“Come and see – Jewish soldiers with the Magen David!”
***
And there are encounters with old Jews. Yesterday we had an inspection – a military routine at which our rifles and revolvers were checked. On a balcony stood two old people – an old Jew and his aged wife, who had been dragging themselves from the front to the South. They stood watching the scene and weeping. Without uttering a word they stood up there, their eyes streaming. And many of the boys could not tear their eyes away from the weeping eyes of a Jewish mother.
***
Sir Clifford’s mind seems to be occupied with two worries: first, he is anxious to keep the doors of Palestine closed; second, he is afraid that the stream of refugees might be turned to England and America.
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This article, published in the Jewish Frontier in early 1945, movingly recounts meetings between Jewish refugees in Italy, and Jewish soldiers serving of the Jewish Brigade. The article is actually in the form of three essays, by soldiers “Eliyahu”, “Moshe”, and “J.B-R.”. Their full names are not given, perhaps because the war was then ongoing.
Presumably, they were members of the “Jewish Brigade” (also known as the “Jewish Brigade Group”, and “Jewish Infantry Brigade Group”) which was itself comprised of three infantry battalions (1st, 2nd, and 3rd, and, the 200th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery) of the Palestine Regiment, which itself was created in 1942.
In view of the time-frame of the article’s publication it was presumably written some time after October and December of 1944, while the Brigade was engaged in the Italian Campaign as part of the British Eighth Army.
____________________
Great Sorrow and Small Solace
Letters from Palestine Soldiers on the Italian Front
Jewish Frontier
January, 1945
WE HEARD that in the town of Terni on the road to Ancona there were about one hundred Jews. H. and myself set out for Terni, arriving there towards evening. We thought that a hundred Jews in a small town would be easy to locate.
For a long time we walked around town without finding a single Jew.
Finally, in desperation, we began approaching every person whose physiognomy suggested a Jewish origin, addressing him with Shalom, but no one replied to our salutation. We had with us the address of a Jew by the name of Gil and began looking for him. The place turned out to be the building of the Fascist youth which was now converted into a Refugee Center. It is a large house containing many refugees of different kinds, such as Italians from bombed out cities, Yugoslavs and others. One corner was set aside for Jews.
After wandering from office to office we were taken charge of by an Italian woman official, who went with us to look for the only Jew whose name we knew. We did not find him. While walking I told the lady that it was very important for me to find some Jewish refugees. She took me into a small room, where we saw an old woman with a face that told stories of horror and sufferings. At the sight of a soldier, the woman made a peculiar motion as if to ward off a blow. I was actually frightened by that motion. When it transpired that she was the wife of the man we were looking for, I addressed her in Yiddish an in German, telling her I was a Jewish soldier from Palestine. She then began crying, laughing screaming, all at once and she called her children and neighbors together shouting in Yiddish:
“Praise and glory be to Thee, Ruler of the Universe, that we have lived to this day!”
The small children clung to us and looked straight into our eyes with petrified expressions on their faces; their eyes seemed to me like one large tear. I felt my whole “gallantry” break down before these glances. A mother of four children spoke with tears in her eyes:
“Dear boys, you have come to help us – do something for our children…”
Pointing to the children I said: “We may be able to help them right away in a practical way, by training them for Palestine, by hakhshara.” I thought I would have to explain the meaning of the word hakhshara. But that very instant I was surrounded by children who covered me with kisses and tears. From that moment there never ceased the clinging and the mute look into my eyes, telling me more than words could of the Jewish child’s yearning for redemption.
In the house we learned the first details about that group of Jews. There are about one hundred Jews in the town. Some of them have been to all the concentration camps, in Calvaria and Campagna, until they reached this section of Italy. And here it is that the miracle of liberation took place. Others have never been in concentration camps; for nine years they hid in the snow-covered mountains, and only recently, when the region was freed, did they come out of hiding.
The children took us to the hotel where refugees are fed by AMG and which therefore serves as a center for all the Jews. There we lived through moving scenes:
One man rushed into the hotel crying:
“Come and see – Jewish soldiers with the Magen David!”
