Detroit Jewish Chronicle

and The Legal Chronicle

VOL 47, NO. 36

SECTION FIVE

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle

Friday, September 7, 1945

THE WAR VETERANS RETURN

By S. ZAHAVI

At a superficial glance they
might have been any soldiers on i
the move. Travel-stained and
weary, with their kit-bags, coats
and blankets, they stood on the
railway platform a little dazed
at first. Then you could see that
this look was due as much to
pent-up joy and excitment as
fatigue. And then, too, you np-
ticed that beneath their sunburn
their faces were pale and deep-
lined. They were Palestine's first
liberated prisoners-of-war just
back from Germany.

barded him with questions:—
"Will my abba be home now
from the war, and Abiram's ab-
ba, and the other haverim?" Is
it true that Hitler's dead?" "Will
the Jews of the Golah now be
able to come here?"
Yeheskiel talked and talked;
his comrades could not hear
enough. They were torn by dis-
tress at much of what he told.
And they were also moved. Es-
pecially moved when he started
to speak that first evening and
three times began "When I saw
It was on the 29th of April, the lights of Sin Hashofet . • ."
1941, that the British Brigadier and stopped, unable to continue.
who commanded them in Greece,
informed them that there was no
hope of their getting away, as
others had done, in short—that
they were prisoners-of-war. Some-
By REGINALD SEIGEL
one asked them now how it felt
to be home again. One of them
The other (lay I met in Jeru-
laughed, "Do you really expect salem, where he had come for
us" he said "to find the right medical treatment, a boy of four-
words for the answer? This is teen who had taken five years to
the day that has kept us going reach E•etz Israel. He had travel-
for years, and the day which, in led, with only brief intervals for
the last few months in Germany, rest, (luring most of that period.
we feared we would not live to He had been shuttle-cocked across
see."
Poland and Russia and Persia,
Wherever they went through down through the Persian Gulf
the land their journey was a and up the Red Sea, and so finally
triumphal progress. At Rehovoth to this land. His wanderings be-
the population of almost the gan at the age of 9 and, young
whole town and of the nearby though he still was, he had a
settlements had turned out to precocity of suffering which
greet them as their train steamed among the many homeless chil-
into the station; the schoolchil- dren of Israel today would be-
dren bearing flowers, flags and come their perpetual recollection.
Gideon was a "Teheran" child
barners. In Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem,
Haifa and il - Itah Tikvah there ret'ugee. All he could speak when
were formal welcome ceremonies. he came here was German and a
But the deepest welcome naturally little Polish. His parents, original-
awaited them in the reunion of ly from Cracow, had settled in
Berlin in the late 1920's. The
their families.
father was a commercial travel-
Their homes are in all parts of
ler and did most of his business in
Palestine, in every town and
Danzig.
very many of the settlements.
When the Nazis staged the
From the Metzudoth Ussishkin iu
first big pogrom against the Jews
the far north to Kfar Warburg
of Germany in 1938, Gideon's par-
in the south, scores of village
ents moved back to Poland. It
homes were made deliriously hap-
was an uneasy sojourn they had
py by reunions with fathers, hus-
in Warsaw. The father came
bands or brothers who had been
again under the Nazi shadow
prisoners-of-war for over four
when the annexation of Czecho-
years.
slovakia found him in Prague. He
And there were some villages, hurried back to Warsaw; and
kvutzot and kibbutzim, where the from then on it seemed to Gid-
whole settlement was "the fam- eon, he told me, as though the
ily." As, for instance, at Sin
Hashofet the American settlemeni.
on JNF land in the Hills of Eph-
NEW YEAR'S
raim. Their returned soldier was
GREETINGS
Yeheskiel Neuman. He reached
home at 10 that night; from 10
from
until 2 A.M. the whole kibbutz
celebrated. At 2 they sent him
protesting, to bed, only because
they knew how weary he must be.
But next day the informal re-
union "celebration" started all
over again.
DETROIT

Gideon's Story

Mr. and Mrs.
JACK POLLOCK
* and SONS *

For the children, of course, it
was also a great day. They born-

Nazis were constantly at their
heels, trying to catch up with
them.
It was at their place of refuge,
a camp in Southern Russia, that
the first evacuation of Polish citi-

zens began. Gideon's parents, who
had a boy of 9 and a girl of 3,
managed to get him into a party
of
Jewish children included
among the evacuees, who were
going to Persia.

"My father said," Gideon re-
called, "that if I ever came to
Palestine and grew up properly, I
might be able to get him and
Mother and Sarah the necessary
(Continued on Page 16)

1945 • 5706

A HAPPY \EW YEAR

To You of the House of Israel

• • •

During this Rosh Hashonah we look forward with optimism to the future. V-E
day has come and gone and millions of out people have been liberated from the hor-
rors of oppression under the Nazi terror. Our people have been delivered from the
tyrant's hand but there are still hardships to be endured and overcome.
The battle for the peace has just begun. Food, clothing, shelter and the oppor-
tunity to work to sustain life—these must still be secured. Our hope and faith
were justified with the unconditional surrender in Europe. But there is much we
must still do, by sustained and active interest in the welfare of our people, be-
fore the peace of Europe is won and life
goes forward again in its normal course.
May I extend to you my heartfelt
greetings during this New Year's season.
These are times when serious work
is the watchword for us all. During this
season we should resolve to do our indi-
vidual parts, to work together in the
solving of our own and the world's
problems.
The past has shown us opportunity.
The future is clearer than it has been
for many years. After V-E day we can
with justification, look forward to the
dawn of happiness and peace throughout
the world.
We at Moe Leiter and Associates,
pledge our efforts to the high purpose of
improving the service which, in the past,
has built the reputation of our organiza-
MOE LEITER
tion.

My Best Wishes and Happiness to You All

MOE LEITER

LET US SERVE YOU—OUR LINE OF LIFE INSURANCE AND

ANNUITIES IS COMPLETE—OUR ATTENTION TO PERSONAL

DETAILS IS APPRECIATED BY HUNDREDS.

Moe Leiter & Associates

1766 PENOBSCOT BUILDING

The Dominion Life Assurance Co.

HEAD OFFICE—WATERLOO, ONT.

ROSH HASHONAH GREETINGS AND BEST WISHES
FOR A HAPPY NEW YEAR ARE HEREWITH
EXTENDED TO ALL

May this Year see the end of all wickedness and in
its stead bring to all Israel and all humanity lasting
Peace and Contentment

*

Mr. nub ors. 'aiiturt
nub gantilg

Aaron

3015 GLENDALE AVE.

1.3"qtr'"4,47/.*.I.44004.40".~4200 ■ •••Anenp ow.P4

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