CHAPTER 25 - Sara’s Black Mood, the Search for Water and Pigeon Problems
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| Sara's Black Mood |
She falls ill, repeatedly and indeed in Cairo had secretly visited her childhood doctor, Dr. Naftali Weitz, who was himself in exile there, and who had told her in no uncertain terms that she must rest and ‘not involve herself in any stressful activities.’ Naturally, Sara ignores the good doctor's advice and on her return, throws herself, wholeheartedly into action.
But, it is winter and she falls ill, repeatedly. At night, she cannot sleep and tosses and turns, alternatively feverish and cold, haunted by her fears and the demons that accompany them. In the day, all is well but every night that black cloud descends and insomnia invades her like a screw worm in her brain. In the nearly two months she had been away in Cairo, Port Said and Cyprus, her health had been challenged, though she never complained of it at the time. Chills and rigors at night in the hot, sweaty heat and listlessness in the day. She had already been feeling unwell and gloomy on that outward voyage from Larnaca and had written in her journal of her disquiet: ‘We are approaching Port Said. My heart is beating, beating strongly, for who knows what awaits me there?’ She had regretted taking Joe to Egypt without Aron's permission but she had made that decision knowing that to leave Joe behind at Atlit would, in his unstable state of mind, put him and their work in further danger. She persuaded herself that taking him with her was the lesser of the two evils and she could, at least, keep an eye on him. Of course, it hadn't worked out like that and Sara blamed herself for Aron's fury and Joe's reaction to it. It was only now on her return and in those sleepless, pre-dawn hours, that she felt she understood Joe's volatile behaviour. His fuss at returning to Palestine was less about British insult and Aron's anger, than about his fear that returning, would put his life in danger. He was terrified and quite rightly so, that his former Hashomer ‘comrades' would turn him in to the Turks.
Another worry. It appeared that Rifka, in America, had confided in a friend of hers back home, Pnina Levontin, that Avshalom had tried to get to the British lines in the Sinai where he had been killed by Bedouin. If Pnina disseminated this information, all would be over in seconds.
In their absence rumours had spread like wildfire: Nili itself and the Yishuv community as a whole believed that Sara and Joe had ‘run away’, leaving them to face the music.
Sara was afraid too, for Leo and instructed him not to come on shore on his visits, but to remain on board ship. As she writes to Leo: ‘We ourselves have not yet settled down: we are watched by a thousand eyes. Every step of ours is followed and we don't know what is going to happen to us.’
She writes to Aron with another urgent requirement: that Aron must write to Zvi and their father who were ‘making her life a misery’. At every family meeting Zvi berated her, demanding that Nili end its dangerous activities forthwith and her father buried his nose in his prayerbook. ‘They are terrified of the slightest triviality,’ writes Sara, ‘a falling leaf frightens them... they are panic-stricken and we must bury ourselves alive without delay.’
This was followed up by a similar unhappy letter from Joe: ‘I am suffering very much from your family, that is, from Zvi. You’d be amazed at what he’s saying about me. I don’t reply to his curses and pretend not to understand but believe me, I’m sick to death. If it were not for your sister who, in her great wisdom, knows how to quiet them and to influence your father, more or less, I would run away to the ends of the earth. Do please write to your father that it is your wish that Sara and I should be in charge of the work...and tell him that he should make friends with me.’
There is nothing Joe hates more than exclusion and he hates the idea of displeasing Efraim.
Aron is sick too, with all the infighting and pettiness and Joe's pathetic refrain annoys him immensely.
Ironically, just as Sara is falling apart with worry and family tensions, the British are doing better than ever, all based on Sara and her helper's reports.
Aron's reconnaisance has never been more crucial to British military plans and to the defeat of the Turks.
****
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| Allenby in Cairo with Officers of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, 1917 |
The British start the year 1917 with their first success in gaining control of Palestine. The city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip is conquered in a single day, on January 9, 1917. But they realise it will be impossible to defend Rafah from their positions, and that they need to conquer Gaza City itself - the key to conquering the entire Land of Israel from the south. But Gaza, then, in ancient times and in the present ones, is never easy to conquer. In March and April of that seminal year, two British attempts to conquer the strip from the south fail. These costly failures - many Allied lives are lost - leads as we have heard, to the replacement of General Murray, the then Egyptian Expeditionary Force’s commanding officer. General Edmund Allenby, who until then had been Commander of the Third Army in France, is, as we know, appointed to the position.
After arriving in Egypt on 27 June 1917, Allenby is all action, visiting units, firing and reassigning commanders and developing his own framework for his first campaign. His attention to detail, quick temper and impatience soon become legendary. One division commander said, ‘What angered him was stupidity, negligence, and, most of all, disregard of orders.’ War correspondent Hamilton Fyfe described his arrival at his new assignment:
‘He found the Turks strongly entrenched, and our men entrenched just as strongly opposite to them - position warfare in its most tedious form. Headquarters had been in Cairo, three hundred miles from the front, and it seemed as if stagnation might continue forever. With Allenby's coming the atmosphere changed. He declined to stay in Cairo. He trundled across the desert in a Ford motor car and set up his headquarters in a wooden hut ten miles from the front line. He set to work at once to organize railways and make roads. He commandeered all the beer in Egypt for his thirsty troops and road-makers. Over the next months he prepared to strike a heavy blow.’
