The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East (48 page)

A multitude of inhabitants walked one after another. . . . We tried to make things as easy as possible for them. Occasionally you encountered a piercing look from one of the youngsters walking in the stream of the column, and the look said: "We have not yet surrendered. We shall return to fight you."

Chapter 5

This chapter is grounded primarily in two kinds of sources: original documents from archives, and interviews with Bulgarian Jewish immigrants to Israel in 1948 and those in Bulgaria who remember the preparations for the journey. I interviewed more than fifty people for this chapter and examined documents at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) archives in Queens, New York; at the Bulgarian National Library and the Jewish section of the Bulgarian National Archives, both in Sofia; and at the Central Zionist Archives and JDC archives in Jerusalem.

The description of the railway station comes from interviews in Bulgaria with Virginia Eshkenazi, the widow of Moshe's brother, Jacques; from several interviews with Bulgarian Jews in Israel, including Moshe Melamed, who at twelve years old was in the railway station on the same day for the same journey described herein, and has a photographic memory; and from Moshe Mossek, another Bulgarian Jew who traveled to Israel at about the same time in 1948 and who read this chapter and verified the accuracy of the description of the emigration process.

The description of Solia and Moshe comes from old family photos and from Dalia, who assured me that her mother always wore a hat for such occasions; that Solia's hair would "absolutely" have been worn loose over her shoulders and never tied back; and that her father would have undoubtedly held the family's identity papers. Dalia's parents told her about the straw basket they kept her in and that she slept for nearly the entire journey.

Dalia, by the way, was born "Daizy" and would not change her name until age eleven. In Bulgaria, her father was known as Mois and her mother as Solia (and occasionally by the diminutive "Solche").

The story of how Moshe and Solia met, including Moshe's bold prediction of marriage, comes from Eshkenazi family oral history, as told to Dalia by her parents.

The description of the lines and emigration forms is extrapolated from Boyka Vassileva's
The Jews in Bulgaria,
summarized and large portions translated from the Bulgarian by journalist Polia Alexandrova. These descriptions were further verified by Moshe Mossek. The figure of 3,694 Bulgarian Jews comes from the ship's seventy-four-page manifest for the
Pan York,
the ship that the Eshkenazis and other Bulgarians were soon to board, housed at the Family Research Department of the Central Zionist Archives.

The Bulgarian Jews' unique history in Europe is documented throughout the text and source notes for chapter 3.

The date of the
Pan York's
trip is verified in "General Letter No. 1102" from Fred Baker in the JDC's offices in Sofia to the European headquarters in Paris and from the JDC archives in Jerusalem and is corroborated by Melamed.

Boris's death in 1943 (on August 28, at 4:22 P.M.) is described by Stephane Groueff in
Crown of Thorns,
p. 372. Groueff and others describe it as "mysterious": Boris died of a heart attack just two weeks after a meeting with Hitler that went poorly, and the timing prompted speculation that Boris had been poisoned. However, Frederick Chary, author of
The Bulgarian Jews and the Final Solution,
is skeptical. "After his return from the fiihrer's headquarters," Chary points out, "the king went for a week's holiday to Cham Koria, his retreat in the Rila mountains; on one day he climbed Mousalla—the highest peak in the Balkans" (p. 159).

The early history of Zionism in Bulgaria comes from Vladimir Paounovski's article in
Etudes balkaniques,
1997, No. 1-2, titled "The World Zionist Organization and the Zionists in Bulgaria According to Newly Discovered Documents." Paounovski, who is also the director of the Jewish Museum in Sofia, wrote of the discovery of nine letters and two telegrams written in German that explore relations between Bulgarian Zionists and their counterparts in the World Zionist Organization. Herzl's
Orient Express
quote comes from his diary of June 17, 1896, and can be found in
The Diaries of Theodor Herzl
(Lowenthal, ed.), p. 142. Herzl's "bandy legs" quote comes from
The Jewish State.

It has often been said that Herzl became a Zionist because of the anti-Semitic trial of Alfred Dreyfus, a French Jew in Paris. Herzl himself wrote that his belief in the necessity of a separate homeland for the Jews came from his experience as the Paris correspondent for the Viennese newspaper
Neue Freie Presse,
covering the so-called Dreyfus affair (Lowenthal, Herzl's
Diaries,
p. xviii). Shlomo Avineri, in
The Making of Modern Zionism,
writes (pp. 92-93) that "the Dreyfus Affair was correctly understood by Herzl as only the dramatic expression of a much more fundamental malaise."

