MY CLAIM AS A TRUE ISRAELI
NOW A CITZEN OF ASHKELON SINCE 1994
by Mace Menachemson
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Prologue
I have managed to trace my family background, more or less, to the year 1820 when my great grandfather arrived in Eretz Yisrael from Europe. By the year 1832 a property in Sanhedria, Jerusalem was purchased by our family in partnership with a first cousin by the name of Cohen, from the Turkish Government who were in control of Jerusalem at the time.
On my visit to Israel in 1992, I discovered the property when the son of my late father's cousin - whose mother passed away - found a deed of sale written out in Turkish amongst her papers. My great grandfather's signature, David Menachemson, was a co-signer on the deed of sale. Upon contacting this relative, we went together to Jerusalem and found the Sanhedria property. It was a two story house which, I later found out, was shared by my great grandfather on the bottom floor and his cousin Cohen who occupied the top floor. My grandfather, Yehuda Menachemson, grew up in Israel, which was then known as Palestine. He married and had five sons - all born in Palestine. In 1926 the youngest, Simcha Menachemson - a policeman, was tortured and murdered near Hebron (Ref. "Yiscor"). My father, Yankel David, was the second born and went to a yeshiva in, what is now, the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.
My mother (bless her memory) was brought out of Latvia as a young girl to Cape Town, South Africa, by her older brothers who had settled there and she learnt to read and write English. Before the First World War her brothers sent her - now a young woman - to Palestine to her parents who were living in Mea Shearim. To help make a living, she opened up a stall (a budka) where she sold gazoz (fruit juice) and sweets. Within a few years she became known as the "Africana Meidel mit die Budka". When the yeshiva boys, including my late father, used to pass by her stall on their way to learn, they bought refreshments from her. Of course my dad fancied her and a shiduch was made. After they were married they stayed in the house in Sanhedria. By then my dad was a qualified shochet. In 1911 my eldest brother was born. It was very difficult in those days to make a living as a shochet , so in 1912 my dad packed a case and caught a tramp-steamer to South Africa where my grandfather had been for a number of years. Eventually he found employment in Johannesburg as one of the first shochtim in the municipal abattoirs' kosher department.
My mother and brother stayed on in Palestine when the First World War started in 1914. She would not leave because her parents were still alive. After her parents passed away, my mother left Jerusalem and took a job at Portsaid in the immigration department, working as an English clerk making out documents for people leaving Palestine for South Africa. As life became harder during the First
World War some of our relations in Palestine, namely the Civin and the Salant families, some of whom had married each other, decided to go to South Africa where part of the Civin family lived. My mother chose to go with them to join my father. They arrived in South Africa in 1915. Naturally our family increased. We numbered six brothers and a sister. I was born on Lag Baomer in 1919. The First World War ended on the 11th November the same year.
I was educated in Johannesburg and by the time I was 16 years old I was very zionistically inclined. I was involved in the Habonim movement as a Rosh Gedud and was also a member of the Zionist Youth Movement (known as the Young Ikes). During the following years we were very aware of the atrocities of the nazis and what they were doing to our fellow Jews in Germany. The indoctrination of the nazi movement had reached South Africa in the form of Jew baiters and haters . They were known as the Grey Shirts and their leaders were trained in Nazi Germany. We, the Young Ikes of Johannesburg and the surrounding towns, organized ourselves into ranks. We used to go out - at least 300 of us - and break up most of their meetings which were held all over the Transvaal. Unfortunately for us, the S.A. police were sympathetic to their cause at that time and , of course, a lot of us blokes landed up in jail for disturbing the peace. Most of the time we were very successful in breaking up their meetings.
During the years 1937 - 1939 I served 3 months a year in the army as part of the Active Citizen Force. I was trained as a bombardier and a signaler in the signal corps. When the Second World War broke out I volunteered to join the South African army. In South Africa there was no conscription during the war years, but 20% of the Jewish boys who were of age volunteered to join up - our main reason being to fight against Nazi Germany for the atrocities against our people.