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| Turks & Brits Face Off |
Allenby’s mission to conquer Jerusalem before Christmas of that year, will, as stated, be a much needed lift to British spirits which are at rock bottom after three long years of war and the many casualties on the Western - European Front. Allenby, who will forever be remembered as the conqueror of the Holy Land, ending four hundred years of Ottoman rule, chooses an unusual strategy including, as we have heard, a series of deceptive moves to achieve his aim. He understands that Gaza must be cut off from Be’er Sheva and that the towns and villages connecting the cities must be demolished. While the Turks are expecting an attack on Gaza, the canny General, decides to first capture Be’er Sheva and then surprise the Turks by attacking Gaza from the east, thus slowing their ability to build up forces there.
His tactics are summed up in this official British summary of the time: ‘Allenby’s plan was to encircle and capture Be’er Sheva, and then roll up the Turkish front. The Turks defended the wells stoutly and they had not sense enough to destroy them when they were driven out of Be’er Sheva. German General von Falkenhayn who had overriding authority had ordered the abandonment of Gaza. Allenby’s manouevre had succeeded in driving the Turks, some units in panic, off the whole Gaza-Be’er Sheva front. He had routed the Turks and captured a great proportion of their artillery and other material.’
Despite lack of official recognition, all this is in no small part due to Aron and his little band of ‘amateurs’.
****
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| Bentwich, Clayton, Aron & Deedes, Map Room, Cairo |
On the ground at British High Command Headquarters, Cairo, all is action. Brigadier General Clayton, Major Wyndham Deedes, Captain Bentwich and Captain Edmunds in the map room addressing Aron.
“With your reconnaisance, we‘ll attack from the Be’er Sheva front - they don’t expect us to come from the desert - ” says the Major, précising Allenby’s orders and concurring with Aron’s intelligence.
Brigadier General Clayton, in charge of logistics, informs the assembled men: “We’ll need a supply railway and a water pipeline, and quickly!”
Aron nods confidently. This is just up his alley and he has the relevant information at his finger tips due to Sara’s diligent work rifling through his decades of records.
Later Allenby will indeed declare that it is Aron’s work that will conquer his greatest enemy, the waterless desert, which awaits his army.
****
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| Aron & Deedes with Egyptian Expeditionary Force laying Water Pipelines |
A boiling hot day, in the rocky wastes of the Sinai. The loud sound of drilling over.
Close on Aron, his face streaked with dirt and grease, holding a map of buried water sources, based on his own research which brings together contemporary hydro-geological sources, Roman and biblical ones. Leo behind him, both in British officer’s uniforms with military hard hats. Engineers of the Royal Camel Corps, covered by a brigade of ANZACS, in armoured ‘tanks’, dig into the earth searching for the long-buried wells. Under a palm tree, Brigadier General Clayton and Major Wyndham Deedes in full battle gear wait in anticipation.
Close on the digger head as it drills into the earth. Leo and Aron wait, scarcely daring to breathe.
Brigadier General Clayton throws a doubtful look at Leo.
A sudden yell from one of the engineers as a huge spurt of water spouts from the rock.
Aron’s face. Leo hugs him tightly. Brigadier General Clayton nods appreciatively.
The Desert Mounted Corps throw down sleepers for the supply line and we dissolve from the line of railway sleepers to Aron’s map of Palestine and so to Zikhron.
****
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| Pink and Green Lozenges of Light |
Aron’s Study. Zikhron Ya’akov. A strange light - pink and green lozenges from the stained glass window, with the flickering shadows of the palm trees - comes in though the window.
Sara traces her fingers along the spines of the books, filing cabinets of folders and Aron’s specimens in their dusty glass jars. On the desk, framed photos of Rifka winning a music prize, Sara as a young girl with flowers, and the last family photograph of Malka, Efraim, Alex, Zvi, Rifka, Aron and Sara.
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| Ex Libris; A. Aronson 1914 |
Sitting at Aron’s desk, she picks up a book - ‘A Guide to the Flora of Transjordan’ and opens it. We go close on the dedication: ‘Ex Libris; A. Aronson 1914’.
Sara’s tears trickle down her cheeks but somehow her heavy load is lifted and the blackness goes, transferred by the clear light of purpose.
****
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| Camel Corps Leader, Be’er Sheva |
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| General Allenby's Battle of Be’er Sheva |
The Battle of Be’er Sheva and the Southern Palestine Offensive, begins in earnest in June 1917. Opposing Allenby, German commander General von Kressenstein had led three divisions of the Ottoman 4th Army in defence of the Sinai and Southern Palestine and had further strengthened his defensive line stretching from Gaza to Beersheba. A series of deceptions and that deliberate misinformation campaign were put into effect, including aerial and artillery attacks at Gaza, to reinforce the assumption the next British attack would take place again at Gaza. Meanwhile, Allenby's forces made ready to attack Beersheba, for what would be the real opening of the Third Battle of Gaza. Once taken, Beersheba would offer a number of advantages, including the promise of plentiful water.
****
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| Turkish and German Army Encampment, Be’er Sheva |
Turkish and German Army Encampment, Be’er Sheva.
The buzz of a vast encampment at dawn: Muslim prayers, Germans joking as they wash and dress, horses neighing, donkeys braying, as hundreds of Turkish and German Soldiers in a Brueghel-like scene, gather like ants. Some on horseback, others in military vehicles, and some on camels. All preparing for battle.
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| General Von Kressenstein's Tent, Be’er Sheva |
Inside a large bivouac, guarded by two German Soldiers, General Von Kressenstein with two Officers awaiting instruction.
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| Felix & Razor |
Felix, at his side, is carefully shaving the General with a razor, soap and tub of hot water. We go close on Felix’s trembling hand as he brings the razor to his superior’s neck.
Von Kressenstein gestures impatiently to Felix to hurry and addresses the Officers.
“They’ll never attack us here. Our arsenal is quite safe.”
We hear the growing sound of planes flying overhead, getting louder and louder.
