By Ivor Markman

 

When I was a young boy, I used to travel with my family by car to the old Transvaal to visit my Mom's family.

 

As many of you I'm sure will remember, not all the roads to Johannesburg were tarred and travellers in their cars had to endure many hours of bumpy and dusty dirt roads.

 

Well, it was during one of those trips, round about 1958, on a hot summer's day, in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the Free State, my Dad pulled off the road at one of those landmark concrete picnic tables and parked in the shade of a lovely willow tree.

 

We were all merrily munching away at the food my Mom had so meticulously prepared the night before leaving Port Elizabeth when, there in the distance, we saw a tractor approaching.

 

Suddenly, as the tractor came nearer, my Dad stood up and started smiling. He went forward in the direction of the vehicle and indicated for the farmer to stop.

 

The driver stopped and with a heavy Afrikaans accent said "Hello Hymie! Hoe gaan dit? Wat maak jy hierso?"

(How are things going? What are you doing here?)

 

And my Dad said "Hello Dan, hoe gaan dit? Ons is op pad Jo'burg toe. Kom ontmoet my gesin." (How are things going? We are on our way to Jo'burg. Come and meet my family.)

 

My Dad was clearly excited. As he introduced us he explained that Dan was one of the men who served with him "Up North" during the war.

 

I remember the scene so clearly, as though it was just the other day, but I never quite understood until years later just how significant the meeting was as two brothers in arms were reunited after many years.

 

The one was an Afrikaner, the other Jewish, but both were South Africans who had put their lives at risk and volunteered to fight the Fascists and the Nazis who were attempting to force their "New World Order" on the nations of the world.

 

Hymie and Dan had not seen each other for about 12 or 13 years and they never saw each other again, but that brief encounter was very special.

 

Together they had volunteered to fight for us , they were prepared to give up their todays for our tomorrows.

 

Through the years many brave South Africans have laid down their lives for the cause of freedom, including a large number of Jews.

 

I must emphasize that even though I'm discussing the role played by South Africa's Jewish soldiers, at no time do I wish to undermine or lessen the incredible importance of the role played by South African soldiers from all the other races, religions, and denominations.

 

I just feel very little is known by the younger generations of the role played by Jewish citizens.

 

From way back South African Jews have always responded to the country's call.

 

The first Jewish Eastern Cape soldier to die in a military action in South Africa was actually an 1820 Settler, Joshua Davis Norden.

 

Captain Norden lived in Grahamstown and was responsible for forming the Grahamstown Yeomanry, a burgher force he also commanded.

 

During the War of the Ax, on April 25, 1846, while fighting near Grahamstown against Gaika's forces, Norden was killed, becoming the first Jewish South African casualty.

 

He was later buried with full military honours in the Jewish cemetery in Grahamstown.

 

His fellow soldiers erected a plaque to his memory in St George's Cathedral, in the town, probably the only Jew in South Africa to ever be so recognised.

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Samuel Norden, a relative of Joshua Davis Norden, was the next casualty and was killed in 1858 during the Basuto War while leading a charge.

 

During the South African War (also known as the Boer War) 2,800 Jews fought on the side of the British. Of these, 125 were killed.

 

It is not possible to give more than rough estimates of the number of Jews who fought with the Boers, but soon after the outbreak of the war, Dr Joseph Hertz, later to become the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, put the figure at 300.

 

Jews fought with the Boers, under the Vierkleur, on every battlefield and Jewish Irreconcilables fought with their Boer comrades to the bitter end.

 

Several Jewish prisoners ended up at the POW camps at St. Helena, Bermuda, and Ceylon.

 

Years after the South African War, at a banquet in Johannesburg in 1929, General Hertzog, spoke of the good relations which existed between Jews and Dutch-speaking burghers.

 

He said:

 

"Both were deeply imbued with the spirit of South African nationalism.

 

"No wonder, then, that during the Boer War, among the most faithful and most trusted men on commando, there was almost everywhere to be found a Jew in the ranks of the Afrikaners."

 

In St George's Park, just a few kilometres away from here, is the Prince Alfred's Guard memorial.

 

On it are inscribed the names of those Port Elizabeth men who fell during the early wars in South Africa.

 

Included on the panels are two Jewish soldiers, Private A E Goldschmidt, who was killed in Kroonstad, and Private Edward Levy, who died in Cradock.

 

During The Great War, 1914-18, in all the theatres of war, many of the Springbok soldiers were from the South African Jewish community.

 

Amongst the names of soldiers killed during the 1st World War, inscribed alongside their comrades on the panels of the Port Elizabeth Cenotaph, are those of Port Elizabeth Jews.

 

These include:

 

Private J Barnes,

Lt P Gluckman,                              

Signaller S Gluckman,

Sgt E Joseph,

Private L Lack,

PB Myers,                                       

Private J Rubin,

Lt B Solomon,

C Rudolf, and

S J Solomon.

 

All well known Port Elizabeth Jewish names.