Lowenthal, however, wrote in his introduction that Herzl's witness of the Dreyfus affair as a reporter was different from his later recollections (pp. xviii-xix). Other chroniclers of Herzl's life, including Lenni Brenner, in
Zionism in the Age of the Dictators,
believe he took the wrong message from the Dreyfus affair altogether, because the Dreyfus case "aroused a huge surge of Gentile support," including from "kings," the "socialist movement," and "the intellectuals of France." An additional factor in the rise of political Zionism were pogroms in Russia—particularly, Morris points out
(Righteous Victims,
pp. 16-17 and pp. 24-25), those in 1891-92 and 1903-06.

Herzl's "holy ark" and "calm demeanor" quotes come from his diary entry of June 30, 1896
(Diaries,
pp. 170-71).

The prewar Zionist newspapers are housed at the Bulgarian National Library. That the Arabs "did not figure in these discussions" is corroborated by Bulgarian Jewish archivist David Koen of Sofia, who also recalled the "land without people" quote.

The closing of the Zionist newspapers is documented by Vicki Tamir
(Bulgaria and Her Jews,
pp. 170-72). Evidence of the regrouping of the Zionist papers can be found in documents of the Jewish "consistory" offices, located in the Bulgarian National Archives. The bulk of this material comes from folder 622-1 and includes many documents that describe an attempt to restore Jewish life, reestablish Jewish schools, and reassimilate Jews into Bulgarian society. Additional documentation comes from Boyka Vassileva's
The Jews in Bidgaria.

The question of immigration to Israel comes from both Dalia and Virginia Eshkenazi.

The devastation of the Bulgarian landscape is described by Crampton in
A Short History of Modern Bulgaria,
pp. 128-29; Tamir in
Bulgaria and Her Jews,
p. 216; and Chary in
The Bulgarian Jews and the Final Solution,
p. 169. Crop failures, hunger, and inflation are mentioned by Yehuda Bauer in
Out of the Ashes,
pp. 276-80.

Ben-Gurion's arrival in Bulgaria in December 1944 is described by Vassileva and in Ben-Gurion's diaries. The visit is also the subject of Moshe Mossek's article "The Struggle for Leading the Jews of Bulgaria," translated from the Hebrew by Boaz Hachlili. The Ben-Gurion "task of the moment" quote and the response of "aliyah!" comes from Vassileva.

Yitzhak Yitzhaki (born Isaac Isaakov) recalled in an interview his return from the work camp, his army duty after Bulgaria's liberation by the Soviet Red Army, and his emigration to Palestine.

Ben-Gurion's impressions of Bulgaria, his longer-term strategy, and the quote about the five thousand pairs of shoes come from the Mossek article and from an interview with Mossek.

Documents on trade relations can be found in the Central Zionist Archive (CZA) in Jerusalem (s31/43/1,2,3). The telegram formalizing trade relations, also from the CZA documents, was dated October 7, 1947.

Documentation of postwar funds sent to Bulgarian Jews by the JDC comes from Yehuda Bauer's
Out of the Ashes,
p. 179; from Vassileva's
The Jews in Bulgaria;
and from the CZA and Bulgarian National Archives documents listed previously.

The JDC's support for the Jewish community in Bulgaria, including local cooperatives, comes from documents found in JDC archives in Queens (e.g., 45/54 169). Relations between the JDC and the Jewish Agency are clear from the JDC archives, including in a memo from Charles Passman to M. W. Beckelman on November 10, 1948, discussing the need to "prepare the necessary bill for the Jewish agency." The JDC's ties with the Mossad are also seen in numerous JDC documents, including one letter dated December 16, 1948, from the JDC's Jerusalem archives (Box 11 C) stating, "The Mossad will refund to us all that we will spend for the food . . . for the boats leaving from Bulgaria."

Tensions between Bulgarian Jewish Communists and Zionists come from numerous sources, including JDC and CZA documents (especially folder 25/9660), postwar Bulgarian Jewish publications in the National Library in Sofia, and interviews. The aliyah as a "false Zionist fantasy" comes from the Mossek article.

The Zionists as "reactionaries" quote and accounts of the Fatherland Front and World Zionist Organization meetings come from Vassileva. The initial steps to return Jewish property came from a March 1945 law and are documented in Chary,
The Bulgarian Jews and the Final Solution,
p. 178.