A German Soldier shouts from outside the tent: “British planes! Get down! Duck! Duck!”
Von Kressenstein leaps out of his chair, yelling “Goddammit! Christ in heaven!!”
Simultaneously, Felix’s razor, apparently having a life of its own, gashes the Generals neck just where a large vein pulsates and throbs.
****
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| Joe at Jisr Mejame Bridge |
Jisr Mejame, the narrow stone and wood bridge across the river Jordan. Water placidly flowing, a weir further down roaring with pent up power.
Joe packs explosives and detonator under the bridge. The young Road Worker is able to provide useful logistics.
****
We cut back to the desert encampment and hear the sound over of bombs falling. Massive explosions. BOOM BOOM!
Von Kressenstein grabs his bleeding neck.
“Goddamit!” screams the General, blood pouring from the severed vein which sprays Felix’s shocked face with a spatter of scarlet droplets.
Another bomb lands and the shaving water and razor go flying and so does Felix.
****
The Jisr Mejame Bridge over the Jordan gets blown to smithereens.
A huge red fireball in the sky and rubble falls earthwards.
A disheveled, dusty Joe, covered in leaves and twigs, rubs his hands together at a job well done.
****
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| Naaman Consoles Felix |
Naaman’s house, in Rishon-Le-Zion. Night. Naaman and fugitive Felix - having discarded and burned his Turkish uniform and borrowed a suit from Naaman - are talking in low tones.
“Do you know what they do to traitors?” says the trembling Albanian.
Naaman shakes his head.
“First they cut off your arms and then your legs. And then the part between your legs...”
He begins to cry.
Naaman holds him in his arms, rocking him gently: “We won’t abandon you! I promise!”
****
Meanwhile Naaman's wife Adina is at home with the children, increasingly worried at her husband's mysterious, clandestine activities and the risks he is taking on a daily basis. What will happen to her and her babies if Naaman is caught?
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British High Command Headquarters. Map Room. Cairo. Major Wyndham Deedes, Brigadier General Clayton with British Officers gather around the Palestine map, despite their successful attack they looks unhappy.
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| Aron Proposes Carrier Pigeons |
“We need to speed up operations but I’m afraid Lieutenant Aronson, the presence of German U-Boats prevents the Monegam from approaching Atlit and negatively affects your communication,” declares the Brigadier General.
Aron is silent for only a second: “Pigeons might help, sir.”
“Pigeons?! From Palestine to Egypt? Impossible!” the Major exclaims.
Aron responds, having already planned for this eventuality: “No sir, they will only be used locally, from the shore to the boat. That is, when we can’t get ashore ourselves.”
The military men are dubious: “So we’ll switch your method of communication to carrier pigeons? I only hope you’re right Lieutenant.”
“Trained pigeons of course,” assures Aron. “My man, Leo Schneersohn, has a friend who is a pigeon racer. He assures us his friend’s birds are correctly trained and they’ll carry the messages from the Station in Atlit to the Monegam at sea and vice versa.”
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| Pigeon Post on the Western Front |
They all know that already on the European frontline, birds are used extensively by both the Allied and German sides, to carry messages from the trenches to their respective military headquarters. Indeed close to a hundred thousand carrier pigeons are utilised by the British, French, American and German armies and they are often more accurate and discreet in delivering their handwritten messages than telegraph which could easily be intercepted. Pigeons fly high and fast and easily avoid gunfire and shrapnel and their Pavlovian lessons hardly ever fail. At least, that is the received opinion.
****
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| Haim Wolf the Second, Pigeon Keeper |
The Tower Room window, Atlit. Sara and Joe with a softly-spoken pigeon keeper, who we shall call, ‘Haim Wolf’ after a man of the later, 1948 generation who also taught soldiers to fly birds into enemy territory in a very different war. The earlier Haim is carrying a cage containing four, very pretty, cooing, courier pigeons.
Like the second, the many years he has spent with pigeons have taught him that the Hebrew expression ‘Like a pair of pigeons’ - in which the bird symbolise eternal love and loyalty - is not very accurate.
To quote the second Haim: “Just like human beings, there are pigeons that fool around with other birdies...”
His predecessor, the softly-spoken pigeon man of our story, opens the cage, taking out a plump pigeon, and letting it go on the sill, demonstrating how the pigeon can fly from the window of the station tower down to the shore in a matter of minutes, all for the reward of a handful of seed corn.
“So your little love messages can get to the boat in no time at all,” he says with a twinkle in his eye.
‘Haim’ the first, sends down another bird, with a flick of his forefinger.
Sara smiles as the birds nose dive down to the rocky beach where a rock is liberally sprinkled with corn kernels.
****
The seashore, Atlit. Sara and Joe standing on the beach watching, as overhead the pigeons fly in downwards flight coming to a stop, to perch right next to them on the rocks where they get their just recompence.
The birds begin to preen and coo loudly as if mightily pleased with their manoeuvres.
Joe is, however, not pleased - having an irrational phobia about both snakes and pigeons, since his rough boyhood.
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| Nothing but Trouble |
“Vermin!” he shudders “Noisy buggers! Only way to shut them up - break their bloody necks! Nothing but trouble bloody pigeons.”
“Nonsense, Joe,” says Sara, who throws a handful of corn, as instructed by the pigeon man and those happy pigeons swoop down and noisily consume their carefully, conditioned reward.
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| The Pigeon Columbarium or Dovecot at Atlit |
Abu Farrid is instructed to build a dovecot or rather, a pigeon columbarium, in the grounds of the Station. It is painted pale blue and the pigeons count themselves lucky to have such delightful accommodation.
But those pigeons, of course, would bring nothing but trouble.
