Raquela a woman of Israel by Ruth Gruber 1978 326pg

 A biography of  nurse who lived through Israel's History 24/12/19

1929 Bet Hakerem was attacked in the Arab uprising  from Deir Yassin.  Moses Montefiore from England  and Judah Touro from the USA both contributed to building outside the Old City of Jerusalem

 By 1936 70 000 Jews had come from Germany. Sephardic Jews name children after both living and dead. 50 000 Palestinian Jewish men and women joined the British army.

Erich Mendelson designed Hadassah hospital, Mount Scopus. Henrietta Szold had Hans Beyth directing youth Aliyah which was set up in 1933. Children came from Europe as well as Arab lands where there were Nazi sympathizers.

1860 Szold born in Baltimore, she later became the first lady of Palestine. She worked with Louis Ginzburg till he met a young wife and so she came to Palestine in 1909 and in 1927 became a member of the Zionist executive council. Recha Freier in Berlin started Youth Aliyah.

The Jewish Brigade was in the British Eight Army fighting under General Mark Clark in Italy. Ted Lurie was the Palestine Post correspondent.. Whitehall feared that the demobilized Jewish soldiers would use their skill to help Jews to reach Palestine.

1878 Petach Tikva started by Jerusalem Jews  for farming. James Tegart planned the forts for the British. From Kibbutz Yagur was used to free the Atlit refugees

1945 July Labour Party came to power in Britain, They kept the White Paper.

         Sept Bevin announced the Anglo American Committee. 1947 Feb 15th Bevin announced that Palestine was being turned over to the UN. After American colonies and Ireland, Palestine was Britain's biggest failure.

Haim Yassky director of Hadassah Medical organization killed in the attack on the bus. The Black and Tan policemen who had once suppressed the Irish were sent to Palestine. After the war a pogrom occurred in Kielce Poland.

The King David Hotel - Sir John Shaw refused to accept the telephone warning to evacuate because of a bomb.

Raquel Prywes trained to be a nurse during the WW2 period,. Raquela  worked as a midwife in Atlit and later in Cypress

YMCA building was build by Americans and UNSCOP met there in April1947. Ein Hashofet named for Louis Brandeis.

There were 2 ships that carried a total of 15 000 refugees and Ben Gurion agreed that they would go to Cypress so that the British did not have to use violence to transfer them. Because of a danger of typhus in the camps, Golda went to Cypress and managed to convince the British to let mothers with babies under a year to get out she met Sir Godfrey Collins who was in charge. 25000 babies had been born on Cypress.

1948 Feb Palestine Post building blown up by Arabs.

When Israel declared independence women and children were allowed to move to Israel but Bevin would not let men of fighting age leave there for another 7 months till Britain finally recognized Israel.in Dec 1948.

When the Jews started winning and going on the offensive the security council called for a 4 week ceasefire. But they also kept control of the amount of food coming into Jerusalem.

1949 July last peace agreement with Syrian sighed under Dr Ralph Bunch 20 month after the war began and 6 thousand Israelis dead.

Carp was an important part of the diet in the early days. Development towns didn't succeed as there was no work there.

In the 1956 Egyptians were captured with Arabic copies of Hitler's Mein Kampf.

1961 June Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem opened. 1958 Eisenhower had to send troops to save Lebanon from Nasser trouble making. Britain had permission to fly in troops over Israel to save Jordan from Nasser's subversive acts.

Golda had a daughter on kibbutz Rivivim who miscarried and almost died.

Raquela's son in law was Gideon Weiler who died in action his father was Progressive Rabbi Moses Cyrus Weiler of SA.

Yosef Tekoah was Israel's rep at UN and became President of Ben Gurion University in the Negev.

Comment from Jules Miller

Erich Mendelson the architect who designed the Hadassah hospital also designed the Shoken Department stores for the Shoken family in Germany who are the founders & owners of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel .  these buildings were highly acclaimed architecture before WW2 .    

The YMCA building in Jerusalem was designed by  Auther Looms Harmon the same architect the designed the Empire State Building in New York .

Rabbi Weiler actually lost both his sons on the same day at the start of the Yom Kippur war , one on the Golan Heights & one in Sinai.

 An Additional interesting bit of information is that when the Irgun blew up the Acre prison in 1947 allowing over 350 prisoners to escape , they had previously acquired plans of the prison from the British Architect who was a close friend of one of the leaders of the Irgun .

The seed is Mine by Charles van Onselen 520pg 1996 South Africa

This is one of the most fascinating South African History Books  10/10/13

 

 The book starts at about the time of the Mfacane describing the movement of the African families who originated in the Calodon River area and moved into the Southern Transvaal in the area between the London diamond field, Klerksdorp, Walmeranstad and as far as Lichtenberg which we call the Triangle..

Except for the crowded reserves all land was allocated to whites and blacks lived as squatters and made contracts with farmers to be sharecroppers or paid for  the use of the farmers veld to pasture there  cattle and sheep.

1826 After Shaka destruction of the tribes around Zululand and they formation of the Zulu people The mfacane (the scattering) Mzilakatze broke away from the Zulu tribe and drove through the Transvaal destroying the Sotho and Twana tribe leaving the area vacant.

1836  The Great Trek, Dutch speaking farmers only knew extensive farming, their population had enlarged so greatly that they trekked from the Cape to find new farming area.  Initially the white farmers had made a living from hunting the wildlife in the area and keeping cattle. They had no experience in agriculture.  Even Paul Kruger the President of the Zuid Afrikaans Republic realized that land had to be preserved for wildlife and he preserved  what later became the Kruger Park.

