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ABSTRACT
This paper explores the experiences of Jewish right-wing underground members who were imprisoned in detention camps in Eritrea, Sudan, and Kenya during the British Mandate rule over Palestine from October 1944 to July 1948. These 459 detainees endured harsh conditions and isolation, after being exiled without trial and denied the ability to appeal to a court. Their primary means of communication with the outside world was by correspondence. An extensive collection of letters penned by these detainees to their loved ones and to national and international institutions is housed in Israeli archives, particularly within the Jabotinsky Institute. Additionally, original newspapers and a comprehensive book compiled during their time in the camp are among the preserved materials. Remarkably, these ego documents have seen limited use in academic research. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive depiction of the isolated microcosm of culture, education, struggle, and resilience cultivated by these young Jewish men despite their uncertain condition and lack of control over their fate. This analysis relies on letters composed in real-time, subject to military censorship as well as self-restraint, to avoid causing distress to their families. These letters constitute a valuable historical resource that sheds light on a lesser-known case study.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Eliash, Irgun and Lehi Exile, 22.
2 The original is in Jabotinsky Archive, K15-4/72. Parts of the book were published in print years later: Bella (ed.). From Sembel to Gilgil.
3 There were nine escapes from the various camps, few of them successful. See details in The Book of Detention and Exile, 272–5.
4 For example, Eliash, “The Repatriation of Kenyan Exiles.”
5 See a detailed discussion in Itzhak Pass’s book on women’s letters from Beth Lehem prison during the British Mandate. Most of these female prisoners were members of Irgun and Lehi, a few of them wives or sisters of the detainees in Africa, like Shulamit Shamir, Ester Raziel Naor, and Sarah Kallah. Pass, In the Women’s Kingdom of Beth Lehem, 16–9.
6 Schulte and von Tippelskirch, eds. Reading, Interpreting and Historicizing, 6.
7 “Cartago,” Kan 11, www.kan.org.il/content/kan/kan-11/p-11635/.
8 The creators, Yanetz and Reshef Levi, argued that they based the series on the stories their father Eliahu had recounted to them in the past. They emphasized that their intention was to portray the human side of the narrative and that they did not feel obligated to ensure historical accuracy. Interview in Calcalist, December 21, 2022, www.calcalist.co.il/style/article/ry0hyb1kj.
9 Milman, The Prisoners of Zion, 39.
10 Norris, “Repression and Rebellion,” 31–2.
11 Porat, From Riots to Rebellion, 278.
12 Husseini (ed.), Exiled from Jerusalem.
13 Milman, The Prisoners of Zion, 39.
14 Menahem Berger’s letter to Shimshon Junichman, October 14, 1946, in which he complains of losing a year in the university and asks for his intervention; Joseph Vinitzki’s letter to Junichman, October 26, 1946; Moshe Hoch to his family, October 13, 1946, has no illusions of release, in Moshe Hoch Personal Archive, Freedom Fighters of Israel Heritage Association, Beit Yair. Junichman, a doctor and senior member of the Revisionist movement and later a Knesset member of the Herut party, was detained in Sudan and Eritrea for a year and a half and then released. He was active in the efforts to liberate the prisoners.