****
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| Raphael Arrives with Carrier Pigeons and Gold |
The next time the ship comes their numbers are augmented. This time with Raphael Aboulafia, Leo and Leibel on board along with number of caged carrier pigeons and ‘some thousands of pounds for our unfortunate brethren,’ as Raphael notes. Reporting that to their surprise when they arrive, they find the station eerily empty. Only Max Bronstein is there. Everyone else has gone home to Zikhron, or Haifa and Eitan is in Damascus.
‘Max comes down. We give him the papers and he returns to the shore with us. A shorter route. The situation in the country is very difficult, he tells us. We should have handed over the money and the pigeons, which are still in the boat, which has been floating at a safe distance, waiting for us, but as neither Sara nor Lishansky are there, we must wait.’
When they try the next day, Raphael writes of how he is placed on the back of one of the Arab boys and promptly dropped into the water. A situation that causes him much discomfort and some embarrassment.
‘When I got to the land, I couldn’t move because of how heavy my water-logged clothes were!’
He tries to wring the water out of his clothes, ‘but in vain,’ he declares, before going on to describe the meeting with the Nili operatives, whose first question is: ‘When will the British come? Is our redemption near?’
‘I answer that they should be strong and that there is a new British General and that redemption is near.’
He takes the men back to the sea, gives a sign and the boat returns.
‘We took the bags of gold and the pigeons, and went. The pigeons, may their names be remembered for evil, woke up and began to coo. The devil take them! I remembered the story about the geese who saved Rome and I think that if the Turks had had that luck, we would all be buried.’
****
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| Raphael & Sara with Daisy Chain |
Sara who is waiting, lying placidly in a field making a daisy chain, is not surprised to see him.
“Shalom, shalom!” she says holding out her hand and placing the little garland on her hair.
‘Before a woman like this, one must bow one’s head,’ writes Raphael. Yet another poor man to fall under the spell of Sara's quiet magic.
And he explains that the pigeons they had brought were to enable Nili to get information direct to Allenby’s headquarters in Wasi Gaza, in a matter of hours.
The mail bag he has brought, also contains a number of instructions and requests.
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| Nili Agent Ronia Mazeh |
Sara is now tasked with assessing Turkish troop numbers in Be’er Sheva. She passes on the message to Naaman who gets his answers from Absa Fein and another Nili member called Ronia Mazeh, who works as a telephonist in Turkish headquarters in that town.
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| Absa Fein & his Son |
Absa Fein, as we are aware, has been tasked with making a survey of the Turkish Gaza-Be’er Sheva front. Aron wants information on the number and location of Turkish guns.
It is Naaman who arranges for Fein to be employed as assistant to German arms supplier, a certain wheeler dealer, Herr Suss - who is under contract to supply arms to the Turks and Germans. Joe arranges for a wagon with two mules for Fein’s use and Fein is provided with a Turkish Army free pass enabling him to enter all the bases at will, with supplies and a little contraband of his own.
****
Aron’s office at the Research Station in Atlit. Sara with maps and reports spread out on the desk.
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| Toba & Newborn Baby |
Toba, with her newborn baby in a carry-cot, copying Sara’s notes into coded micro-writing. Sara sealing the messages into tiny cylinders - emptied out bullets - attaches one to the pigeon scuttling about on her desk. Toba’s baby cries and her mother picks her baby up and feeds him.
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| Sara & her Pigeons |
Sara ties another cylinder with coded note inside, to the leg of a second pigeon and lets it fly.
Then she peers through her binoculars to the ship moored just offshore.
****
On board the Monegam, Leo with Sara’s pigeon in his hand, untying the cylinder with its message.
He looks out towards the tower and gives a thumb’s up and a blown kiss.
****
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| Absa Fein & Mule Cart, Be’er Sheva |
In the busy environs of German Headquarters, Be’er Sheva, Carter Fein, with his wagon and mules listens carefully as troop hurry this way and that. He makes notes of the caliber and location of every gun and the number of men at each base. He even goes so far as to entertain Turkish officers in his lodgings with a bottle or two of cognac obtained on the black market, which further loosens the officers’ tongues. His friendly demeanour and the strong liquor mean, that despite the chaos on the front, Fein, is able to locate the site of a huge hidden cache of machine guns in the Gaza/Be’er Sheva area and he brings Sara the hand drawn map he has made of the location and the news detailing the massing of Turkish and German troop movements.
In addition, canny Fein reports in his daily journal: ‘I succeeded in meeting a hydrogeologist who had all the plans and locations of water. I made friends with him and and after half a bottle of cognac, finally managed to steal from him the documents and maps.’
****
The Research Station, Aron’s office, Atlit. Sara with Absa Fein’s maps and her hand written report of enemy movements spread out on the desk. Toba copying them into micro-coded messages. Sara sealing the messages into tiny canisters. The baby sleeps peacefully.
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| Sara Releases Carrier Pigeons into the Sky |
Sara at the tower balcony - releases four carrier pigeons into the sky.
The birds fly off against the blue in the direction of the coast.
But Sara feels the net closing and admits to Toba that they needs to get out of Palestine as soon as possible and that she will urgently request evacuation to Egypt by the British, at Aron's behest.
****
The reports that Absa Fein has brought are got to Leo on board the Monegam, which is still unable to reach shore. Leo hands the pigeon post over to Captain Smith - the same as had so recently shamed both Alex and Aron - who opens the folded map and reads the micro-message.
Smith jumps up with alacrity and immediately telegraphs General Headquarters in Cairo. This is completely against standard practice, the Captain is supposed to report to Intelligence only. He receives a smarting, ticking off. But the messages are through and Nili has proved its worth a thousandfold. But in a little bit of deviousness Smith claims the intelligence obtained is entirely due to his actions. Not long afterwards, Captain Smith is promoted to ‘Major Vincent Smith OBE’.