Kas kept every receipt, note, account or document that was ever given to him and on this the book was written each receipt is the story of a cow ,ox ,wagon, plough that was bought.  There are descriptions of surviving the droughts, followed by rainy seasons and floods that brought locusts. He had records of how many bags of produce he had sold each year. 

1892 Rindapest wiped out a high percentage of cattle, buffalo, giraffe etc. blacks blamed white and whites blamed blacks for it , vaccine against it came later.  Cattle from Northern Rhodesia were not affected and there, Jewish traders set up in Northern Rhodesia to buy up cattle and drive them south.

 Southern blacks all had an oral history that was handed down and for example we know that certain tribes moved southwards and crossed the Zambezi the year of the big stars which was Haileys Comet.  This virus wiped out a large % of ungulates and when you consider that all goods were transported by oxen you can imagine how badly it hit the economy

The Rindepest is discussed and the fact that some black farmers had cattle that survived.   The authorities did not know how to deal with this which was a respiratory virus and dipping the cattle made it even worse.  This memory is also one of the many reasons why the ANC government wanted an African solution to AIDS.   

1900 How that area was affected by the Boer war where whites left their farms and black were conscripted to be transport riders, cooks etc.

In this period Kas had an Afrikaans partner Swanapoel and they were transport riders taking bags of grain to the minefields on ox-wagon, this was a good partnership and Swanapoel helped him in many ways and it was a solid friendshop.  This type of transporting before the days of the trains is documented in Jock of the Bushveld by Fitzpatrick. In summer the wagon would sink into the muddy roads and in winter there was not grass on the side of the road to feed the oxen.

Then WW1 which put up the price of wool so many farmers moved into sheep. He also discusses the fact that there were rebels in this area  who were against SA supporting the British. Botha and Smuts  drove the Germans out of South West Africa which became a SA mandate.  Interestingly that Afrikaans became the most important language in what is today Namibia 

 1919 The  flu epidemic which affected Europe and American troops returning from the war is well known, a lot of people in the Triangle died.  Today we know it got to SA by migrating  birds.

 

1922 He mentions the  miner strikes and the shootings, mostly in Fordsburg but my grandmother talked about it affecting Dornfontein, Johannesburg.  Smuts put it down. White miners didn't want blacks to be employed in the mines.

1930s After the war there was booms and recessions in the price of agricultural goods. But the worst period was the drought and depression and starvation. You had poor whites who turned to blacks for help.  Kas spoke Afrikaans and could read basic Afrikaans.  Some whites spoke Sotho.

From the 30s the Native Laws started making life difficult for blacks. He mentions that the Stern family owned land in Scheitser Reynicka and their daughter was Irma Stern.Famous artist) The influence of the Communist Party and Labour Party and members to Parliament that represented natives is discussed.

Whites had access to credit later at the Land Bank but blacks had to look to English, Indian or Jewish traders for credit and carry them till the harvest.

  Interesting that while you had the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma etc.  the same time of dust storms affected the Transvaal, and people had to take shelter in the huts during a dust storm.

One year he bought a plow on credit from an English shopkeeper and as a result of the drought there was no money to pay at  the end of the season. When he was subpoenaed he brought his 6 plow donkeys to the store.  All the debtors were at the store at the same time and the owner said he is the only man of honour.  He told Kas to keep his donkeys but the store went bankrupt and closed. 2 years later. After a good harvest Kas  found out which farm the man  had moved to and went to pay money owing. The ex-merchant was amazed and gave him back 30 shillings.  Had Kas paid at the time the money would have gone to the Englishman's creditors. 

 

1939 Tractors started arriving in the late 30s but with the beginning of the WW2 new ones or spare parts were not available and petrol  was  rationed. The government encouraged farmers to used draught animals. So farmers found both livestock and crops received better prices, this was the case for a good few years. At this stage he learned the tecnique of double plowing to reduce the weeds.  Sunflower seed and beans were also in great demand.

Post war tractors started taking the role of the tenant farmer and the Afrikaner nationalism started affecting the relationship between whites and blacks.  One thing that surprises me is that Kas knew the value of reading and writing and yet did not encourage  his children and give them a  chance to go to school. It was mostly the wives who saved up money by breeding pigs and chickens and collecting dry cow pats for sale as fuel to pay for clothes and for the children's school.

1947 the Afrikaners with government help started setting up stores to replace the others traders, these were not successful but they were encouraged to boycott the Indian traders. Poor whites would trade with these shops through the back door. Blacks were hardly aware of this and it was dropped soon afterwards.

  The Afrikaner policy was "Die Kaffier in sy plek, die Koelie uit die land"(The black in his place the Indian off the land).  At this time blacks started feeling the effect of Nationalist bigotry, when his kid was ill he asked the landlord to take him to the doctor, the landlord refused to help and said he could only use his cart for work purposes and would not lend it to him. He had to turn to the neighbor for help his kid almost died. An Afrikaans women who he had in the past given rides on a cart to town and would chat  to him on the way, would now sit behind him.

It now reached a stage that through government policy black were no longer wanted as share cropper but as wage labourers on the farms. This was after a particularly good season where Kas earned well. So rich blacks were not liked and if they were just lazy they also were not wanted.