15 Hoch’s letter from Sembel, June 16, 1946.
16 David Juttan’s letter from Sembel to Junichman in Eretz Israel, June 8, 1946, Jabotinsky Institute Archive, P106-3/1.
17 Sasson Levi’s letter from Gilgil, October 19, 1947, Jabotinsky Institute Archive, P470-2/1.
18 Hoch’s letter from Gilgil, October 20, 1947.
19 Hoch letter, December 11, 1946.
20 Yehuda Naor, May 17, 1948 (this letter can be found online on the website of Dynasty Auctions).
21 Levi’s letter, May 17, 1948.
22 Makepeace, Captives of War.
23 Makepeace, “Correspondence as a Historical Source.”
24 Ibid.
25 Hoch, September 9, 1946.
26 Berkowitz to his wife, July 23, 1945.
27 As described by friends and colleagues over the years. See, for example, Ahimeir (ed.), Itzhak Shamir, 70, 81, 94.
28 Shamir, December 1, 1946, in Letters to Shulamit, 88.
29 Shamir, Letters to Shulamit, 134.
30 Moshe Berkovitz, July 31, 1945, Jabotinsky Institute Archive, P466-2.
31 Berkovitz, September 23, 1945.
32 Metuki (ed.), See You on the Outside.
33 Ibid., 9.
34 Levi’s letter from Gilgil, September 4, 1947.
35 Hillel, And the Letters Testify, 9.
36 Ibid., February 12, 1947, 86.
37 Ibid., May 18, 1947, 227.
38 Ibid., February 5, 1948, 289.
39 Joseph Reshelbach to his brother Saul, December 10, 1945, Jabotinsky Institute Archive, K15-5/1.
40 Shamir to Shulamit, December 1, 1946, in Letters to Shulamit, 90.
41 Kallah to Sarah, Gilgil, November 19, 1947, in Metuki (ed.), See you on the Outside, 244.
42 Juttan to Junitzman from Asmara, June 28, 1946, Jabotinsky Institute Archive, P106-3/1.
43 Vinitzki to Junitzman, July 22, 1946, Jabotinsky Institute Archive, P106-3/1.
44 It should be noted that Shamir escaped the camp in Eritrea on January 14, 1947, so he probably did not take the letters with him. Hillel, too, was among the escapees, but one of his roommates, Michael Zeltzer, saved Hannah’s letters. He gave them to Hillel as a gift for their wedding in January 1949. Hillel, And the Letters Testify, 373.
45 Hillel, And the Letters Testify, 228.
46 Kallah to Sarah, June 2, 1947, in Metuki (ed.), See you on the Outside, 62. It seems that certain phrases in the local languages had penetrated into the rulers’ vocabulary.
47 Berkovitz, September 14, 1945.
48 Hoch to his parents, July 12, 1945.
49 Reshelbach, March 26, 1946.
50 Hanoch Sterlitz, May 28, 1947, P425-2.
51 Hoch, March 13, 1946.
52 Ibid.
53 Levi, October 19, 1947.
54 Okun (ed.), Exiles of Kenya, XIV.
55 Uzzi Ornan (1923–2022) was a leading linguist, professor at the Hebrew University, and long-time activist for separating state from church and the creation of Israeli nationhood.
56 Uzzi Ornan, Grammar of Mouth and Ear: A Textbook for Hebrew Speakers, Gilgil Kenya, 1947.
57 Milman, The Prisoners of Zion in Africa, 295–350. This is a detailed table of all the detainees – names, dates of detention, occupation and roles in the camp, and miscellaneous activities.
58 Hillel, And the Letters Testify, 231. Quoting a report of Rabbi Goldman, who had visited the camp in 1947.
59 Constitution of the Jewish exiles in the detention camp in Asmara, Jabotinsky Institute Archive, K15-2/2.
60 Ibid.
61 Reshelbach, December 5, 1945.
62 Hoch, March 21, 1946.
63 Kallah, October 2, 1947, in Metuki (ed.), See you on the Outside, 191.
64 Festive celebration of completion and rebeginning of reading the Torah.
65 Kallah, October 19, 1947, in Metuki (ed.), See you on the Outside, 209.
66 Ibid., 210–2.
67 Berkovitz to his wife Zipporah, September 9, 1945.
68 Hanoch Sterlitz, June 9, 1947.
69 Sterlitz, June 19, 1947.
70 The full protocol of the trial and a thorough historical background of the Jewish history, written in the camp, can be found in Jabotinsky Institute Archive, K4-55/3.
71 Eliash, Irgun and Lehi Exile, 65.
72 Shamir (from Asmara), January 12, 1947, in Letters to Shulamit, 135.
73 Letter of the Cultural Committee in the detention camp in Sudan, April 4, 1945. Jabotinsky Institute Archive, K15-3/12.
74 Letter to the World Hebrew Alliance, March 8, 1945, Jabotinsky Institute Archive, K15-3/12.
75 Letter to the Journalist Association, April 8, 1945, Jabotinsky Institute Archive, K15-3/12.
76 Furman, “Sport within Walls.”
77 A shochet is a Jewish ritual slaughterer who is trained and certified to slaughter animals for food in accordance with Jewish dietary laws. Reshelbach, December 12, 1945.