The punishments meted out by the new Communist-led government are documented in Tamir's
Bulgaria and Her Jews,
p. 223. The sparing of Peshev is explored in chapter 7 of Gabriele Nissim's
The Man Who Stopped Hitler,
pp. 165-89. The figure of 2,138 executions is listed in
Bulgaria and Her Jews,
p. 285, footnote 588, quoting official figures of the People's Court; Tamir (p. 223) believes the figure is closer to 3,000.

Dimitrov's return to Bulgaria is documented in his memoirs and in Crampton's
A
Short History of Modern Bulgaria,
p. 153. Additional discussion of Dimitrov and Jewish property is in Chary, p. 182. His two decades in the Kremlin are mentioned by Tamir on p. 224. The strategy of the Communist leadership and its replacement of private ownership with collectives are documented in the Mossek article.

The celebrations of Sofia Jews comes from documents in the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem (folder 25/9660).

The birth of Dalia (then Daizy), and her father's excitement, was recalled by Virginia Eshkenazi. Dalia was told by her parents that they had hoped for a child; Virginia remembered her beauty and quiet manner.

Dimitrov recorded the February 18, 1948, meeting with Stalin in his diary. Bulgaria's vice premier and interior minister were also present.

The "boundless appreciation" and "satisfaction" quotes come from letters found in the Bulgarian National Archives, folder 622-1 of the Central Consistory of the Jews in Bulgaria. That Jacques Eshkenazi, a committed Communist, would have adopted the same stance is confirmed by Dalia. The consolidation and control of the Zionist groups under the Communist umbrella is confirmed by Mossek, Vassileva, and by Chary on p. 182.

The "chain reaction" of emigration was described in several interviews with Bulgarian Jews in Israel and Bulgaria, notably Moritz Assa, a Communist who did not wish to emigrate but who saw most of his family, friends, and many of his neighbors do so. The names and professions of the immigrants are taken from a 128page list in folder 622-1 of the Jewish Consistory in the National Archives in Sofia. The "psychosis" quote is from Assa.

The early emigration of five merchant marine ships, the average of $40 per person for the passage on the ships, and the Bulgarian government's need of hard currency are all documented in JDC's Queens archives, collection 45/64, file 4201. The figure of 750 people on five ships is confirmed in a confidential memo, dated September 5, 1948, to JDC offices in New York. The use of the Bulgarian merchant marine is mentioned in a similar memo, dated August 30.

The "first big operation" is documented by Vassileva, chapter 4, pp. 110-26. She also mentions the tests of immigrants for various diseases, which were becoming a major concern in the new Jewish state. The precise number of Bulgarian Jews comes from the ship's manifest, cited earlier. The date of the departure from the Sofia rail station is confirmed in General Letter No. 1205 (JDC Jerusalem archives, Box 11C) and in an October 29, 1948, letter to the JDC offices in Paris.

The route of the train was described in detail by Moshe Melamed.

The "four steps in Israel" quote was recalled by David Koen. There are other translations of this. According to Rabbi Mailer of Temple Akiba in Culver City, California, the saying is as follows: "Anyone who walks four cubits [about six feet] in the land of Israel is certain of receiving a place in the world to come." This expression comes from the Talmud, Tractate Ketubot.

Herzl's political journey into Zionism and his actual trips to convince the imperial powers that a Jewish state was in their interest are documented in Herzl's
Diaries.
Additional insight into Herzl is given by Allan Janik and Stephen Toulmin in their 1973 book,
Wittgenstein s Vienna.
The authors portray Herzl as a member of the Viennese cultural elite who was "first, last, and always a dandy"; he insisted "that frock coats be worn at the first Zionist International conference in Basel."

Some of Herzl's initial discussions of the Zionist idea were in 1895 with Baron Maurice de Hirsch. The two men talked of Hirsch's funding of Jewish settlements in Argentina
(Diaries,
pp. 13-28). Zionist hostility to the Uganda idea is documented, among other places, in Avineri's
The Making of Modern Zionism,
p. 110. Chaim Weizmann's "fit the gem" quote comes from
The Letters and Papers of Chaim Weizmann, vol. 1, series B, paper 24
and is taken from Masalha's
Expulsion of the Palestinians,
pp. 5-6.

The arrival of the train at the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic was remembered by Moshe Melamed. The figure of four thousand tons of crates, and their storage in the synagogue in Sofia, comes from a May, 9, 1949, confidential memo (JDC Queens archives, 45/64/2970).