At one time he had an arrangement with the manager of a wealthy black who owned land.  In the middle of the season the black owner plowed in his seedlings and replanted. It showed that Whites at least had a greater respect for the rules than rich blacks. It was always accepted that the status of the land would change only after the season and crop had come in.

-----------------------------------------

 1950s when the Nationalist government was busy with its ideology of Apartheid and Dr. Verwoerd was Minister of Native Affairs. Slowly he wanted to remove "squatters" from white farms and turn them into labourers.

Blacks had to get Passbooks showing where they were living, this also started regulating the number of blacks entering the industrial cities as unemployed blacks were not allowed to reside in cities. Even at this stage when he took bags of corn to the Government Co-op they paid him without saying a word and asked him for his address as he was paid the "voorskot" and the posted him a cheque for the "agterskot" which he never received when he never marketed directly.

When Kas said he was born before the Rindapest the government official said that meant that he no longer had to pay poll tax and was entitled to a small state pension. However if he had a team of oxen he was not entitled to the pension.  

Aaron Cohan ran a trading store and black were scared to allow their daughters to work for him as he had black mistresses.  Hersh was a land speculator and owned a large property Rietvlei  in the area and asked Cohan to keep an eye on it.

Cohen got hold of a black manager who brought in 5 or so extended black families and later the  widow Ma Hersh would be phoned every year and would count the bags of grain produced and send it to the co-op in her name. The black farmers might steal a certain amount of sweet corn at night but her share was very large and was not keen on the new Apartheid laws but eventually she had to comply especially after a bad season and the black tenants had to leave.

Kas also had skills of  medicine man  and a lot of people consulted him but he only took money from people when they were cured .  An Afrikaans women from Caltonville had dismissed her maid in a very acrimonious situation and came  for help as her house was now haunted by a tokalosh which caused the crockery to rattle.  Kas gave her a mixture to spread around the house and she sent him 5 Pound in gratitude.  Caltonwille was a mining town and when the mine pumped the water out it resulted in earth movement and local tremors and later the town started collapsing with sink holes.

At this period the patriarchal system was already breaking down and the children went off to work in cities where they had a better social life.  Thus the rural black family had the grandparents and grandchildren farming.  Many children were closer ho their grandparents than their parents. Kas had 3 wives  and  8 children.

If a poor white bought a piece of land and had a mortgage if he got a good share cropper who would make the land pay without him having capital to develop it. After a few years with field having been cleared the farmer might be able buy a tractor and work it himself. Many whites worked on mines and were absentee landlords as they never had capital or the knowledge to get their farms they had inherited to pay..

Kas bought a tractor by selling cattle which he had trouble finding grazing for, but now depended on a son to drive the tractor, just at a time when the rains were poor in the 1960s

He went through stages of owning a truck or car but as he could not drive this himself and depended on his sons who battled to get drivers licenses a problem being semi-literate. 

The book mentions that children who had had a proper apprenticeship with him as farmers, blacksmiths or saddle and shoe repairing succeeded in the proletariat world those that left the farm too young and were unskilled labourers didn't.  One granddaughter got herself a job in car spares for example.

But the Apartheid system was closing in and he ended up on small a plot allocated at Legde an area under the Chieftainess Cathorine.In reality he was a Sotho and this was a Tswana area,but he was enough of a chamelian.Blacks were not as tribal as the whits throught.  He went into goat breeding as their was pasture on the mountain nearby. Blacks moved to the Homeland areas as it offered schools to their children.

1975 the government Bantustan policy came about and Bafutatswana was declared under Chief Magope. The crater where cattle was pastured was to be turned into a game-park and Sun City casino was to be build. The South African government never allowed casino's but independent black areas could. Sol Kursners project did provide employment for many in the area. 

1976 the Soweto Riots began and you have some movement of blacks back into the country.

The first time he bought a tractor his sons or the person paid to drive it did not understand the mechanics. Later on he was able to hire someone who could keep this working and his 5th tractor he hired out and received a % of crops grown. 

In his late 80s he was still active as a farmer but the land available was small holding that blacks in Ledig in the Bantustan of Bafutaswana never had an inclination to cultivate.  When he planted corn the poor starving neighbours would take so he had to plant sunflower . Women and children were always prepared to help in the harvest of corn or sorghum as the were food but were not so willing on cash crops.

 When he had been in the triangle and hurt his shoulder he went to Dr. Huddleson who had arranged for surgery in hospital but now he had no personal connections and he was going blind through cataracts.  He was not prepared to undergo surgery offered.

Conclusion

Thus in the 1930s SA like Argentina was one of the G countries in the world, the Apartheid course that she took up under the Nationalist Afrikanerdom government stunted SA and by the time a black democracy came about it was too late.

Kas was over 90 when he died and the author describes that he was the only white man who stood at the back of the funeral.

 

The life story of Ben Yehuda by Robert St John :tongue of the prophets 1952 398pg

How Hebrew became a Modern Spoken Language    14/8/20

This is a book written about a Jew by a non Jew 

To the writer in 1948 the name Ben Yehuda was merely a street name in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. 

Jews came from 60 different countries with different religious attitudes, languages and cultures but had only a common language in Hebrew. In NY he met Mrs Max Wittmann (Devora) daughter of Ben Yehuda and Hemda her mother who died in summer 1951.

"God would destroy the infidel for tampering with his language". In his lifetime Ben  Yehuda had more enemies than friends but they have been silenced by his success. Hebrew was a language of Tulmudic argument and prayer.