At first those inside refused to believe the news and thought it was a joke. But in a minute we were surrounded by many Jews – Yiddish-speaking, French-speaking, Serb-speaking, German-speaking, Italian-speaking Jews, who did not always find a common speech but who now found the common language of hearts beating in unison. They pounced on us madly, embracing us or merely touching our insignia with trembling hands and then kissing their fingers, as one salutes a mezuza or a Scroll of the Law. The children, who were rather timid at the beginning, daring only to pat our uniforms, now came closer – and again I saw the great tears in their eyes. No one spoke. There was only the affectionate touching and the hugging. The grown-ups wept aloud on seeing the excitement of the children. And everybody repeated: “Well for us that we have lived to see this day!”
We entered the spacious dining room and on all sides came requests: “Sit by our side!” We sat down near a small group of youngsters and children, but the old woman who argued that she had been the first to welcome us claimed a privilege and took a seat opposite us…
Later in the evening we decided to have a talk. An Italian Jew opened the discussion with a few moving words about this great and unexpected holiday, the first recompense for the suffering they had endured. And in order to emphasize the bond between the soldiers, the emissaries of the Land of Israel, and the ruined Diaspora, he asked that we address a few words to them in Hebrew.
I began with a few words in Hebrew, telling them about the aspirations of the Jewish soldier and his dreams of the great day of meeting his rescued brethren, which is the deepest aim of our war. H. translated my words into German which the chairman rendered into Italian. The atmosphere was charged with a strange tension when the Hebrew words were heard. Those who did not understand them behaved as they would at a solemn religious rite while the considerable number who did follow my words reiterated every one as it was pronounced. There was constant drying of tears. Bliss radiated from the children’s eyes.
We went on to the second part of the discussion, which was the most important one. At the request of most of those present I spoke in Yiddish. I explained the object of our visit. I warned them against illusions, telling them that our possibilities were limited but that we could help them in certain respects. The crowd became emotional again. I told them of the opportunities of hakhshara, about the possibility of putting them in contact with certain institutions, such as the Palestine Bureau and the Joint Distribution Committee.
Questions were asked about the chances of entering the United States. I told them the sad story of the famous Roosevelt “guests” at Oswego, merely confining myself to facts and refraining from comments. No more questions were then asked about America.
The next day, from nine o’clock in the morning until six in the afternoon, we engaged in private talks with every one who sought one with us. I cannot recall such a hard day’s work in my life. The tension rose from minute to minute. Every one had his own tale of woe. In every conversation, without a single exception, there came a sudden pause, a moment when the speaker lost his power of speech.
A man of sixty-four years of age came in. It is worth noting that we were usually surprised on being told of the ages of our interlocutors. We always imagined they must be younger, because they usually looked about fifteen years less than their true age. This may be explained by the fact that they are the sturdiest who managed to survive such harrowing experiences. The sixty-four year old man looked like a forty-five year old. He had been a rich man in Rumania. His wife was “taken away” by the Germans. Of all he had there was only one daughter left who was in Palestine and his only hope in life was to establish contact with her. Yes, there was something else he had left. He took out of his pocket a bundle of documents bearing witness to twenty years of Zionist activity in many fields. Suddenly came the pause. The three of us remained petrified without looking at one another’s face. As he left the room the Jew said: “Don’t be surprised, boys! After four years I have just opened my heart for the first time. How can one help being moved?”
A fifty-year-old Jew came in looking at the most forty years of age. He spoke with a great deal of humor, in a juicy, idiomatic Yiddish. He had been a rich man in Belgium. His wife was “taken away.” His two sons were with him. Immediately he announced: “I want you to know that I do not want for anything. But I will not forego the right of spending a few minutes with you. That is coming to me!” he was a bit of an Orthodox Jew and he interspersed his narrative with pointed remarks at the expense of the Ribbono shel Olam (Ruler of the Universe): One day he saved himself from the Germans by hiding in a pigsty. He then resolved not to allow the Ribbono shel Olam to be accustomed to have his Jews live in a pigsty and he moved into a room…
We had brought along some foodstuffs, presents from our soldiers. We tried to find a suitable form for distributing those gifts. Here too we were witnesses to moving scenes. One man kissed the package of cigarettes he received: “No, I shall not smoke them. They are sacred – they bear a Hebrew inscription…” The same occurred when a Jewish girl got a cake of soap with a Hebrew inscription. Another girl, a member of a Zionist youth movement in Germany, actually danced on getting a package marked in Hebrew Shai la-Hayal (soldier’s gift package) – sent from Palestine.
