to do so. We left them without hurting them. What was important to us is that the war was over. We, of course, did not know then what happened in the death camps. We had no information on this and I did not know what they did to my family; but, we were free and wanted to return home as quickly as possible.
And so, I continue with the events. The Americans transferred us to Nuremberg to a former German military camp. After a short while, we boarded US planes and flew, if I remember correctly, to Paris. In Paris we directly boarded English planes and flew directly to England to New Castle. There we stayed in a British army camp but we were free to move around as we wished. The first thing was to regain our strength. There were some who were hospitalized with stomach afflictions as a result of overeating after being freed. I, other than physical weakness, did not get sick.
I would go out to town, to pubs and other places of entertainment. A little after my strength returned, I traveled to London. In London there were a lot of Jews. This is a big city that was half ruined from the German bombs. The called these bombs “V2”. They went straight from Germany to London. This was the German secret weapon. The developed a missile like this that none of the allied forces had. These missiles caused severe damage where they fell. But, London, a city of many millions did not stop its regular life.
In London there was a club of the Zionist movement which I visited. They made parties and all sorts of events. I met a nice girl there whose name is Edith. I would go out with her to all sorts of places. I bought an English/Polish dictionary and with it I could converse with her. She was apparently attracted to me and she invited me to her parents, I think for lunch. Her parents were rather wealthy. I came with her to her parents, she introduced me, and since the table was already set to include me, they obviously knew I was coming. I sat at the table, which had maybe 4 different kinds of silverware. After four years in prison I didn’t know how to handle this, but they helped me. This is for this food, and that is for that food, etc. The table, of course, was filled with all sorts of food. After the meal I talked with her father who knew how to speak Yiddish. After that, I went out for a walk with Edith. She was familiar with a number of dark parks. (I forgot to add that she is an only child.) When we got to a park, she looked for a place without people and she started to jump on me. She is still a virgin, after all you know the English were very conservative. But, she was hungry for love. She wanted to keep her virginity “do everything but the main thing”. So I had to suffice with that and we just made out.
Edith apparently thought I wanted to take her to Israel and said to me one day, “Tsvi, I cannot leave my parents and go with you.” I never thought about that. I just wanted to have a good time after years in prison without girls.
Time came for me to return to the camp at New Castle. I couldn’t stay away from the camp for too long, and so I returned. In the camp I found out that people already started returning to Israel. The British determined in what order we would return to Israel and when. I had a good friend that didn’t go with me even though he was married and had a little girl he hadn’t seen since she was born and he obviously wanted to return to Israel. (The name of the friend was Reuven Massum.) He had a two bedroom apartment in Yad Eliyahu. He asked that I go straight to his wife and ask her to host me until he returns. Not to sleep with her in the apartment but to have me over as a good friend of her husband’s. And so I boarded the boat and started out to Israel. I got to Israel, straight to Tel Aviv. Here there was a committee for the soldiers on Achad Ha’am street (first floor). I went upstairs and just a I walked in I met a woman who was very active and on the committee. She had come to Israel with me and knew me. She told me that my friend Yehuda Barash who joined the army together with me disappeared from the camp. He stayed in the country and learned the diamond business and was working his trade while I was in prison. She told me he is waiting for me.
Finally, I am back in Israel, after four years in prison my feet walk on Israeli soil. Actually, I could finish my autobiography with the events I already told; however, it really would not be complete if I did not tell you a few unusual and interesting events regarding my girlfriend Sarah, which I did not know until I returned to Israel. While sitting in my cousin Nachum’s laundromat in Haifa, I read in the paper the names of the survivors of the death camps. To my surprise, I found three names of three sisters whose last name is Hecht. My girlfriend Sarah and her two sisters were in Sweden. They were rescued from Aushwitz. Of course, I started to look for them until I could write to them regularly. In the meanwhile, I started to look into how I could bring Sarah into Israel. This was not easy because I needed to find a justifiable reason. As a British army veteran, I had the right to bring a wife to Israel. So, I wrote a letter to the British high authority responsible for the land of Israel. In the letter, I explained to him that I had a girlfriend who was in Sweden and she was a displaced person from the concentration camps. I asked to give her a certificate to bring her to Israel. The answer to me was marry her first. And so, how can I do this, she’s in Sweden and I’m in Israel. To travel to Sweden and marry her there was a big expense. However, as they say, there is a God and I found some good advice. I went to a Rabbi and told him my whole story and he told me there was another possibility. You can marry her here with another man who would represent her. In other words, there won’t be a chuppah, that they will do when she gets to Israel. You have to bring another man who will stand before three Rabbis who will witness this unusual wedding. We sent a date, and I brought my friend Yehuda who appeared before three Rabbis. I also brought my Rabbi who arranged the whole thing in exchange for good money, of course.