He was put in prison and survived tuberculosis, had 11 children and wrote a volume dictionary that ended in 16 volumes. He had worked in Aretz Israel for 41 years

1858 Born in Luzhky , Lithuania as Eliezer Peralman and was greatly influenced by his father Labelah. He lived with his uncle till his bar mitzvah. He was given Robinson Crusoe by Rabbi Joseph Blucker in Hebrew to read. He was given the family name Elyanof as this was a childless couple and so as an only son was not conscripted into the army,

Moved to a Polotzk Yeshiva, in Glubokaya he met the Jonas family and Devora taught him French and German then  Gymnasium in Dunaburg where he studied with a small scholarship. 

1878 The Tzar liberated the Bulgars from the Turks but he felt the Jews needed to be liberated, and not to wait for the messiah like orthodox rabbis said. He studied at the Sorbonne , Paris and met persons like Victor Hugo, Sara Bernhardt and Adolphe Cremieux. He met Charles Netter, founder of the Mikveh Israel in Palestine. He spent time in Algiers to cure his tuberculosis where he met local Jews.

      The Hebrew monthly in Vienna published his article "A Worthy Question"- every nation has to defend its own nationality and only settlements in Israel can do that.

Hebrew was a spoken language till 200 BC then Greek became a common language of Jews. In Europe medieval Germanic written in Hebrew letters. but to unify the people a common language of Hebrew  was needed and had to be modernized. In Paris he supported himself by translating French into Russian.

1881 Devora joined him in Vienna where he met Peretz Smolenskin they married in Constantinople and went to Palestine. They agreed they would only speak Hebrew to their children. To get to Jerusalem took a cart and slept at Bab el Wad and then up the hill the next day 24 km to Jerusalem. Here he worked for a Hebrew paper under Israel Frumkin for the paper Hahabtzeleth. He was given his own paper to run called Mebasseret Zion

The Jewsih population lived in poverty and filth and they had to be orthodox to live with them. Jews lived off charity sent by Jews abroad and pious people came to die in Jerusalem. The people who went abroad to raise money kept about a third for themselves. Few Jews had taken out Turkish citizenship and only the Sparadim considered nothing wrong with working. The leaders were opposed to agriculture as tilling the soil was considered  vulgar. Ashkenasim and Spparadim  had no common language.

He got help from Nissim Behar who was in charge of Alliance Israelite Universelle. Ben Yehuda was given a post at this French school but he was unofficially paid under the table. Many Jews objected to Hebrew being taught this way.

Jehiel Michael Pines represented British Jewry with the Montefiore Memorial Foundation.

Ben Yehuda's writing in the Hebrew paper Hashahar influenced many in Eastern Europe and the Biluim arrived  acronym for  "Sons of Jacob Come let us go"

When Elizer and Devoras first son Ben Zion was born they only spoke Hebrew to him the next Ittamar the later AviHayal.

1878 Petah Tikva inaugurated. Set up by Jews from Jerusalem and Jaffa and Hebrew not Yiddish would be the language.

1882 Rishon Lezion started but people stayed in Jaffa till a deep well had been constructed.  

With connections and bribery the Turks gave permission for the Hetziba (deer) to be published as a weekly paper.  One article said that money from abroad should be used to buy land to provide work, this upset people receiving the "Haluka" 

Ben Yehuda now had to write Hebrew Text books and David Yellin helped write plays for children. They also started translating books into Hebrew including the "Arabian knights" He taught Hebrew in Hebrew. Also a Hebrew geography of Palestine published.

William Hertzberg was the  rep in Palestine to administer funds from Germany and gave him funds for a Hebrew dictionary. Because of orthodox objections, the ben Yehuda were evicted from their home by the landlord but his supporters forced the landlord to take him back. He wrote against the Smita laws being taken literally and called for a proper accounting of the Halukah monies. There was an official Herem placed against him.

1887 he went to Moscow. and  was also well received in Paris. Meanwhile Devora moved to a Sparadi area in Jerusalem where she was more welcome.

It was never known in history for a person to create a language. An attempt to create a Jewish state would arouse dormant antisemitism.  Debora taught Hebrew at the Evelina Rothchild girls school, but the school medium was English.

1891 Debora died of tuberculosis at the age of 37

The Turks had become suspicious of Jewish nationalism and stopped immigration but people smuggled in easily. When the Ashkenazim would not bury her the Sparadim agreed to so then the Ashkenazim relented.  AviHayal and 2 younger sisters died. They wanted to promote Rabbi Jacob Meir to represent the community and he had to learn French to be able to do that.

 You needed literature in Hebrew and he translated Victor Hugo's Notre Dame and Moller's Le Tartuffe.

Every publication of the paper had an explanation of the new word to be used. At the settlements Israel Belkind set up schools where only Hebrew was used. A wealthy man Helpren from Smolensk set up Nes Tziona and remained there working as a labourer. Warsaw Jews set up Rehovot. 

To stop Arab stealing their flocks Israel Feinberg set up guards.  Baron Rothschild set up wine making. Meir Dizengoff established a bottle making factory at Tantura but Yellow Fever and Malaria swept through it.  At Rosh Pina silk making was set up. A perfume factory was set up which caused geranium and roses to be planted.

Debora's sister studied natural sciences in Moscow and took the Hebrew name Hemda and married him. She had to learn Hebrew otherwise Russian not Yiddish was spoken to the children Ottoman subjects were supposed to wear the fez as respect to the Sultan.