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British Headquarters, Cairo, Turkish Affairs Office. Brigadier General Clayton and Major Wyndham Deedes with a transcript of Sara’s messages from the Carter Absa Fein.
“We have the exact position of their guns and troops - ” says the Brigadier General.
Major Wyndham Deedes responds smartly: “Telegraph London, immediately - ”
****
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| Gaza in Ruins, 1917 |
Desert around the Gaza coast, dawn. The third battle of Gaza, begins as a feint to divert enemy forces from Be er Shevaa. Turkish and German troops, horses, wagons, and camels are primed and ready for attack. The garrison is bombarded for six days, and three divisions
deployed, to fool the Turks into believing that another frontal attack is imminent.
British planes fly overhead. Artillery booms from the east. Bombs falls from the British planes and artillery pounds from Royal Navy ships which strafe the area.
Gaza lies in ruins - as it does today...
****
British Headquarters, Cairo, Egyptian Expeditionary Force’s Offices. A sweltering summer day, a fan turns making no impression on the temperature. An anxious Aron with Brigadier General Clayton and Major Wyndham Deedes, both very pleased.
“A successful mission! Your pigeon post has payed dividends,” Major Wyndham Deedes is indeed satisfied.
“Yes,” says Aron. “But what about my sister? I’m worried sick about her safety.”
The Major is at pains to reassure him: “Don’t worry, we’ll get her out at the first sign of trouble.”
The Brigadier General adds: “We want you to return to London immediately, Lieutenant - A promotion. I believe they need your expertise to map the new outlines of your homeland.”
Aron can scarcely believe his ears. The day has finally come!
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| Aron Worries about his Beloved Sara |
But his excitement is marred by guilt and worry about his beloved Sara.
****
The Monegam reaches Port Said on the evening of 26th September but Leo is only able to land the next morning, when he quickly leaves for Cairo, only to find Aron gone.
Alex, who has at this stage, been dallying in America on lecture tours, fund raising missions and in numerous romantic dalliances with pretty girls, has returned to Egypt at Aron’s express request to take his place while the older brother attends to his urgent business in London. A string of broken hearts remains in the younger brother’s wake.
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| Leo & Alex at Cairo Railway Station |
At the main Cairo railway station Alexander meets Leo who quickly shows him Sara’s last communication, expressing the urgency in getting her out with Toba.
‘Our situation is getting worse’, Sara writes, aware of the contradictions in her missive, ‘But we can’t just run away at this moment because a sudden departure will harm the whole country and in particular those close to us. We have decided to continue with our efforts at the present moment. Very likely this is a mistake on our part and we will be too late to escape. You must understand that we cannot remain in the country much longer, because our hours are numbered and so without any excuses, on the 27th of the month, immediately after the moon sets, you must be at the coast and Toba, I and the baby will be waiting for you.’
Alex prevaricates, he is unsure, has been away too long and does not fully understand the danger in which Sara and her friends find themselves. If Aron had been there he would, no doubt, have known what to do, but unbeknown to Sara, he has just departed for London.
On the station platform, Alex who has taken upon himself Aron’s leadership role, makes the unforgiveable decision to ignore Sara’s request.
Leo will never forgive the British or Alex for this fatal ommission. He writes: ‘Who asked us to sacrifice ourselves for the Yishuv? We didn’t make any reckoning with the Yishuv or the English, and neither rewarded us for our pains. And now, when we need him most, Aron is in London!’
The rest proceeds like a line of dominoes falling in quick succession.
****
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| Sara with Saddle-bags |
Outside the café, The Doctor’s wife, Perl, Adele and others watch her go, whispering behind their hands, as they swallow their ersatz coffee. The subject of their gossip: Lishansky in his smart clothes, drinking in the Hotel Faust, his many ‘girlfriends’ who receive charming gifts of silk hosiery and bon bons with Egyptian wrapping paper still upon them.
In fact those stockings and chocolate were sent to his wife and children in Beit Gan.
****
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| The Clinic, Zikhron Ya’akov |
The Clinic, Zikhron Ya’akov. Sick patients and refugees, among them, many children, suffering from dehydration and malaria, lie in make-shift camp beds. Sara unpacks the medicines - British manufactured quinine, bags of sugar, cough mixture, Bayer’s aspirin, alcohol, morphine, as well as boric acid, iodine and surgical dressings.
Dr. Yaffe tending a sick child, beseeches Sara: “Won’t you stop now, while there’s still time!”
“Would you stop, Doctor?” she says regarding the beds full of refugees.
The Doctor knows he is beaten and despite his antipathy for Nili in general and for Aron, in particular, he admires the young woman’s courage. He has, after all known her since her girlhood.
But he is not prepared for what follows.
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| Dr. Yaffe & Sara with Ransom Gold |
Sara hands him a purse of gold coins to the value of six hundred British pounds. A huge amount.
The doctor’s eyes widen.
“These are for your work,” she says.
Then she takes two hundred of those bright, British sovereigns from the heavy purse.
“But if they come for me - use these to get me out.”
****
The Research Station, Atlit. Nervous and agitated, Naaman confronts Sara and Joe with a typed list which he has taken from the village notice board.
“Our dear fellow citizens have drawn up this list!” he exclaims: “A hundred people are on it. And we head the list. They’re planning to hand it over if there’s trouble.”
Joe, red with anger: “Dirty, rotten bastards!” he punctuates each word with an additional, unprintable insult.
Sara’s face is pale with fury: “If they do that, they'll be the first people to hang!”
But Naaman is not yet finished.