 

As a result of the enormous losses of the First World War, the British Empire Service League was started.

 

Likewise, Jewish sentiment resulted in the formation of the Jewish Ex Service League in 1920 by soldiers concerned with the welfare of their comrades and to remember those who lost their lives "In Flanders' fields".

 

When the 2nd World War broke out there was a special reason for the rush amongst Jews to sign up. Even though the memory of the horrors of the First World War were still fresh in many minds, Jews willingly signed up.

 

An article that appeared on the front page of the Eastern Province Herald on November 24, 1938, may explain why so many Jews signed up.

 

The article carried the headline "Ghastly story of Nazi brutality".

 

London, Wednesday.

 

"An eyewitness account of the torture and killing of German Jews in the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen has reached the News Chronicle from what is declared to be an unimpeachable authority.

 

"On November 11, a Berlin police officer and 12 policemen arrived at Sachsenhausen camp with 62 hostages to be delivered to the camp commander.

 

"The prisoners were mostly well to do lawyers, doctors, landlords, engineers, businessmen and two Rabbis.

 

"The police officer made them leave the motor coaches and prepared to march them to the camp commander's office.

 

"But at the camp gates two long ranks of Black Guards lined the way - whips, clubs and spades in their hands.

 

"Suspecting the worse the police officer approached the troopers' leader and asked for a free passage but was told he must deliver up the hostages on the spot.

 

"Thereupon the Jews were made to run the gauntlet of the troopers and a hail of blows fell upon them as they advanced through the ranks.

 

"Unable to bear their cries the police turned their backs.

 

"The Jews were beaten further as they fell - then other prisoners were ordered to carry them away.

 

"Twelve were dead with their skulls smashed and the others were all unconscious.

 

"Some had their eyes knocked out and their faces flattened to a shapeless mass.

 

"The troopers' leader handed "a receipt" to the police officer to show he had delivered the correct number and the police returned to Berlin."

 

End quote.

 

The full truth of the terrible horrors of the Nazi's final solution for the "Jewish Problem" only emerged later towards the end of the war after the Allied forces defeated the vicious Nazis hordes.

 

But because of the role of newspapers and reports such as I just read, Jews around the world feared for the worst and prepared to go to war to defend their brethren and their countrymen.

 

It was only later that the world found out about the death squads, the execution lorries, the gas chambers, the mass graves, the death camps and the ovens which were used to burn the bodies of six million of our Jewish brethren who were systematically starved, tortured and beaten to death, by the forces of evil.

 

The Jewish Board of Deputies, played a very prominent part during the recruitment drive in the months before the actual outbreak of the Second World War.

 

The military authorities approached the SA Jewish Ex Service League and requested that the members launch a recruiting campaign amongst the youth.

 

The League complied.

 

Committees of Jewish Ex Servicemen were formed and rallies were held in businesses, halls, clubs and even in private houses.

 

The results were sometimes very dramatic.

 

After a meeting of members of Balfour Park, one of the favourite sports clubs of the Rand Jewish community, nearly 70 members came forward on the spot, formed themselves into fours, and marched to the Drill Hall to sign up.

 

Each morning the roll calls reflected the Jewish influence in the various regiments.

 

On parade grounds around the country, Goldberg stood alongside Smith, Cohen stood besides Macdonald, Hirsch besides Van Rensburg and Gluckman besides Van der Merwe.

 

By the end of the war South African Jews, serving in the Union Defence Force and other allied forces, numbered just over 10,000 (9,400 men and 600 women), out of a total South African army of just over 211,000, the official figures of the Union Office of Census and Statistics.

 

In actual fact probably more than 10,000 members of the Jewish community enlisted, for despite all the Jewish Board of Deputies efforts it was impossible to trace every Jew who had signed on.

 

Considering the total number of Jews in the country, 10,000 was an impressive figure.

 

It is with sense of deep and sincere pride that I relate the following figures to you:

 

During the 2nd World War 357 South African Jews gave their lives and 327 were wounded or injured;

 

143 Jews were "men­tioned in dispatches," a military award for gallantry or otherwise commendable service.

22 were awarded the Military Medal

20 were made Members of the Order of the British Empire,

 

16 received the Distinguished Flying Cross,   

14 received the Military Cross, 

7 were made Officers of the Order of the British Empire 

4 received the British Empire Medal

2 each were awarded the Distinguished Service Order, Distinguished Conduct Medal and the Distinguished Flying Medal,

One was awarded the Air Force Cross.

2 civilians were awarded the George Medal, for civilian gallantry in the face of enemy action and general brave deeds.

Two civilians were awarded the Union of South Africa King's Medal for Bravery, the highest South African civilian decoration during the war.

 

If one considers only a small number of soldiers actually come into contact with the enemy, and even fewer get the acknowledgement, then one can realise just how impressive these figures are.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen

 

Our parents promised to remember them,

 

We must honour our parents by remembering them.

 

“We will remember them.”