1892 Train from Jaffa to Jerusalem completed.  Ben Yehuda supported the effort of Rothschild agents who did not get on with the settlers.   A Russian group called Bnei Moshe supported Hebrew schools in Palestine, it's  leader was Ginsburg who changed his name to Ahad Ha'am. Ben Yehuda's supporters were young while his opponents were the older generation.

Sultan Abdul Hamid II censorship was severe.  When the Jewish community brought a herem against Eliezer he was put on trial by the Turks till Rothschild used his influence and the case was dropped.

Professor Soloman Schecter visited him and later became president of the Jewish theological Seminary of the US. Reporters volunteered to send to Jerusalem articles about their settlement. Saul Tchsernikowski became the Hebrew ``poet of paganism" "poet laureate of the Jews"

1897 by then a real Jewish life began to develop, Jaffa had become almost half Jewish. The Lamel school supported by German Jews instruction was in German but Hebrew as a foreign language was being taught in most Jewish schools. Hemda basically ran the Hetziba paper giving Eliazer time for his dictionary.

Hadera was at this stage a "Village of Death as Yellow Fever and malaria had killed every one of the original settlers. Zichron Ya'kov was settled principally by Romoanians including Aaron Aaronsohn and his sister Sara - NILI spies.  Often young men returning from an education in France considered themselves too good for the labour needed.

Metulla was set up buying the land from Druse.

Israel Zangwill the writer from London and Herbert Betwitch  met Ben Yehuda in Jerusalem.  

The early Zionist congresses never mentioned the issue of a national language. The Turkish censor would not allow the issue of Zionism to be in the press.

He got a grant from the Jewish Colonization Association of England. Narcisse Leven founder of Alliance Israelite gave him a grant for the dictionary. However the French philanthropists favoured Argentinian settlement because the Rabbi's in Jerusalem insisted on the Orthodox running everything. Political support seemed to come easier from Non Jews than Jews.

Lord Lionel Rothschild made it possible for Ben Yehuda to do research  on philology at the British Museum.

1900 the British fought the Boers who wanted independence.

1906 Professor Boris Schatz of Vilna set up the Batzalel art school in Jerusalem

1907 Russia Japan War caused a split in views who to support and this followed by a wave of Jewish immigration.

Z.D, Levontin of The Anglo-Palestine bank gave him a loan to print the dictionary and also Otto Warburg gave him help.

In Berlin "Langenscheidtsche Verlagsbuchhandlung" a company specializing in dictionaries agreed to publish. Hemda got financial backing for them from Jewish Organizations. First volume with letters alef and bet came out dedicated to Baron Rothschild. Second volume dedicated to Otto Warburg.

After Hertzel's death the obvious person to take his place was Max Nordau but he withdrew himself as he had a Christian wife, so David Wolfson was chosen.He was later succeeded by Professor Otto Warburg.

1908 Young Turks deposed the Sultan in Constantinople. They allowed Jews to construct houses and opened immigration.

1909 Tel Aviv founded and Authur Ruppin set up an office by German Jewry to buy land. Shmaryahu Levin translated Dickens and Mark Twain into Hebrew.

Ephraim Hareuveni researched biblical plant names and Avrahm Zvi researched ancient music terms.

Russia built a teachers college in Nazareth and even Arab peasants began to speak Russian.

Wealthy Germans built the Technikum in Haifa to be in German but the students insisted on Hebrew.  This was the period of "The War of Languages '' and the US ambassador to Turkey came and negotiated peace.

1914 volume 5 was dedicated to London Jewry.  During WW1 no haluka money arrived but Maurice Wertheim son in law of Henry Morgenthau brought $50 0000  This caused an argument between the leaders so he took the suitcase of money, went out of the room and said when you have an agreement call me.

Louis Brandeis insisted that Ben Yehuda and family come to the US where they spent the war years there  and returned in 1919 to Palestine

1917 US joined the war and Edmund Allenby drove out the Turks after 400 years in Palestine. Ben Yehuda had argued that Britain was the best friend for the Jews.

1920 Herbert Samuel as High Commissioner for Palestine declared that English, Arabic and Hebrew were the official languages in 1922.

1920 With the money he was given in the US, in  Talpiot he laid a cornerstone for a house named Matam Am. 

1922 aged 64 he died.

1951 Volume 13 of the dictionary averaging 600 pages each volume  had been printed.  

  

When time stopped: a memoir of my fathers war and what remains by Ariana Neumann 2019 322 pages

When time stopped: a memoir of my fathers war and what remains by Ariana Neumann 2019 322 pages  17/5/20   to Edit

In Prague at the Pinkas Synagogue when she visited as a tourist saw her fathers name on a memorial list but date and place of death had a question mark. Her father said "I tricked them" There was a time that you had daily flights from Caracas to NY, London Frankfort, Rome and Madrid. Even Concord had regular flights from Paris during the oil producing days.

In 1946 Venezuela accepted displaced Europeans. Her father was incongruous in that he had a pale skin and heavy European accent. Her mothers who was 20 years younger. Her mothers  family had arrived in Venesuela in 1611.Her father was the president of Museo de Bellas Artes had a fine art collection. He set up a successful paintcompany with his brother. In 1993 Fernanado Botero,a Colombian painted his portrait.

Ariana as a kid with friends decided to play at being detectives.

She found a box of documents with a Nazi stamped photo of her father and the name Jan Sebasta Oct1942. Her father always had unuttered fears of the past and was almost 50 when she was born

She heard a lot of Czech and it came to her easily despite her father saying it was useless.