And so I bought a wedding ring and in the presence of three rabbis I put the ring on my friend Yehuda’s hand and send the sentence “Harai at mikudeshet li ….” Exactly the words, I don’t remember because after all Yehuda is a man and not a woman. But, I said what I said and the was the end of the ceremony. I got a legal marriage certificate and now I was married to a man. Funny, no? But that is how it was. The important thing is that helped me get a marriage certificate. After I got the certificate, I made a copy or photo of it, I don’t remember which, and sent a new request to the British High Authority. After a few weeks, I got an answer from the High Authority that my life will get a visa to Israel at the British Consulate in Sweden (Stockholm). I immediately sent Sarah a letter with the whole story and sent her money so she could prepare for coming to Israel. I imagine she was very happy since after a short time I got a letter from her with the exact date of when she would be coming. In the meanwhile, I did not sleep. I had to prepare an apartment for the two of us and that I got from my Reuven who in the meanwhile returned to Israel.
I already wrote somewhere else that I already had a two room apartment with a kitchen in Yad Eliyahu. I rented a room and a half kitchen from Reuven, which means we shared a kitchen. I bought nice furniture and everything needed for a family to live. Everything was ready for Sarah’s arrival.
Finally the day arrived. It was in 1947, I think in September, and I traveled, with her brother who came from a kibbutz, to Haifa. We waited for the ship that was supposed to bring Sarah from Sweden. I saw a boat and I do not know why they took all the passengers from the ship to the boat, instead of bringing the ship to the dock. Maybe there was no room at the dock. In any event, the boat came to the dock and Sarah came ashore. It is hard to explain the excitement after 8 years of not seeing each other. (I left her in 1939 and she came to Israel in 1947.) We didn’t even know how we would appear to each other. After all, we both went through something: she the concentration camp, I the war and captivity. Fortunately, we were both OK and there were no problems. We took a cab and traveled to Tel Aviv to the home that would be the home for both of us. When we got into the apartment, Sarah opened her eyes. She was very happy with the arrangements and with the furniture. She did not believe that this is what was waiting for her in Israel. Two days later, we set up a chuppah. Of course there were only a few people there and now Sarah was my legal wife. After the chuppah we went to the Montefiore neighborhood in Tel Aviv. There lived Sarah’s uncle. He prepared a beautiful meal for us and after the meal everyone returned from the meal to their home and their business.
Actually, I should end my autobiography here. Except for the amazing thing that I discovered with Sarah and me. As you know, all the concentration prisoners in Germany received a number on their arm. Sarah also had a number like this. And this is what was amazing. The number on her arm was familiar to me. I took out my civil ID card and I was shocked – the same number that was on Sarah’s arm was on my ID card! 26239 was on Sarah’s arm, 262393 was on my ID card. Only the number 3 was added. Even today, I don’t understand this. Sarah is in Aushewitz, thousands of miles away from me, and I am in Israel. How did we get the same number? Does the number “3” hint to something final? I can point out a couple of things connected to the number 3: A) It is nine years that I am alone with my two daughters, all together we are three; B) Each of my daughters has three children, again three; C) My wife z’l, is survived by two sisters and a brother, all together, 3; D) I am left with three brother/sister’s in law, again 3. I am unable to explain this.
And so, I think I will end my autobiography here. I am only sorry that my memory did not serve me well and I had to cut the story of my life, at least into half. And, even that is not a waste.
And so, I wish everybody who reads this enjoyable reading.
Sincerely,
Tsvi Schlussel
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