An old man from France presented me with a precious gift, a French yellow badge with the inscription Juif in the Magen David. He parted with the badge with the remark: “That is for the Archives in Jerusalem.’ “But in Berlin,” I assured him, “I shall carry it on my chest.”
We selected four children as candidates for the hakhshara (training farm) – two boys aged 13 and 14, and two girls aged 17 and 18. They had been hiding in monasteries and private homes where they were indeed saved from the executioners but where they were subjected to pressure to adopt Christianity. As we strolled with the children through the town we met a local woman who had saved one of those families during the most critical days, but insisted that they adopt Christianity. The children introduced her to me. She was touched to see how attached the children had become to me. But suddenly one of the girls jumped up: “Oh, it is so wonderful that we have remained Jews – or we wouldn’t be fit to go to Palestine.” For a moment the atmosphere was strained…
Soon all relief the refugees receive from AMG will be discontinued. They were offered space in an Italian hostel for the poor under impossible conditions. Most of them will be left without any livelihood whatever. Only three of them work for the government. Until now they existed on the proceeds of the sale of their belongings, but by now they have left only what they wear on their persons. The refugees from Trieste and Fiume hope for the liberation of their cities. Some would be ready to go to Palestine immediately, others hope to be granted that opportunity after they will have found their relatives.
When I took leave of them for the second time at seven o’clock in the morning – many of them came to the hotel in the morning – they loaded us with so much hope and affection for the Jewish soldiers that they will be justified only if we strain ourselves to the very utmost to help them.
ELIYAHU.
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ONE MEETS Jews here, many Jews. Yesterday there was quite a gathering. When we arrived in this district we discovered a group of Jews who had already met some of our men a week or two after they were saved from the Germans.
Yesterday we had a visit from the children who are going out for hakhshara. Unlimited confidence was necessary to induce a Jewish mother, after all the experiences of the past years, to take her to a training farm. It is not as simple as it sounds. The children went along with us. They are incapable of eating. After the first meal they all took sick. They are not used to eat their fill. In the evening we had a discussion. At first we spoke and then the girls. What the lips failed to tell the eyes told in the unmistakable language of affection and trust.
It was an atmosphere which purified and uplifted us too. There was present a Jewish-British captain, a shrewd and smart-alecky “Galician”, who, as he told us, was a Communist. He was deeply moved by that evening. It would take long, he told us, until he would “recover “ from the “blow” he received that evening. There were many things he saw in a new light.
And there are encounters with old Jews. Yesterday we had an inspection – a military routine at which our rifles and revolvers were checked. On a balcony stood two old people – an old Jew and his aged wife, who had been dragging themselves from the front to the South. They stood watching the scene and weeping. Without uttering a word they stood up there, their eyes streaming. And many of the boys could not tear their eyes away from the weeping eyes of a Jewish mother.
MOSHE.
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BY NOW you must have heard the first reports of the activities of the representative of the Intergovernmental Committee for Refugees in Italy, Sir Clifford Heathcote-Smith. In Lakhayil, the publication of the Jewish transport units in the British army in Italy, a few interesting details about this matter were published.
Sir Clifford called a meeting of all the Jewish refugees in Rome. About seventy or eighty men and women were present. The official agent of the Intergovernmental Committee for Refugees reported as follows: (1) There are immigration certificates available for ten heads of families, which will be issued to those who have parents or children or a husband or wife or brothers or sisters in Palestine. (2) The Italian government acceded to the request of the Intergovernmental Committee to grant citizenship to refugees who have been in the country for five years and whose conduct has been in accordance with the law.