“There’s one more thing - my Albanian needs to be got out - it seems he’s deserted - ”
Joe adds a few more damn and blasts.
“Where is he?” Sara demands.
Naaman answers defensively: “I hid him at my place in Rishon, like you said. But now he’s downstairs.”
“You idiot!” Joe exclaims, having completely run out of expletives.
****
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| Felix in the Research Station Cellar |
The cellar. Research Station. Atlit. Sara regards the downcast figure of Felix, head in hands, in the dark. Joe stands at the top of the stair with a lantern, staring as if he cannot believe what he sees.
“I hope, madam, I’m not making too much trouble for you?” says the polite cause of their concern.
To which Joe responds by dropping the lantern and plunging them all into darkness.
****
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| Butcher at Ramla Market |
The noise and bustle of the market at Ramla. Prices are high, products are few, and Arab women wander about looking - but not buying the paltry offerings. Stall holders yell their wares with guttural desperation. A few trays trays of pita bread, are hawked, as beggars scrounge for scraps. The only people who are buying are German soldiers.
A butcher at his meat stall with cleaver in his hand, chops up a scrawny and already honking, dead lamb. German Officer Bismarck selects a piece of meat, handing over a Turkish note of a large denomination. The stall-holder wraps the meat in a piece of Turkish newspaper, and returns the German Officer a handful of change.
Among the change - a 1916 British gold sovereign - its nominal value one British pound. On the front, the proud profile of King George, on the back St. George and his eternal foe - a soon to be dead dragon.
Officer Bismarck grabs the startled stall-holder by the neck.
“Where did you get this English gold from?” he barks.
The stall-holder, eyes bulging, waves his hands in the air, noisily protesting his innocence.
“The Jews are bringing in money from the British!” he informs the German.
****
 |
| Captain - now Major Smith - of the High Command |
British Headquarters, Cairo. In Aron’s absence, Alexander sits opposite stony-faced Captain - now Major Smith - of the High Command - who peruses a set of accounts in Sara’s neat hand.
Alexander’s suave appearance and British uniform, irritate the new Major and the news of English money getting into the wrong hands has infuriated him beyond measure. Alex, in turn, has not forgotten Smith’s rejection of his services before he went to America. Their relationship, already riven, is about to get much worse. Words are exchanged, regrettable ones on Alex’s part and cold ones, on the Major’s. Leibel, it appears wants more money for his dangerous work. Finally, Major Smith puts his foot down.
“No more gold!” says the indifferent man. “They suspect something and that endangers our operations. Your people are careless and spending too much! You have to economise.”
“They are making every sacrifice possible,” Alexander contains his anger with difficulty.
“We won’t be able to send the ship this month - ”
Major Smith has already moved on to the next matter on his crowded desk.
“Even to the ultimate sacrifice of my sister’s life!?” says Alexander with the bitter revelation that he has failed Sara and so have the British.
****
 |
| The Empty Cash Box |
The Research Station, Atlit. Sara with open cash box, revealing a few paltry coins, and a pile of undelivered letters and notes.
“I can’t pay you this week” she tells Joe and Reuven, sadly: “The cash box is empty. We only have a few reserves in the cellar for food and other essentials.”
“Never mind, Miss Sara, we can do without pay - but perhaps we’d better stop for a while - until things die down, that is - ” says a dejected Reuven, who truth to tell has had his wife begging him to stop, for weeks.
But Joe is unrepentant and slams his fist into the cash box which clatters to the floor, a single copper penny rolling into the corner of the room: “That’s exactly what they want! Which is exactly why we’ll carry on!”
Sara delivers another blow: “And Aron is in London. Leo wrote me.”
Apoplexic Joe: “Oh, that’s great! Having tea with the King, I suppose?”
“We can reach him via Alex, at the Cairo office,” says the queen of calm.
****
 |
| Sara & Zvi at Loggerheads |
Another crisis threatens. Zvi, who is certain that Sara is openly protecting Joe, at huge risk to her own life, demands that she and Joe leave Zikhron without further delay. Sara who knows that she is actually protecting Nili's work and Avshalom’s memory, answers quietly:
“I will leave here, if you want me to. Joe and I will stay at Atlit. That will be more convenient for our work, and better all round.”
Her brother’s answer is characteristically short.
“Good,” he says and turns on his heel.
This is the last Sara will see of her second eldest sibling until it is too late for the relationship to recover.
She writes to Aron in London - via Cairo: ‘But they are against this as well. If it is forbidden to live at Atlit, especially for Joe and at Zikhron it is also impossible, Zvi has made that quite clear - where are we to live? The trouble is that these things interfere with my work, and don’t leave me a clear head to think.’
She adds: ‘I won’t think of leaving this place. If there is any trouble when I’m here, what would it be like in my absence? And in any case,’ she admits, ‘Joe can’t do a thing without me. He leaves it to me to make all the decisions.’
****
Despite this, she and Joe move to Atlit to continue their work.
 |
| Reuven’s Father in Law, Alter Albert, Pays an Unwelcome Visit |
A few days later, they are greeted by another unwelcome visitor, Reuven’s father in law, Alter Albert - father of Reuven’s wife, Leah - who is now head of the Zikhron Committee, and is one of the ones whose head will be on the line if Nili’s illicit activities continue. It appears, that Leah, not happy about Reuven's dangerous work without payment, may have put her father up to this.
Alter demands they stop their work forthwith. Sara refuses. Bitter recriminations follow. Alter threatens to use force against them.
Joe who is a party to this unwelcome meeting, replies, in mock fear and trembling.
“Force? what sort of force?” He feigns biting his already very cut-to-the quick nails.