He sold out his business Montana Paints but kept shares in it but in 1996 it collapsed. He set up a daily press against Chavez. He died and was cremated on 11 Sept 2001.

1999 till his death in 2013 Hugo Chavez was President of Venezuela and created socialist havoc.

Her father had a watch given to him by his father it was a John Arnold who manufactured chronometers - these were accurate to be used in navigation. She realized that she had no grandparents on her fathers  side, but this was not a subject for exploration with her father. Instead they could discuss politics, sex,drugs or the parents marriage. In the UK she met a women who knew very little of her family left behind in the holocaust, her answer was "Because my parents never gave me permission". Her father had intentionally wanted her to get his war years documents. Her father's brother Lother's daughter Madla also left a trove of letters. Finding out about those before us had as much to do with the present, future as well as the past. Her great uncle Victor Neuman who arrived in California in 1919 had been an engineer who helped the Austro Hungarian army build bridges.. She traced his grandson  Greg Neuman in San Diego who was unaware of his Jewish heritage but also was left a box. Her son looked like her father as a child. She had a half brother Michal born in Prague in 1947 to Mila as she was 23 years older than him only got to know him when she became an adult.

1989 November the Berlin Wall fell. when she had toured Prague with her father she discovered that his family had set up the Montana Paint Factory in 1921. He was taken out by Zdenek to a reunion and said that his friend had saved his life.

Victor wrote from the US asking them to emigrate and Richard got a Non Quota immigration visa. Many Czechs knew of Jews and kept quiet,  but the Czech Fascist association Vlajka helped the Nazi's.

Her father sent her to a secular American school in Lugano ,Switzerland with kids from 50 countries and different religions. After 1991 he got a message that his friend Zdenek died and then wrote the Berlin memoir. She also discovered they had relatives in France, Israel, England and Czech Rep.

Instead of going to be deported he was in  hidden room at the factory, that's where he studied the clock. Then with his friends Zdenek passport took a night train first class (was hardly checked at the border)  to Berlin walked into the paint factory and said he was a chemist. He posted his friend passport back and had forged paper of Jan Sabeste. The factory made protective coating for Junkers Ju 88.S The  Nazi in charge had friends in all different offices and got him work papers, health insurance and residence permit. Czechs and Slavs were considered lapsed Arian while Poles and Russians untemenschen. He even got a Gestapo clearance in Prague he had no criminal record they never knew Jan had never existed and he survived by using his imagination.

1943 November the Battle of Berlin, British planes at night first dropping a "Christmas tree" then others dropped bombs. American planes in the day. For 14 month he and Zdenek were part of the "volunteer' fire fighter when nobody saw the let the fires burn.  Water , electricity phones etc were renewed within a day after a bombing, people started moving out of Berlin.

A Dutch worker approached him to get information that would get through to the British. A trial rocket was made a lacquer was used, but he real research he heard was at Peenemunde. This information he passed on and later heard that this V2 liquid rocket base had been bombed.

 His parents were sent to Terezin, when 476 Danish Jews were sent there the Danish Red Cross sent inspectors but a false display convinced them all was well.

Prague was accidently bombed by the Americans and 700 civilians were killed. With the war ending the US on the west and Russians on the east he got a letter of recommendation from paint factory Warnecke & Bohm when he resigned. In Prague there were still a few German soldiers. There was an uprising against the Nazi's and the Luftwaffe bombed Prague while German soldiers massacred civilians .

1945 8th May the Russians invaded and Terezin, and Czechoslovakia  liberated .

1948 Feb Communists seized power. Their uncle in the US advised them to go to Venezuela as it was undeveloped and had place for a paint industry. They sold their property and house in Lidice. The son of the new owner managed to open the safe and kept all the document which he handed to her._

The Berlin Baghdad Express by Sean Mc Meekin 2010

 Germany adventurism in Turkey and the Middle East before WW1   15 /9 /15

This book covers the whole story of Germany's relationship to the Ottoman Empire and later Turkey.

von Oppenheimer of the German Jewish banking firm.  A "free-lance" diplomat in Egypt, amateur archeologist, and agent provocateur stirring up jihadist sentiments against the British in Cairo. Converted to Christianity.  Took to himself the title of "von."  Removed lots of Iraqi antiquities to his private collection, which have recently been put on display in a Berlin Museum - major archeological specimens. 

 1871 Germany became a united country, by which time most other European countries had colonised the "Third World".  Germany saw an opportunity in building a railway to Baghdad and the port of Basra to be able to trade directly over land with terretories that the British ships traded with by sea.

She also tried to encourage jihad of Islam against Britian and France in their colonies that had large Moslem populations to undermine them.  This reminds us of the cold war where the USA supported the Mujadin against Russia.  This attitude of your enemy is my friend has consequences which we are now seeing in Afghanistan. We also see organizations at present like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza that exist because they get money from Iran.

The interesting aspect that Turkey remained neutral and tried to manipulate both sides in WW1 until she eventually joined Germany, thinking it was joining the winner.

The whole story of the Young Turks also that  France was considered the protector of  Christian in the Moslem world. The German realpolitik was at the expense of the Armenians.

The fact that the Bosphorus was closed to Russian shipping for 2 years during WW1 was another reason causing the Russian Revolution is not mentioned in the texts books.

Barbara Tuchman at the time travelled by ship to visit her grandfather Henry Morgenthau in Istambul and was witnes to a sea battle between  British and German ships,  The Groeben and Breslau 2 German ship got away and took shelter in Turkey.