Sir Clifford sought to explain to his listeners that Jews have no prospect of entering Palestine. Palestine, he repeated many times, is a small country, a very small country, which can by no means take in the Jewish refugees. He illustrated his point by taking out his handkerchief and spreading it before his audience. “Do you see this handkerchief?” he argued, “Can you make it larger? Can you make a quilt out of it? No more can you make Palestine capable of absorbing you.”
Sir Clifford also discussed at length the subject of citizenship. All the countries in the world, Sir Clifford said, will be closed after the war. After the war many Jewish refugees are sure to return to their countries of origin, and the Allies will compel the conquered nations to permit the Jews to return to their countries. But, to be sure, there will be Jews who will refuse to return to their countries of origin on account of their dark memories of the past. These refugees must begin to think about their future now. The world will surely be closed. The healthiest thing would be to accept the magnanimous offer of the Italian government.
After his address the emissary of the Refugee Committee had an opportunity to hear the opinion of the Jewish refugees. They were very grateful for the noble attitude of the Italian government; very grateful to Sir Clifford Heathcote-Smith; but they did not want any citizenship rights: as far as they were concerned there was only one country, one Homeland – and this was the only citizenship they demanded.
Among those present there was only one person who availed himself of the right to ask for further information on the matter: would he be deprived of the right to receive relief as a refugee if he agreed to become an Italian citizen? Sir Clifford put him at ease: he would continue to receive relief after becoming an Italian citizen. The gathering was still under the impression of another metaphor Sir Clifford had used in his address: changing shirts. He knew Jews, said the agent of the Intergovernmental Committee for Refugees, who had had one passport, a second passport, and a third passport, and who changed citizenship as one changes shirts. The refugees brought up that sentence several times in their discussion with Sir Clifford, not in anger or in bitterness but with sorrow and with a firm resolve: that has been the case in the past but now there is enough of that. They would no longer change countries and citizenship like shirts. There was going to be an end to all that! What they wanted was Palestine and Jewish citizenship!
Sir Clifford spoke again. Palestine is a vain illusion. Jews must be realists. Jews are not so badly off in the Diaspora. Witness the position of the five million Jews in the United States (the listeners must have thought: Why aren’t we being offered United States citizenship?) Jews must remain in the lands if the dispersion. “I regret that you refuse to consider reality. A sacred fire in one’s heart is a beautiful thing, but life is a realistic business.”
A single woman who took the speaker’s word as to the smallness of Palestine, begged that the Jews be given any little bit of a country (una pezzaa di terra), no matter how small, describing with her hands how small that country would be – so long as it would be ours. “If there is no more room in Palestine, let it be in England, let it be in Germany (protests from the audience, expressions of disgust): “We don ‘t want to see their horrid faces any more!”). Let it be anywhere, aren’t we human beings just like others?” Sir Clifford expressed his sorrow and offered some consolation: “Look at the position of other nationalities. Look at the Letts, the Lithuanians, the Estonians. They have countries… Soon they may not have them…” He ended with a call for “loyalty”. The audience replied with the signing of Hatikva, which was sung with anguish, with defiance.
One of the refugees presented to Sir Clifford the written petition of the refugees who demand only immigration to Palestine and Palestine citizenship. There were present in the hall some Jewish soldiers from Palestine, the United States, and South Africa.
Sir Clifford’s mind seems to be occupied with two worries: first, he is anxious to keep the doors of Palestine closed; second, he is afraid that the stream of refugees might be turned to England and America. As a British gentleman, he feels sorry for President Roosevelt who “tried so hard” until he was able to admit those famous “thousand guests” into America. “He could not admit any more by any means.” And what could densely populated England or her Dominions, so heavily laden with populations, do? It is unrealistic and misleading to expect the British Empire, especially after the war, to be able to admit Jews. But what is to be done with the Jewish refugees? The “emissary” has been losing sleep and has been spending his days looking for a way out and a radical solution. Deeply concerned as he is, he could not be content with the reply given him by the refugees in Rome, and he went on a tour to the small towns. He met refugees everywhere who had just been liberated from the Nazi yoke and he opened up to them his heart, which is “open” to the needs of the Jewish people.
