CHAPTER 27 - End Game & Last Chance to Escape

Sara Continues to Make Plans

Sara continues to make plans believing implicitly that the ship will come and that her brothers and the British will not fail her. In Alexander's defence, at British GHQ, he works every minute, using every machination he can think of, to force the British to comply and Aron from London uses all his influence, for the same. Leo's calm advice, Aron's hard work and a few words from the upper echelons are conveyed to Captain - now Major - Smith, who is now firmly back on board in more ways than one.

****

A Crowded Kitchen: Sara, Toba, Nissim, Miri & Children

Nissim Rutman, his wife Toba and the new baby are crowded into the Aronson kitchen with Miri, Sara’s sister in law - the one married to Sam - with her four-year-old son, Yedidia. Miri is weeping into her handkerchief. Sam has been away in America for a number of years - trying to find an income and a way of getting his wife and child documents for entry to that Land of the Free. He has not succeeded and disapproves in no uncertain terms of Aron and Sara’s Nili activities. Miri has nothing to do with the spy ring but Sara knows that as she shares the name Aronson, she might easily be arrested - and that in her panic she might spill the beans and name names.

    “You must go Miri, with Yedidia. And you darling Toba and babale.”
                        
    “It’s you who must go Sara, get out while you still can!” Nissim warns. “They’ll start with you because of Avshalom.”

    “No. I want to be the last, not the first to leave. He would have wanted me to stay. And I want to be here to welcome the British, when they arrive!” she says with an attempt at lightness.

That night, Sara writes to Leo, though she has no idea how the letter might get there: ‘I’m sending you Toba and her baby and my sister-in-law Miriam, and her son Yedidia. Watch over them and the children as well as you can. Try without fail to come on the 27th, for who knows if you will find us after that. We’ll be ready and waiting for you.’

Meanwhile, Nili’s activities continue unabated and with Sara’s letter to Leo are new reports direct from the Turkish front. The reports had been brought in by Absa Fein that stalwart carter with the Turkish army near Be’er Sheva

The letter and reports will not reach their destination but Sara remains undaunted.

**** 

Sara at the Stone Tower

Towards the end of the month, as the moon wanes, Sara begins to watch again for the ship on the horizon. Izi’s open window in the watch tower in the Aronson vineyard on the hill top at Zikhron Ya’akov, indicates to the ship far out at sea that all is well, and that it is safe to return that night. 

They signal from the Experiment Station, as well by hanging sheets in the arranged order on the balcony of the tower room. The sheets still kept ready, and when Sara sees the ship on the horizon, she makes sure to hang them on the balcony rail, as if to dry. White sheets for safety, a red sofa cover for danger. The ship increases its smoke, as a sign that the message has been received, and then sails off, as it has done so many times before. The Monegam returns after dark and anchors some two kilometres off the shore. Leo, Leibel and Raphael Aboulafia are ready to be rowed ashore by the Arab boatmen, who will carry them through the water if the waves are too high. 

It is the last chance for Sara and the others to escape.

****

The Holiest Day of the Year

The 26th of the month is Yom Kippur - the holiest day of the year - the Day of Atonement, when all fates are sealed in the great book. Sara stays at home with her father, fasting and praying. The next day is the 27th of September and by the coming of night, it is decided by God, who will live and who will die in the forthcoming year.

**** 

Leo with Alex & Major Smith on the Monegam

On deck on the Monegam, stand Leo with Alex and Major Smith who carry spy glasses. In the background, Leibel and Raphael carry guns.

From the tower balcony, a red sheet hangs, billowing in the wind.

On board the Monegam, anxious, Leo and Alex. Major Smith shakes his head and points at the warning signal and at its reason -

Two German u boats lurk in the swelling sea.

The Monegam turns tail and disappears and with that departure, our brave heroine must confront her destiny.

****

Mendel, Reuven & Nissim at the Station

At the Station, the remaining stalwarts, Leo's brother, Mendel Schneersohn, Reuven Schwartz, Nissim Rutman and Sara, watch with despair as the Monegam disappears and the submarines remain lurking like sullen sharks in the shallows.  