Through Turkey the Germans were hoping to gain control of Suez, had there tunnels through the Taurus and Amana mountains  been completed at the start of WW1, German influence would have been greater.

The German's who encouraged a jihad against the Entente found themselves victim and ended up paying more and more for the war.  The railway was not commercially viable because it was incomplete and most Germans including long time railway workers and residents were leaving Turkey because of the anti-German sentiment violence and lynch mobs against them.  Deuschebank wanted  to cut its losses on the railway but the Turks said they could nationalize it once it was complete.

Gallipoli was won without a jihad attitude as you had a capable officer in charge Mustafa Kemal  (Attaturk)

The Tsarist Caucasus army was beating the Turks and marching into Turkey from the east  when Germany allowed Lenin to go to Moscow and called for peace, as the Tsarist army was losing on the western front..  Lenin told soldiers to return home where land would be divided up to give them. Then Turkey was able to regain her territory and Germany attempted to get Baku oil fields and gave Georgia independence.

Britain occupied Mesopotamia and joined with the new Russian revolutionry regime to keep the Turks off the oil of Baku. 1917

 

The book discusses that Zionism was very strong in Germany and one of Britian reasons for supporting the Belfour Declaration was to get Jewish support before Germany did? Antisemitism in the middle East in WW2 was the result of this with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem going to Berlin.Von Oppenheimer became a Hitler supporter.

This book is well researched and covers every detail, is fascinating but not easy reading.

A higher Call : An incredible true story of Combat and Chivalry in the WW2 skies by Adam Makos 2012 371pg

 Brilliant biography of 2 fighter pilots especially from the German side. 7/6/2020

Because the writers grandfather was an American Pilot in WW2 and told great stories he met others who flew and got their stories. He also went to airshows and started a magazine and Tom Brakow who wrote "The Greatest Generation" wrote to him to encourage his good work,

 1996 TWA flight 800 crashed on take off and 230 people were lost 16 kids from his school were on it going to do a French course in Paris, he should have been with this group.

He met a fighter pilot Charlie Brown who told him to speak to Franz Stigler who lives today in Canada a German fighter pilot who was involved in a battle against the Americans. Stigler was working as a truck mechanic for loggers in Vancouver. 

1946 March, Franz was looking  for work as a labourer at Staubing, Bavaria in brick making at a time, this was a place where US bombers tried to hit the train yard and wiped out a third of the city .  7 million Germans were homeless.  Of 28000 German fighter pilots 1200 survived the WW2

4 million German soldiers died and over a million civilians.

His father was a reconnaissance pilot in WW1 and devout Catholic and with a friend build a glider and he and brother learned to glide. Because Germany was not allowed to have an Airforce,the government via Lufthansa gave free flying lessons to capable people. He worked as a navigator and created flight plans for all over Europe including Spain during the Civil War.

A letter in 1937 "With Burning Concern" by Munich Cardinal Von Faulhaber and Pope Pius XI explained what Nazism was evil and the letter was banned and people were scared of the Nazis and made very aware of  Dachau which opened in 1933.

German Airforce was based in Caen, France and was not supposed to bomb civilians but an oil depo in East London. This resulted in the British bombing civilians in return. The black cross on Nazi planes was a Teutonic knight symbol. Franz was a flying instructor. Pilots were worried that a political spy would check who was loyal as the airforce had a tradition of separation of military from politics. Their officer said shoot the machine not the man. Franz read the Bible and Lives of Catholic saints.

In north Africa at this stage enemy planes were flown by Brits or S. Africans. British treated captures airman well so that their airmen would be treated well. German pilots listened to a phonograph of ramba music that was banned in Germany. German pilots spoke English more than other foreign  languages.

Their first base in Libya was Martuba later Tmimi and then Sidi Barrani, then Quotafiya in Egypt all these had been British airforce bases.  Their work was escorting Stukas.

Lale Anderson sang Lily Marlene from a Hans Liep WW1 poem.

British ships brought fresh pilots and planes to Alexandre while the Germans flogged the same planes and pilots. Once the Americans landed in Casablanca, Nov 1942 many Germans knew Germany would loose the war.

They were now based in Trapani, Sicily keeping the supply line that they escorted to the doomed Afrika Korps. General Alfred Gallant was in charge of this.Over 30 Ju52 transport planes were being shot down every week. Goering was in charge in Berlin and the airforce men hated him. Goering had been the one in 1933 who led thugs intimidating voters.

1942 June till Feb 1943 White Rose resistance to the Nazi's in Munich by poster, leaflets and graffiti, their arrests and executions by the Gestapo led to a witch hunt in the airforce.

1943 May. The Cape Bon Peninsula was the last German stand in Africa. The remaining 40 JG-77s fighter arrived in Sicily. Leaving most of their mechanic and pilots behind, The Afrika Korps surrendered with 275000 becoming  POWs.

1943 July they set up in San Vito, on the Adriatic Sea.

         July Hamburg was firebombed in an extremely dry summer it became a firestorm 350,000 civilians killed and 580 big industries destroyed.

1944 July the Claus van Stoffenburg failed attempt to assassinate Hitler resulted in 5000 arrests and 200 executions including  Generals Rommel, Ernst Uder and Hans Jeschonnek. The Nazi salute was mandated in the Luftwaffe till then the normal salute was used.

Goering wanted German fighter to keep attacking till they ran out of fuel and ammunition, reservice and keep attacking till the bombers left.