In early 1940, I went up north with my unit as a signaler to operate a heliograph, to send Morse code messages from a hilltop to the artillery guns to direct their fire on enemy positions at Isiola. I was detected and fired at, receiving my first injury. The place was in East Africa. I was not seriously injured, but, nevertheless, was taken to a field hospital on the outskirts of Nairobi. To my surprise, I was visited there by the first Jewish chaplain of the S.A. forces who turned out to be my fathers brother. At that time he was called Captain Reverent Mac. Reverend Nathan Menachemson, who, before the war, was born in Sanhedria, Palestine, settled in South Africa as a spiritual leader and chazan of Durban. In 1940 he joined up as a chaplain to the S.A. Jewish forces.
I was not laid up for more than 3 days and joined my unit once more upon my release from hospital. Within a few months and after a few more squirmishes in East Africa our troops captured the Axis Italians and we advanced into Abesynia, where we captured Forts Mega and Mogali, clearing out the Italians from that area. We went back to Mombasa and on our way by ship to Egypt we encountered German submarines. After a few near misses, we changed course and went round Madagascar.
It took close to 5 weeks to reach Alexandria Egypt, which was under British rule. After a few weeks our unit - the 1st South African Divisional Unit - was sent into the desert to join the British and Allied forces, known as the 8th Army, which consisted of Indian Punjab and Sikh troops, Australian, New Zealander and Free French troops. Our first engagement against the Axis forces took place at Sidi Rezeg, where our 5th brigade was virtually wiped out after a battle which lasted plus minus 3 days. The odds were against us - mainly German tanks against our artillery and infantry. We were given sticky bombs that became effective when stuck against the German tanks, which put a few out of action. We then advanced towards Bengasi and those of us left from our 1st South African Division were joined by Allied forces and were based at Mersa Matru. I , as a trained bombardier, operated a Boufors anti-aircraft gun.
We were there for 3 months and almost every night the German stuka bombers pelted us. Quite a few direct bombs were on target, thus killing many of the Allied troops. I and a young man by the name of Hans Kalanbach (who bluffed his age so that he could fight against the Nazis) were very fortunate to be alive. One of the enemy bombs landed a couple of meters from the Funk-hole which we shared. The Funk-hole, which was constructed by the Italians, was made of solid timber and was placed underground with sandbags to protect the entrance. The bomb overturned our shelter and buried us. It took over 4 hours to dig us out. Fortunately for us, we were both only injured lightly by fragments of the bomb. Luckily our wooden bomb shelter had not collapsed.
During my stay at Mersa Matru, I was offered a course at Sarafan, a British training camp not far from Rishon Letzion, Palestine. The course was to train army intelligence and health inspectors. The camp was run by the British, who were very strict. There were troops from many allied units, such as Australians, South Africans, Rhodesians, Indians, Poles and French, all of which had seen action in the desert. There were also Jewish troops from Palestine on various non combatant courses. It was very upsetting to see the British instructors going out of their way to treat the Jewish Palestinians with no respect. Being a Jew, I was very aware of it. A lot of them became friends of mine and, consequently, I spent most of my free time in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It was during this time that I went to pray at the Kotel Hamaaravi . It was very different from what it looks like today. It was a very narrow area between the dwellings.
The course lasted 2 months and I was then sent to Ismailiya on the Suez Canal where I met up with a number of Palestinian Jewish troops. My main job was to supervise off-loading the American liberty ships and placing the cargo in dumps in the Sinai desert. The British were in charge of the dumps and the laborers were mostly Arabs and Libyans, but no Jewish workers. This point was often discussed amongst us Jews - some of whom were the members if the Irgun Zvi Leumi underground.