Alter, very put out by Joe’s mocking derision, responds: “We will do it by force in the name of God and the Yishuv.”
When Joe bursts out laughing, an insulted, Alter says imperiously: “You laugh now, but you will pay later!”
And he turns to Sara: “And who has given you permission to do this work?”
Naturally, Sara is not going to tell him - but she attempts to be helpful, saying that she will get a letter from the American sponsors sanctioning their ‘agricultural work’ and she suggests that Alter might like to chat to a certain Mr Dizengoff, who is in charge of administering the gold that Nili, at considerable risk to their own person, has brought into the country for relief efforts.
****
The risks are to be sure, getting more serious and the money is petering out.
‘It is very hard now to work on a wide scale now,’ she informs Aron. ‘The Germans are getting suspicious. Speed is essential - and money. Here prices are terrible, and some things are simply not to be had. The English themselves are not hurrying, but they demand speed from us?!’
When Captain Smith’s reticence and British criticism reaches her via Alexander, she is furious and again writes to Aron, again care of Alex.
‘I immediately recognised that Smith was a swine! He doesn’t know how hard we work. I would like to see him driving to Petach Tikva and Rishon, in the height of the heat. On our way, our wheel breaks, and we have to tie it up with string until we reach Rishon. What would he do under these circumstances? Do you think he would be able to say then that we were lazy in our work, after a journey of twenty four hours, there and back, under bad conditions? No rest-rooms in the hotels at the best of times, and certainly not now and when we reach the hotel, to drink barley water instead of tea and all this at terrible prices. Sixty francs for a journey from Zikhron to Rishon!’
****
At Atlit, the little group of spies wait for Aron’s communication. Anger and frustration mount, the letters and documents wait in their oilcloth bag but to no avail. And the pressure of the unwelcome Albanian guest, reaches boiling point.
‘Good morning to you,’ Joe scribbles in a note to Aron, ‘I’ve already returned from the sea, very disappointed and with empty hands. Except for kisses from hundreds of mosquitoes, we didn’t gain a thing. And still with our passenger on our hands! It will be very interesting if they come to search at Atlit, and find him, don’t you think? And you people turn back and wait until the sea is calm so you can pass through without wetting your feet! You can’t even get two young people who know how to swim, even a little, to come and take the material from us.. Fifteen days of going round the country, risking our lives lying on the shore night after night. And all this because Leibel’s wife wants to be rich? So Leibel demands a big sum for the trip to the shore and Smith won’t pay. Tell me, isn’t that enough to make you burst?’
And so, at the exact time that Allenby’s plan for the big attack reaches its zenith, there is no communication coming through. And no word from Aron and precious little from Alexander.
****
A furiously hot August day with enormous cumulus clouds pummeling the lucid sky. The Station carriage with its wheel in a rut at the side of the road. Abu Farrid and Joe trying to get it out again. Sara, under her parasol, staring out at the steamy blue hills.
A patrol of Turkish Soldiers draws up. Joe is nowhere to be seen. Abu Farrid ‘salaams’.
“We’re looking for an Albanian Officer, Felix Baha-eddin,” growls the Turkish Captain, not wishing peace upon anybody.
Sara in her blue and white striped dress and shawl, answers as politely as the situation permits; to all intents and purpose a middle-class lady out on an errand with her driver.
“No, we haven’t seen him.”
She placates them with a few coins and they gallop off.
Joe comes out of his hiding place in the bushes, waving his fist at the indifferent, blue sky.
“They let you pass for a handful of coins and if they knew who we are and who we’re hiding, they’d hang us by the neck!?”
He mimes a strangled sound, his hand at his throat.
“It’s the sovereigns that worry me - if they should be traced back to us - ” Sara wrings her hands in uncharacteristic mode, dizzy with worry.
“And they haven’t sent us anything this month!” Joe snaps in disgust.
“When are they coming, our liberators? The rainy season will be here soon and then it’ll be impossible for the boat to get close to shore. And what are we to do with our prisoner?” Sara sighs, feeling the full weight of the responsibility thrust upon her shoulders.
****
Sara writes to Aron about Itzhak Halperin: ‘He is a very good boy, strong enough not to fear fire or water, and an excellent swimmer. Perhaps he could take Leibel’s place until things sort out? And Mendel is already standing in for Leo until he can get back.’
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| Mendel Schneersohn - Leo's Brother |
Leo’s younger brother, Mendel, a very mature, eighteen year old, happily goes out on those clandestine trips, returning home to his parents with mysterious guests, of whom nothing is said. When two German pilots land in a field near Hadera, having run out of fuel, Mendel gets them some petrol and invites one of them to spend the night at the Schneersohn home. After a few bottles of wine, the airman spills the beans on German plans in the area - plans which were quickly sent to Sara to send on to the British in Cairo. Grateful for the hospitality, the German took Mendel for a quick spin in his plane. Mendel would later write: ‘A sudden impulse seized me - what if I took my revolver and demanded to be flown over the frontline to Cairo and bring him there as a prisoner?’
The idea quickly vanished from his mind, however, when he remembered that the second pilot sat just behind the first, in the cockpit and he was armed with a German Mauser.
****
The cellar, Research Station. Atlit. A small ray of light comes through a narrow grid as Felix, paces up and down in his dank prison.
Naaman brings him a plate of food, a lantern and a pile of Aron’s books. Felix speaks with the pride of a dignified gentleman, now reduced to ignominy and despair.
He picks up one of the books wondering whether he will still have time to read it: “And may I ask, how long is my imprisonment to be?”
“We’ll get you out as soon as we can,” Naaman promises.
****
 |
| Sara, Joe, Reuven and Naaman in Grim Mood |
Upstairs in the Station, Sara, Joe, Reuven and Naaman in grim mood.