The “emissary” puts a great deal of intellectual effort into the attempt to solve this grave problem – the problem of the refugees’ future after the war. Since Palestine is only the size of a handkerchief, while England and America are closed, every refugee must try to get himself settled in a country where he is at present. The Italians have magnanimously consented to grant the rights of citizenship to every refugee who desires it. The same will probably be done by other countries, such as Yugoslavia and Rumania. “They, too, will comply with the request of the Intergovernmental Committee for Refugees.” Thus, automatically and simultaneously in all countries, a final solution will be found for the refugee problem. But Sir Clifford is not satisfied with this alone. He has, besides, a new scheme for settling Jews in Libya.
Lately he visited the village of A_____i where about fifty refugees are to be found. After a rather long address if “enlightenment,” he put the following three alternatives to a vote: (1) adopt Italian citizenship; (2) migrate into Palestine; (3) a new territory in Libya. Not one vote was cast for Italian citizenship. The vote went partly for Palestine and partly for the new “secure” territory in Libya (Sir Clifford having convinced his hearers that there was absolutely no more room left in Palestine).
But Sir Clifford was indefatigable. He went on a tour to other refugee centers in Italy, with a verve and determination worthy of more constructive purpose in behalf of refugees. In one of the localities the refugees expressed their desire to be transferred to Bari and thence to Santa Maria so that they might find it easier to go to Palestine. Sir Clifford, who is usually soft-spoken, this time raised his voice in excitement: “You are talking too much. Hitler also liked to talk a great deal and tell lies – and he brought a calamity upon the world. I hate to hear words which do not contain a particle of truth. Palestine cannot absorb any Jews – and that is all there is to it! You must draw the necessary ‘conclusions.’” This time he did not put the alternatives to a vote; he still remembered his failures in other places. But he was more candid; he warned the Jews that they were not being tolerated anywhere and that the Arabs would not tolerate them either. He added an interesting political observation: “Palestine was never promised to the Jews. It belongs to the Arabs. Get it out of your heads!”
Before the general meeting, Sir Clifford spoke to each refugee separately and wrote down his request. Finally he declared: “Every one has his own pet desires – whoever heard of so many nonsensical demands?” But Sir Clifford is not always rude; at times a lyrical note steals into his speech. He shared with his hearers his wide experience which he acquired in his encounters with many Jews and he ended on a melancholy note: “In all my discussions with the Jews I came across only one sensible person. It was an old woman who told me ‘Send me wherever you like, but send me where I can find some peace.’” He added: “This is an instance of that wisdom which most of you lack.” And again the old colonial official muttered angrily: “The refugees are dullards who have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.”
This man who is waging such a vigorous anti-Zionist campaign is an important official of the Intergovernmental Committee for Refugees, a body which so far failed to rescue Jewish refugees but seems to be able to introduce a positive solution of the refugee problem. We know that this man is a faithful servant of the White Paper. But his recent activities transcend even the provisions of that document. Who gave him the right to humiliate refugees who are isolated from the rest of the world and who had hoped to find in him an emissary of the United Nations, a man concerned with their welfare?
But the worst feature is that man’s handling of the question of actual immigration into Palestine. Wherever he comes he brings with him “the last remaining certificates,” which he distributes in a very simple manner: he brings ten certificates to every place. Rome with its eleven thousand Jews, A_____i with its fifty Jews – all get ten certificates each. And the distribution of the certificates is done without consulting the Palestine Bureau or the Immigration Department of the Agency or any such institution, but according to his own discretion.
Jewish soldiers who have been in the army for several years find compensation for all the hardships they have undergone in helping the refugees, in spending some of their time with the Jewish youth, to alleviate their distress and to give them comfort. But now come alien officials to destroy what they have done. We will by no means put up with this diabolical game. We will not suspend our activities among the refugees – the work of rescue, of training pioneers, and of bringing them cheer and hope. We shall continue to provide opportunities of hakhshara for the youth and opportunities for learning productive work for the adults. Under the restricted conditions of our military life we shall nevertheless go on planting seeds of faith in the realization of Zionism and in the possibility of the true solution of the refugee problem – immigration to Palestine.
J.B-R.
– Transcribed 2010
References
Jewish Brigade, at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Brigade
Palestine Regiment, at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_Regiment