German U Boats Lurk in the Swelling Sea

Sara knows she is no longer inscribed in the book of life.

Mendel will recall Sara’s words on that occasion:

    “Where is the safest and surest place to fire, to be killed instantly, should one decide to end one’s life?”

If he is surprised, Mendel does not show it. These are desperate times and may require desperate measures:

    “Just put the barrel in the mouth, pull the trigger gently, and all is over in a flash,” he says, without blinking an eye and thinks no more about it.


**** 

Ayla in Mourning

The distant sound of drumming. A new moon. In the nearby village of Tantura, drummers play, hands obsessively pounding the skin drums, cymbals and tambourines clanging in strident unison, accompanying the chanting of the entire village. A funeral for a young woman is being mourned with the rituals of ancient pre Islamic tradition to force the evil spirits to depart.

Children throw fire crackers, a sheep sizzles on a spit, fires burn, men dance like dervishes in fervent trance, fire-walkers cross a bed of coals, their hardened feet apparently untouched by the coals, veiled women ululate in high-pitched keening, as sparks fly in the sky.

Among them, Ayla, more beautiful than ever, weeps for her sister Diba, whose funeral wake this is.

**** 

The Last Ottoman Flag at Nabi Musa in Jerusalem

Drums have always been used by Palestine's Muslims for both mourning and celebration. The most famous example being the festival of Nabi Musa, commemorating the death of the shared prophet Moses/Musa. But in this time of upheaval and nationalist activism, the festival has become a battle cry, an act of rebellion against any who might challenge the power of Islam. With the imminent arrival of the British, it has grown to become a potent and unmistakeable symbol of uprising against the coloniser. In Jerusalem the Mufti Amin al-Husseini, heads the procession. Carriages, donkeys, horses, mules and camels crowd the way. The Mufti rides on horseback behind Jerusalem’s holy flag of green and black satin embroidered in gold, and the red and white Ottoman flag, which has terrorised the area for four, long centuries. Crowds stand on both sides of the street, with soldiers lining the road to keep an open way for the procession and to prevent any trouble. This is the last time Ottoman flags with their narrow crescent moon and single star - will fly in those narrow streets. By 1920, the Nabi Musa Riots which follow the festival, will confirm the division of the city. Five Jews and four Palestinians killed, over two hundred Jews and a score of Arabs injured, and many yishuvniks evacuated from the Old City. The Mufti will be sentenced to ten years of jail, a sentence quickly commuted when he is pardoned by Jewish Sir Herbert Samuel, the first High Commissioner of the British Mandate, who appoints al-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.

This is the same Grand Mufti who opposes Zionism with every bone in his body and who will meet with Adolf Hitler and collaborate with Nazi Germany during the next terrible World War.

****

On October the 2nd, the Jews celebrate their own festival, the beginning of Sukkot and the day of Izi’s wedding or chuppah.

Sara wakes at dawn, the sound of drumming still ringing in her ears. But a louder, more persistent sound alerts her - urgent pounding on the door.  She pulls on her dressing gown, fully expecting the Turks and her nemesis to be waiting for her.

Only to find a delirious Joe on the doorstep lugging his rucksack.

    “Oh God, Joe! What is it?”

    

    “Malaria I think. I’m dying!”

Joe collapses at her feet. 

Izi & Sara

Izi, who has woken early to see that his doves are ready for the big day, hearing the noise comes down to help Sara, and they pull Joe inside, half dragging, half supporting him.

In the annex, they quickly move the heavy bureau away, and push unwelcome Joe and his bag into the cellar beneath the house. We hear him bumping down each of the steep stairs and then silence.

Izi and Sara look at each other but there is no time to check on the feverish man.

They quickly close the trapdoor, throw the rug down and pull the heavy bureau back in its place.

    “Should we cancel the chupah?” asks Izi.