78 Hoch, (from Asmara) March 13, 1946.
79 Hoch (from Kenya), August 8, 1947.
80 Kallah, October 19, 1947, in Metuki (ed.), See you on the Outside, 212. It had been displayed in the Jabotinsky Institute in Tel Aviv for many years.
81 Fishburn, “Repressive Measures.”
82 Okun (ed.), Exiles of Kenya, XV.
83 Several issues are preserved at Jabotinsky Institute Archive, ZB-771.
84 Milman, The Prisoners of Zion in Africa, 56–7; Stav, “They Won’t Break Us.”
85 In 2021, a box with numerous drawings, an album, and letters of Pensahovitz was discovered by descendants of his landlady, Fruma Zuker, in Haifa. They published part of them on the Internet and wrote his story: https://onegshabbat.blogspot.com/2021/11/blog-post_26.html.
86 Hoch, February 23, 1948.
87 Among the movies that were shown in the camps and are mentioned in letters are National Velvet (1944), directed by Clarence Brown, The Way to the Stars (1945), directed by Anthony Asquith, and Caravan (1946), directed by Arthur Crabtree. Further information can be found at the Jabotinsky Institute Archive, K15-4/53.
88 Hoch, June 30, 1946.
89 Martin Plaut, “Britain’s Guantanamo Bay,” BBC News, August 6, 2002. The inspector, David Cracknell, received a commendation for his work. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2175882.stm.
90 Hillel, And the Letters Testify, 243. The details of this conversation held in Gilgil before their last escape were not written in a letter, of course, but in the book his son Eliezer wrote years later.
91 See full report including names and dates in Eliash, Irgun and Lehi Exile, 272–5.
92 Okun (ed.), Exiles of Kenya, XVI.
93 Ibid.
94 Eliash, Irgun and Lehi Exile, 101–2.
95 Okun (ed.), Exiles of Kenya, XVII.
96 The escape is recounted in full detail in Meridor, Long is the Road to Freedom, 496–523.
97 Hillel, And the Letters Testify, 17.
98 Shamir, Letters to Shulamit, May 8, 1948, 142.
99 Ibid.
100 Okun (ed.), Exiles of Kenya, xviii.
101 Berkowitz, January 21, 1946.
102 The telegram was signed by Reuven Franco, later Drori, who escaped three times from Sembel and was caught. On the fourth time, he escaped from Gilgil to Europe in March 1948. He could speak twelve languages and was an asset to every group of escapees. Eliash, Irgun and Lehi Exile, 149; Jabotinsky Institute Archive, K2-25/1.
103 Okun (ed.), Exiles of Kenya, 224.
104 Eliash, Irgun and Lehi Exile, 79.
105 Reshelbach, February 3, 1946.
106 Avraham Reshelbach, letter, February 3, 1946.
107 They refer here to the official leadership of the Yishuv in Palestine, which ignored them and their case since they belonged to the “separatist” undergrounds.
108 Letter to Rabbi Levin, March 15, 1946, Jabotinsky Institute Archive, K15-2/7. This file contains the entire correspondence between the camp and Rabbi Levin.
109 Letter to Rabbi Herzog, September 2, 1946, Jabotinsky Institute Archive, K15-2/15.
110 The Exiles’ Newsletter, no. 103, February 1946, Jabotinsky Institute Archive, K15-2/15.
111 Joseph Reshelbach, March 3, 1946.
112 See, for example, the letters of Hoch, March 15, 1947, and David Juttan, June 28, 1946.
113 Meridor, Long Is the Road to Freedom, 234.
114 Milman, The Prisoners of Zion in Africa, 198–9.
115 Meridor, Long Is the Road to Freedom, 495.
116 Rabinowitz, Rabbi’s Act.
117 Milman, The Prisoners of Zion in Africa, 201–3. Rabbi Rabinowitz (1906–1984) emigrated to Israel, joined the Herut party headed by Menachem Begin, and was a deputy mayor of Jerusalem.
118 Naor, May 17, 1948.
119 Hamashkif, July 13, 1948.
120 Ibid.
121 Davar, July 13, 1948.
122 On May 17, 1977, the Likud party headed by Menachem Begin won the national election, and he became prime minister.
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Daniela Ozacky Stern
Daniela Ozacky Stern, lecturer in modern Jewish history, Western Galilee College, Israel. [email protected].