“I told you, we should get rid of him!” Joe kicks over a stool, with pent up spleen.
“What? Cut his throat? Or hand him over to the Turks!? Which is just as good as cutting his throat?” says Naaman, feeling aggrieved and abused.
Joe delivers the final insult: “What if he’s spying for them? What if you brought a spy into our midst?”
Naaman’s hackles are up:
“I promised him! We can’t just kill him! He’s a human being! I owe him - but then you wouldn’t know about honour.”
Joe laughs nastily: “And a coward like you knows about such things?”
Naaman grabs Joe: “And a pimp like you? You’d sell your own mother!”
Joe lunges at Naaman. Reuven intervenes and pulls them apart. The two antagonists are breathing heavily and spoiling for another tussle.
“Stop! Naaman is right, we can’t just abandon him, but keeping him here is even more dangerous. He’ll have to go on the next boat, that is if there are no submarines.”
Sara sets the upside-down stool upright and Joe promptly sits on it, swinging his boots in annoyance.
Naaman dusting himself off: “And I won’t be fobbed off anymore about Absa. I won’t rest until I know the truth!”
****
At the end of August, Aron, has had a message from the British High Commissioner for Egypt, Sir Reginald Wingate, who brings good news on the important matter of British approval for a State.
Aron writes to Sara: ‘It is a just a matter of weeks before the British Government will openly state its support for a our homeland... From today onwards, we have the right to look on our activities with confidence. Up till now we were just a few isolated dreamers who endangered ourselves and even dragged others after us, against their own will. Now at last, when the highest authorities have given their official approval of our work, no one can doubt the rightness of our vision or action.’
This time the missive gets through on a ship coming from Tyre with a cargo of coal, then overland in a diplomatic bag carried by a gun-running Syrian. The Monegam is still delayed and u-boats are visible close to shore off Atlit but Aron seeks to reassure Sara that the Monegam will return, as planned on the 27th - despite Major Smith’s objections.
Sara has plenty of doubts. Her quandry, as ever, how can she leave her people? Aron begs her again to return to safety in Egypt and Leo gives her the good news that a Jewish battalion has been mobilised in England for the liberation of Palestine. Ever-hopeful Owl writes of this fighting force: ‘We hope that soon, their numbers will be great enough for their success. And then I know one girl who has promised me to be a nurse. Please Sarati, the girl that I love, remember this.’
Sara writes back - one of the last messages that gets through - ‘I want to be together with the others in the place of danger at this time of danger. I can’t leave the work and the workers just at this time when the greatest difficulties are ahead of us. But be here on the 27th and we’ll be ready.’ She does not mention, that there may be three extra passengers: the fugitive Albanian, as well as Toba and her little one.
Two weeks later, events long since set into motion, sweep away any possibility of escape.
****
 |
Sara Sends off her Homing Pigeon |
Early September, the heat is palpable. Sara sends off a number of her homing pigeons from the dovecot, with messages tied to their legs.
One of the pigeon sits stubbornly on a water tank scratching its grey-blue plumage with its curious, red claws. Its eyes are golden and seem to have a faraway look.
“What are you still doing here, little birdie? Off with you - ”
She throws a pebble to just miss the bird and it flies off with a flutter of agitated feathers.
We hear Sara’s voice over: “We have some extra passengers on next week’s transport. A man, two women and two children. Be ready for us, subs or no subs”
A trembling blue feather falls from the sky.
****
 |
| The Muftir, Hassan Bey with Strange Pigeon |
Muftir Hassan Bey’s garden in Caesarea. An enclosed Arab-style orchard with now empty pond, and bare orange trees and the more shabby, dovecot in which homing pigeons fly in and out. The Muftir, Hassan Bey, in long white gown and white turban, feeds his pigeons with seed corn.
We go close on his hand with its scattered pieces of corn as a pigeon flies onto his outstretched palm. The Muftir sees at once that it is not one of his birds and that it carries a little cylinder attached to its leg.
He unties the message and puzzled, regards a message in unintelligible micro-code.
****
Turkish Government Office, Haifa. The Muftir, Hassan Bey and Captain Aziz, with half a dozen Turkish officers regarding the offending pigeon in its covered basket. The coded message being passed from one officer to the next. Each one, shakes his head.
What does all this mean? And what does the message say? No one dares utter a guess.
Hassan Bey answers for all of them. “Fools!! It’s quite clear - there’s a spy ring operating right here under our noses!”
****
History, of course, repeats itself and by synchronicity a similar occurrence had taken place just down the coast at Caesarea, some eight centuries earlier. The Crusaders who were encamped at the ancient Roman city, saw a hawk fly overhead and a pigeon it was carrying, fell to the ground outside the tent of a Crusader Bishop. The pigeon was carrying a message from the Governor of Acre urging the followers of Islam to rise against the foreign invaders and as a result of this interception the Crusaders were able to win the next battle and take Caesarea. The followers of Islam of 1917, who are unable to decipher the encrypted, incriminating message are directed to search Hadera, the settlement closest to Caesarea. There, no one knows anything about the birds and no one admits to knowing anything about any spies.
But the next day, the police come to Zikhron.
‘They are saying all kinds of things about the pigeon they caught,’ Sara writes to Aron in distant London: ‘That it is a brilliant linguist and knows many languages, Yiddish, English and French. At the end they add ‘and Arabic’, not to let on how much they suspect the Jews. They even say he was sent from London!’
Despite her attempt at humour, Sara knows that it is only a matter of days before the errant message will be deciphered. Caesarea and Zikhron are on the list; next will be Atlit.
And there is still the problem of Felix.
****
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