    “No, dearest Izi you must go ahead. Your bride is waiting for you. Calling your happy day off will only draw more attention to us. The simcha party will act as a cover until we get Joe out. Be as joyful as it is possible to be. Now go.”

**** 

Turkish Cavalry Approach Zikhron

The road outside Zikhron as Turkish Cavalry approach the village.

**** 

Izi & His Bride

Night has fallen, the full moon of Sukkot glows softly in the sky, and across the road from the Aronson house, a sukkah hung with oranges has been built. Izi and his bride’s wedding is in full swing. Musicians play fiddle and flute. 

The whole town is gathered, Mayor Meir, who is, as we remember, young Izi’s grandfather, Rabbi Kornfeld, Dr. Yaffe, his wife, Rivka, and Izi’s pretty young bride, who dances in a circle, surrounded by a dozen other young women, all dressed in white, wishing her ‘mazeltov and brachas’ and showering her with almonds.

Izi hears something - stops dancing, goes outside.

The wedding music fades.

Soon the wedding party and the whole town know that Zikhron is surrounded.

Everyone disperses in a hurry, fearing the worst. As they go, they see Sara standing at the gate of her home, as if nothing is wrong, and they tell her the terrible news.

Sara at the Gate

She nods. “Don’t be afraid,” she says, knowing that Joe is hidden in the cellar, and having already decided to take the brunt of the accusations upon herself.

****

The next day, the interrogations begin in earnest. The village notables are questioned first, including the husbands of those delightful ladies: Perl, Adele and co. Their questioners are looking for ‘Yosef Tuvin’, as they know him, that name appearing on Joe’s false passport. Unhappy Naaman’s confessions have been explicit: it is Joe who is the leader of Nili but there are many others. After his tortures, Naaman's mind snapped and his revelations, compromise everyone.

**** 

Sara's Arrest

Sara sitting in the courtyard sewing, with Efraim reading his siddur, as if his fervent prayers can stop what is already long set into motion.

We hear the sound of hooves galloping up the cobbled street. The Turkish Patrol with Aziz at its head stops at the gate. The Captain enters, flexing his riding whip. He does not beat around the bush.

    “Miss Aronson, we have come to find your lover, Yosef Tuvin or is it Lishansky?”

Sara puts her sewing down and says after a pause: “He’s not my lover and he’s not here.”

The Captain hits Sara with the whip, a stinging blow to her cheek.

    “Your insolence knows no bounds. We will search the house,” says Aziz. “And you Miss Aronson are under arrest!”

Efraim struggles to his feet: “Hit me, not my daughter!” says the frail, old man.

Soldiers grab hold of Efraim and proceed to beat him mercilessly in order to elicit the information they demand.

    “Leave him alone!! He’s done nothing!” Sara turns furiously on the pitiless soldiers.

    “Why are you hitting my father, an old man of seventy? Do what you want with me, but my father doesn’t know anything.”

The torturers see that Efraim’s beating is unsettling Sara and so they devise a new method of persuasion, knocking the old man to the hard, stone floor, tying his hands and feet to a rifle and beating him on those tender, aged extremities.

    “Now, you will reveal where this man is - Tuvin or Lishansky, we don’t care what his name is!” threatens Aziz grimly. “We want him now!”

The soldiers burst open the front door and enter the house to begin their search.

****

In the commotion, Joe, in the cellar beneath the house, hearing the noise of furniture being kicked over and the yells of the soldiers, escapes with his rucksack, through the underground door onto the hill top.

**** 

Three Guards at the Gate

Three soldiers stand guard at the front gate, preventing the escape of their captives.

Sara tends Efraim who is lying knees drawn to his chin, on the ground, his feet bloody and torn as he says the ‘Shema’, prayed by millions of Jews who face death, at the hands of their persecutors.

'Hear oh, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one'

    “Sh’ma Israel. Hear oh, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one!”