It was not long after this that I was sent back into the desert to join up with my unit between Tabruk and Gazala, at a place called El Adem. By then the South African 6th Division, under General Klopper, joined the Allied forces at Tabruk. Soon, our 1st Division was deployed along the Gazala line. It was in May that Rommel, with his German forces, started his counter-offensive. He took over Gazala, defeated the British tank forces at Knightsbride, we retreated to El Adem and we were instructed not to stand, but to bypass Tabruk. We could hear the shelling and bombing of Tabruk. General Klopper and the Allied generals capitulated. More than 10,000 South Africans were taken prisoners. At El Adem we were given instructions to get into any available vehicle and head for the Egyptian border fence. All was in disarray. Our retreat was known as the "Gazala Gallop" and we eventually landed up in Cairo, where we were greeted by Nazi flags and spat upon by the gippo population. So, of course, we lay low. Rommel wasted no time after the fall of Tabruk and gave instructions to his forces not to stop until they reached Alexandria and then to take over Cairo.
By September Rommel's offensive broke down at the Quatara Depression, which gave us time to regroup under the command of General Montgomery. At this point, the Americans joined up with the Allied forces. We mustered all our might at El Alamein - British, American, South African, New Zealanders, Canadians, Australians, Free French and Indian forces etc. - on a 80 mile stretch, with all our rearming. On the night of 3rd November 1942 our 8 hour Artillery Barrage started, with the South Africans alone firing 62,000 25lb shells towards the German line. The next day the 1st South African Division, together with the Allied infantry and tanks. routed what was left of Rommel's troops. By the end of November Tabruk was recaptured and the Germans were no longer in Libya and the Middle East. Short note: We, the 1st South African Division of the 8th army - known as the Desert Rats - were withdrawn from the desert after serving between the years 1940 and 1943. We were sent home, but I was back in Egypt after spending one year assisting with the control of the 75,000 Italian prisoners of war in South Africa.
When the war ended in Europe in 1945, I was discharged from the forces whilst I was in Cairo. I returned to South Africa a very tired and slightly shell-shocked man. After a few months rest, I rejoined my elder brother, by buying back my partnership, in the business he continued during the war years. By 1951, still active in the Zionist Movement, I was approached to make aliya to Ashkelon, but, for various reasons, I declined.
I was married in 1948 to my dear wife and we brought up our children, a son and 3 daughters, bless them, over the ensuing years. They were schooled in the Jewish day school King David, and our twin daughters, who were religiously inclined, transferred to Menorah Girls High where they matriculated. The school was the girls' side of the Johannesburg Yeshiva College.
Our daughter Dina went to Machon Gold girls college in Jerusalem to further her studies in Hebrew and religious studies. She returned to South Africa, took her BA degree and taught Hebrew. When she married, both she and her husband taught at King David school and also became house parents of the hostel there. Fourteen years ago they made aliya and they now live in Ramot, Jerusalem. Dina is employed as a ganenet in Ramot.
Our youngest daughter, Hadasa, made aliya 20 years ago and after her marriage, she and her husband lived in Shmuel Hanavi - a neighboring suburb of Sanhedria - Jerusalem. From there, we walked through the Damascas gate and the Arab market to the modernized Kotel to pray there, once again. They were the 31st family to settle in Efrat. She and her husband work in Gush Etzion. They are bringing up their children in a religious atmosphere and their 2 eldest sons are at a yeshiva in Jerusalem.
Our son, Chaim, made aliya 10 years ago and lives in Haf Nof, Jerusalem with his wife and children. During this 20 year period, my wife and I came to Israel almost every year to visit and be with our Israeli children and grandchildren.
Throughout the Israeli war years, we made numerous donations to Israel through the S.A. Israeli United Appeal, to help the war effort. We also taxed ourselves with a monthly amount until we made aliya over 3 years ago to Ashkelon. Our eldest daughter, Zahava, her husband and her grown up children are still in South Africa.
We are not new immigrants, as the natives like to refer to us as, but true Israelis and should be thus called. After all, my parents, grandparents and great grandparents were known, at that time, as "Palestinians of Jewish Decent"!
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