Charley Brown and the Americans.  US B17 flying fortresses could not be attacked at the back and the Germans  had to figure out how to  attacked it from in front.

1943 Oct The US Eigth Airforces lost 60 bombers and 600 men over Schweinfurt, Germany.

They bombed  Bremen Submarine pens, later the port of Kiel, Ludwigshafen and Brunswick. US flyers were all volunteers and preferred Europe to fighting in the Pacific.

US fighter went in front of bombers and destroyed most German fighters and  pilots. German aviation fuel production was down from 175000 to 5000  tons a month.

A British pilot began combat with 450 flight hours experience, American with 600. New German pilots  than 150 hours at this stage and few survived the first sortie.

1944 October Johanes Trauloft an Airforce General heard that 168 Allied airmen were in Buchenwald and had them transferred to a POW camp saving their lives. They had been all captured in France and were trying to get to England.

1945 March last Luftwaffe stand. Germany had Messersmiths 262 which was the earliest form of jet and could move at 575 mph but they were build with scarce material available in German and were dangerous for the pilot. JV44 at Lechfeld near Munich had 50 pilots 25 planes but in reality only managed to have a proper sortie with 15 planes each with the potential of getting 4 allied planes. (Note, I saw 262s at the Johannesburg War Museum)   At this stage US planes destroyed all airfields and 1697 parked German planes.

Of 12000 American B-17s (flying fortresses) build 5000 were destroyed during the war.

1950 Allies encouraged German Generals to form a Bundeswehr (army) and became  part of NATO in 1955

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKlZg1fEepY

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley 1964 520pg

Malcolm X a self educated man became a powerful black leader 6/6/20

This is a very well written about his childhood but when it gets onto the religious dogma I lost interest, but his background experience is the most significant part of the story.

No man aroused fear and hatred in the white man as Malcolm, but inspired self respect of downtrodden blacks. Marcus Garvey wanted blacks to leave the US and set up in Africa. The Adventist were the friendliest whites.

1937Joe Louis knocked out James Bradock to become the heavyweight champ of the world.

Living  in Lansing Minnesota he was in a school with few blacks and the only black in his class and he got the highest grades. The English teacher helped him a lot but when he sat with him and discussed his future carreer he said that he would like to be a doctor or lawyer. The teacher said for a Negro he should be realistic, he was good at wood work and perhaps should become a carpenter. White kids were encouraged to go ahead with the courses they had chosen. This so upset him and destroyed his joiu de vive that he wrote to his half sister Ella asking if he could come to Boston and arrived at the back of a Greyhound bus in 1940. He arrived in Waumbeck, Boston snooty blacks lived doing menial work and had to rent out rooms to make ends meet.

1770  Boston Massacre'. Crispus Attacks. A statue stands in Boston Common of this  man who was the first to fall and was a negro.

He manages to get a job as a shoe shine boy and janitor in the men's toilet of the Roseland State Ballroom and manages to hear live Glen Miller. Benny Goodman band, Duke Ellington, Count Basie band, Lionel Hampton, Cootie Williams, Jimmie Luceford.There were nights for blacks 

  Peggy Lee was discovered by Mrs. Benny Goodman.

 After Pearl harbour there was plenty of work on trains, in the kitchen and selling sandwiches, this way he could travel from Boston  and saw how big and poor the black neighbourhood in Washington was. In New York he is able to go to Harlem and hear Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Eckstine ,Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington. 

The Teresa hotel Harlem for blacks was where Fidel Castro stayed when he visited the UN and was restricted to NY and achieved a psychological coup over the State Dept. Harlem was officially of limits to white servicemen during the war. 

1935 There were riots in Harlem and this left only a trickle of income coming. The great Harlem days were between 1920 and 1935 Criminals, the law and politicians were inseparable partners.

Malcolm was successful in every kind of hustle, drugs, prostitution and the burglary. The problem in burglary was fencing the stolen loot. A very good watch he took to have repaired and when he came for it was arrested.

1946 at the age of 21 he was given 8 years sentence because he had been working with white girls who acted as "finders" checked out the rich homes. First sent to Charlestown prison built 1805 In 1948 his sister got him transferred to Norfolk Mas. where a millionaire Parhurst had donated his book collection and he was able to spend long hours every day reading and in a debating club and  got a proper eductaion. He also became a member of the Nation of Islam under Elijah Muhammad.

1831 in Virginia .Nat Turner a slave who set up an gang of 70 slaves who killed 57 whites and it took 2 months to hunt him down. 

Schopenhauer, Kant and Nietzsche he says set up the groundwork for Nazi philosophy.

Books he read  included HG Wells, Will Durant and Pierre van Paassens "Days of Our Years". Loom of Language by Frederich Bodner

1951When he got out he went to Detroit. Became a Muslim minister.  Married had 6 children.

1957 Hinton Johnson tried to stop police beating a black man and was he beaten by NY police, Macolm  X arrived and a big group went into the police station and insisted that a ambulance be called. In the end the NYPD were forced to pay $70000 damages.

Malcolm discovered that Elijah Mahomed had raped and had children from a number of women and so broke with him He and a large group who felt this way opened his other Mosques.

He initially called all whites devils but over the years his outlook matured especially after his visit to Mecca. Africa, France and the UK when he saw the black situation in a different perspective.

1965 assasinated. At Audubon Ballroom Harlem. A nation of Islam member was jailed but there are dozens of conspiracy theories that the police wanted him dead as he was too powerful a figure.