    “Papa, be strong, Papa. Don’t give in. Don’t tell them anything! Die with honour, only don’t say a word! ”

Efraim gathers his strength and his wounded dignity: “Daughter, why are you warning me? I’m not going to die yet!”

****

The soldiers fruitless search finds nothing of Joe - whether Tuvin or Lishansky - and they gallop off on their next dastardly mission, leaving the three guards at the gate, with the threat of return.

****

Sara at Efraim’s bedside, tending his torn feet and putting ointment on a large lump where his head hit the courtyard floor.

    “It’s alright Papa, everything will be alright,” she kisses her father on his closed eye lids and covers him with a blanket.

A tap at the open window. Izi crouched in the bushes.

    Sara calls softly to him: “Have they got him?”

Izi shakes his head: “He’s got away.”

    “Find him and give him this.”

She hands Izi a loaf of bread, wrapped in her blue silk scarf, some paper money, the last of the gold, a small bottle of eau de cologne and a pair of her own gold-hooped earrings.

    “Tell him, if he’s taken, not to talk. He’s to put all the blame on me - You understand?”

Izi nods and is gone.

**** 

Hassan Bey & Whip

The next day, it is not Aziz who interrogates Sara, but that old and fickle friend, the Muftir Hassan Bey, now known by the military title ‘Kaimakam’ - Lieutenant Colonel - of Haifa and with the acquisition of that new rank, more brutal and sadistic, than we have ever seen before.

    “Where is he? Where is Lishansky? Tell me or I’ll draw the words out of your mouth with a whip,” demands the Kaimakam of Haifa, to the woman with whom he has enjoyed coffee many times and to whom he had once give a beautiful, black horse.

Sara remains defiantly silent. Her contempt for this man only obvious in the tightening of the corners of her mouth and her increased determination to resist whatever might come.

Soldiers tie her to the gatepost and beat her - softly at first - they are not happy at having to beat a woman - but urged on by Aziz, and in fear of punishment, they do so with rising intensity.

    “Where is Lishansky? Where is your friend Avshalom? Where is Reuven Schwartz? What have you told the enemy?! We will kill you all!” reiterates Hassan Bey, that former friend of the Aronson family, now its most bitter foe.

    Sara is roused to on a final outburst: “You are murderers! Wild beasts, thirsty for blood. I saw what you did to the Armenians and to our people in Jaffa!”

This redline is quickly followed by more brutality.

    “Beat her again! Harder!” says the Kaimakam, incensed at her obduracy and maddened by that very sensitive accusation which Turks deny to this day.

Aziz and his underlings happily oblige, beating her until only the gatepost prevents her broken body from slipping down. They untie her hands and she falls unconscious to the ground.

**** 

Dr. Yaffe hears the News

Dr. Yaffe leaves his house with his bag en route to a patient in the next settlement. Izi hurries up to him and tells him the news. Shocked, Dr. Yaffe hurries in the direction of the Aronson house.

The frightened Doctor’s wife looks out from behind a net curtain.

****

The Aronson house. Dr. Yaffe makes his way through the Turkish soldiers and Secret police who stand blocking the gate and lining the courtyard.

‘We thought at first that the soldiers were searching for deserters,’ Dr. Yaffe writes, later in his diary. ‘But we were told that they were looking for Reuven Schwartz, a clerk at the Experiment Station. The military police have already put under arrest the Aronsons and Toba Gelber. Mrs. Feinberg, Avshalom’s mother who had just come from Hadera, was also arrested. They brought me to the house of the old man Aronson, whom they’d beaten with murderous blows. He was very courageous. Sara showed me whip marks on her body. The whole house is full of soldiers and police poking their noses about in all kinds of places.’

  ****

Inside in the parents’ bedroom, Dr. Yaffe attends to Efraim, bandaging his torn feet and hands.

The Doctor Examines Sara

He inspects, Sara’s back and shoulders which are covered with red weals from those stinging whips, her face bruised and cut, but her eyes still clear as daylight.

    “Why have they done this, Sara? Why did your brothers leave you to take the punishment?”
    
