Re: [Cz-L] Yom HaShoah - Holocaust Day

[This thread is straying considerably off-topic - will soon be closed. Moderator B]

Dear Anny;

As another Czernowitzer who survived but lost family in the Holocaust I do feel strongly with you your pain. But why introduce considerable historical inaccuracies that smell of political bias into this our holy remembrance day for our lost ones?

Holocaust day was declared in 1951, yes by the Ben-Gurion Government that you wish to blame in some way for trying to diminish the memory of the holocaust. It was BenGurion who decided that we fight the British as if there was now war in Europe and we fight the Gernans as if there was no White Paper here.

It was he and his Yishuv Israelis who decided that part of the effort will be to send many thousands volunteer men and women into the British forces fighting in Europe (including the forty odd parachuters), to do what can be done to rescue Jews from the Jaws of the Nazis (as well as get military training that will be used against the British as soon as the war is over), and who then organised the great Bricha and Haapala during and immediately after the war, while the other part of the effort will be to get military training for volunteer young men and women clandestinely in Kibutzim and Kvutsot, to create the Palmach comando force that led the war of independence.

And let's not forget that the Lehi, led by Abraham Stern misguidedly tried to reach a pact of cooperation with Nazi Germany against Britain right at the time when they massacred their brethren in Europe.

And as to the Third White paper - it was issued in 1939, after quite a number of the Jews who had wanted to leave Europe (about 360,000) were able to leave for Palestine despite the restrictions of the first two White papers. Yes, there were restrictions but these could be overcome by those of our families who wanted to leave Europe. It was thanks to all these steps and actions taken by the Sochnut and the Yishuv that made is possible to a. have a state of refuge for the holocaust survivors, against the efforts of 5 Arab states who sent their Armies to Israel in 48 to complete what Hitler had started in 33, b. be able to decide on a day of memorial of the Holocaust once they were turned back ignominiously, and c. be able to accept hunderds of thousands of the survivors who chose to come here within a period of a year or two. So let us not rewrite history the way Soviet Russia did in the past.

And as to the sinking of Haapala ships - regrettably, it was an act of the Hagana, trying to prevent the transfer of Maapilim on the Patria to Mauritius, that caused its sinking because of a miscalculation of the amount of explosives needed to prevent its leaving the harbour, as well as an act of Russian submarines that sank the Mafkura and Struma with many many of our landsmen from Romania, including many Czernowitzers. Four ships (Gipo, Rim, Pancho and Rafiah) sank at sea. The Brits mainly captured the ships in order to bring the Maapilim to Mauritius, later to Atlit and finally to Cyprus and the last time - to Europe (the Exodus). Yes, in these cases there were casualties amongs the Maapilim who fought against their capturers.

P.S. Incidentally, I can send (as attachment) to those of you who read Hebrew and are interested, a PPT presentation (56 slides) about the Haapala that I prepared a year ago.

Mordecai

----- Original Message -----
From: annymatar_at_gmail.com
Date: Tuesday, April 9, 2013 0:17
Subject: [Cz-L] Yom HaShoah - Holocaust Day
To: czernowitz-L <Czernowitz-L_at_cornell.edu>

> Here in Israel Holocaust day is being commemorated by the whole
> country with the whole nation partaking. It hasn't been so until
> Menachem Begin became Prime Minister. Before and after our
> Independence, Ben Gurion decided that our past be left in the
> Diaspora, who really wants to know?
> The "Yishuv"=Israelis didn't want the suffering be heard - we
> are a free people here and the "wandering Jew" had had a home to
> come to but could not leave the "fleshpots" behind, now this
> "Packel Zures"(bondage) is to be left behind (that's why Moses
> dragged the oldies through the desert so they could die out and
> a new generation be born). Well, it did work.
> UTTER SILENCE!!! no one spoke and no one wanted to hear. For
> reasons best known to them the Sochnut ( kind of
> Government in exile having no country to govern yet, headed by
> Ben Gurion and the Russian immigrants 1900s) felt guilty
> because, as they were representing the Jews in Palestine their
> protests and appeals had not been heard little was done to save
> however few. Of course, there was illegal immigration but most
> ships were intercepted and sunk by the British who, in 1920, due
> to Arab pressure, issued the "White Paper" limiting to a minimum
> Jews settling here.
>
> A defence force "Haganah" was created, no arms - not really an
> official military force - and officially accepting British
> rule while quietly acquiring weapons and home producing them.
> Then there were the militants "Irgun Zwai Leumi (Ezel)" led
> by Benachem Begin and "Irgun Lochamei Israel (Lechi)" led
> by Yair Stern who were unwilling to bow to the Birtish demands
> and those of the Mufti of Jerusalem, sitting next to Hitler.
> They became, In the eyes of the Yishuv, the troublemakers
> "Zealots". The rest is history.
>
> Now I come to my personal history. There are millions of untold
> stories by survivors. Now that stories ARE to be told so that
> the second, third and hopefully never ending generations can try
> to visualise and comprehend the incomprehsenible High School
> Children are taken to Auschwitz / Bergebelsen (which I call "the
> cherry on the cream") because millions got killed in
> Transnistria, being buried alive in the streets of Warsaw,
> entire villages in Eastern Europe whose names I discover by
> chance when and if, one of our "travellers", Christian, Edgar
> and others, share their experiences with us. Who will ever know
> how many nameless are buried where? Shot by a passer by who was
> drunk? by a German whose revolver had too many bullets? "OUR
> unknown soldiers" no graves no names "gone and forgotten", but
> at least something is being done to keep the Holocaust alive, to
> honour the dead.
>
> So, I am looking for my stepbrother's last years. He was an Icon
> for me and all I know is that he died in Auschwitz APRIL!!
> 1945!!! another week and he would be alive??!! I don't cry any
> longer, there is too much suffering and we live on a "time bomb"
> all the time.
>
> Yesterday they showed the French deportation from Darcy and I
> was looking and searching in vain for ONE face only milling
> about the camp. Tears in my eyes. 68 years!!! I just can't
> forget. I light a memorial candle think and in my dreams -which
> I sometimes have- he stretches his hand out to me and asks me, I
> never know what for.
>
> Anny Matar
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Received on 2013-04-09 07:30:07