    “It’s alright, Dr. Yaffe, I’m strong. It’s not their fault. I asked them to stay away.”

     ****

The Doctor will add to his records of those terrible events: ‘What a tragedy! Three brothers left the country one after another, after they had organised all the espionage business, and they left behind their sister Sara, who had left her rich husband in Constantinople and never aspired to any public role. A place intended for science and public use has been turned into a nest of spies. Now one can understand how all scientists were turned away from the place.’

He refers in particular to the scientist Rachel Yanait - and adds his final condemnation, still not believing a woman would have chosen of her own will to stand up to the mighty Turks:

‘And who is this Lishansky? And how did he come to have such an influence on Sara?’

But despite his reservations and his anger at long-time adversary, Aron, his instincts for the survival of the Zikhron community, encourage the good Doctor to immediately takes a carriage to Haifa to beg Kaimakam Hassan Bey to release Sara. An admirable effort but one doomed to failure.

**** 

Dr. Yaffe Confronts Hassan Bey

Turkish Government Office, Haifa. Dr. Yaffe confronts Hassan Bey.

    “To torture a woman! Surely your laws prevent such a thing!?” says the Doctor, hoping to appeal to Hassan Bey’s better sentiments - if indeed, there are any.

    “I have severely punished the Officer responsible,” says the wily Kaimakam and then, spreads his hands, in apparent submission: “Certainly, dear Doctor, it will not happen again - ”

The hands remain outstretched as if waiting for the necessary transaction.

Dr. Yaffe, prefiguring this interaction, hands an envelope - filled with the product of his own hard-earned income - to the unmovable Bey.

    “This is for her release,” says that honest man.

The Bey is quick to take that fat manilla envelope stuffed with bank notes and slip it into the drawer of his ornate bureau which he locks with a key.

The two men stare for a moment.

    “Thank you,” says the Doctor, bowing in retreat.

Hassan Bey nods, but does not acknowledge either the gift or the Doctor’s request.

    Instead that unbudging Ottoman official states in an even-tempered voice:

    “But, we will continue to beat the old man as long as his daughter does not give up her friend’s hiding place - And then we will beat every one of the men of Zikhron Ya’akov, in order of their importance - to illicit the information we require.”

****

Soldiers drag Mayor Meir, on a chain, through the main street of Zikhron, screaming abuse and beating him with the end of the heavy chain. Meir shrieks in agony. Dogs bark, townspeople look on in horror.

One of the ladies who we know only too well, Adele, begins to scream, a high-pitched nasal sound. The other ladies add their umbrage and insult to that chorus of harpies who are, it must be admitted, fully justified in their anguish and fear of what might happen next.

Izi, hiding in the stone tower, also hears the screaming. He covers his ears. The screams continue. He can bear it no longer and heads for the town.

As he runs he can hear his grandfather begging for mercy as the chain binding him clanks along the street.

Izi falls at bleeding Meir’s feet.

    “It was my fault, grandpa. All my fault. I am the one!”

Soldiers start to beat Izi.

Sara, bruised and exhausted, comes to the front gate - Soldiers hold her back.

    “Leave him alone, he’s just a boy! He did nothing!”

She hits out at the soldiers - they throw her to the ground - a jagged cut appears on her forehead, blood wells from the wound.

Dr. Yaffe tries to intervene, he too is thrown aside.

The Doctor’s wife comes out into the street screaming hysterically. 

A Scene of Confusion and Hysteria

Perl, Adele, Tsipporah and Gita, shouting abuse, fall on Sara. A scene of confusion and hysteria ensues. Nails dig into flesh, tongues lash, spittle is spat, things are said that can never be unsaid. All the Furies are let loose, all the banshees and hags of Ancient myth, vomit out their fear and hatred at one who has stood out from the crowd and risked everything for her beliefs.

    “See what you have done to us! See what you’ve done!” scream those ravens like a black-clad, Greek chorus of vengeance and doom.

 ****