I.D.F. NO: 63516
As related to the editor, with excerpts from Henry Katzew’s book “South Africa’s 800.”
Gordon Mandelzweig entered his final year of studies for a degree in civil engineering at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the beginning of 1948. The majority of students in the class were non-Jewish World War II South African Army ex-servicemen. When his classmates heard that Gordon was leaving in the middle of his final year to volunteer to serve in the Israeli Army in Israel’s War of Independence, they organized a farewell dinner in his honor at an hotel in Johannesburg.
He encountered difficulties about leaving in the middle of his final year of studies. He protested to the chairman of the South African Zionist Federation, Bernard Gering. After that, he was put on the next plane.
Gordon remembers Sammy Tucker, Ernie Esakof, Irene (Lila) Aronson, Honi Rosenberg, Danny Rosin, Freddie Salant, David Susman, Jeff Perlman, Benny Landau and Lockie Fainman on the plane with him.
Editor’s note: Dr. Harry Feldman, Dave Schmidt and a German-born South African (name unknown) were also in the group
They left from Paltmietfontein Airport in the first week in July and on arrival in Italy were taken to the Boston Hotel in Rome. The hotel still buzzed with the story of the Jewish Civil War – the Altalena incident – and the group was deeply embarrassed by the questions of the hotel staff.
After landing at Haifa Airport, they boarded an open troop carrier to travel to Tel Aviv. Their luggage was loaded separately onto other trucks. On the way, they heard an aircraft passing overhead and they all automatically ducked, while the driver just kept on driving. After arriving at their destination somewhere in the Tel Aviv area, they were told to go and collect their luggage. Gordon possessed a World War II American Air Force B4 bag, and soon recognized it in a large pile of luggage belonging to more than one contingent of arrivals. He grabbed the bag and then noticed the label: it had his surname on it but it was not in his handwriting and he didn’t recognize the label, but he did eventually find his bag. Since Mandelzweig is an uncommon and unusual name, he stayed around for about half-an-hour, hoping the other Mandelzweig would come and collect his bag and they would meet. No such luck.
Some days later, after he was posted to the North in the English-speaking 72nd Battalion of the 7th Brigade (re-organized after Latrun), he was called to the Orderly Room because of a mix-up with his name. There he found the other Mandelzweig, a young French Machalnik who could not speak a word of English. The army sorted out the misunderstanding, the Frenchman was transferred to a French-speaking unit and that was that.
Fast forward about forty years: Gordon was attending the Annual Machal Yom Hazikaron Ceremony at the Sha’ar Hagai Machal Memorial when he was told that someone was looking for him. It was the French Roger Mandelzweig, and since then they have met there a number of times.
Within two weeks of his arrival, before they had been trained and before any arms and uniforms were issued, late one night an enemy attack was expected near the Lebanese border. Gordon and others were sent on trucks to try and stop the attack. Each man was issued with a rifle and ammo. Gordon’s rifle was brand-new, still wrapped in greaseproof paper. He kept his ammunition in a sock, as there was nowhere else to keep it. Some youngsters, refugees from Europe, who had never handled rifles, were part of the group. Someone showed them how to load a gun and pull the trigger. They arrived at their destination early in the morning, with no idea precisely where it was, and were told to dig in. Gordon cleaned the Czech rifle he’d been issued as best he could, but he could not load it as his British .303 rimmed cartridges would not fit the Czech rimless cartridge rifle. However, he managed to swap the ammo with someone who had a British rifle and rimless ammo. Fortunately there was no attack that night, and they returned to camp.
Some 50 English-speaking volunteers were among the first to join the re-organized 72nd Battalion: David Susman, Jeff Perlman, Bennie Landau, Lockie Fainman and Gordon served there.
Editor’s note:
Those five, together with five other South Africans – Joe Woolf, Mike Snipper, Ziggy Stein. Max Krensky and Colin Marik – as well as three volunteers from Kenya (considered South African volunteers) – Stanley Medicks, Ian Walters and Jack Banin, participated in a 24-hour skirmish on the Kabul mountain above Tamra in the Galilee. David Susman was wounded and Lockie Fainman, serving as a medic, was cited for bravery; he treated wounded under heavy fire during the action. Three volunteers from Canada, Belgium and England were killed, and about a dozen more were wounded.
During a course attended by Gordon, he and some of the other participants were sent to Sarafand to investigate material that had been taken off the Altalena and had been stacked in an orange grove in crates and bags. The army wanted the material identified and the group knew a little about explosives. They discovered artillery charges, gunpowder and granulated explosives, some of which they were sure could still be used, although much of it had been damaged by water.
The language problem in the army was vividly experienced by Gordon. Promoted to sergeant of the sapper platoon, he found himself in command of men who could speak only Hebrew, or English, or Yiddish, or an Eastern European language. He coped by splitting the platoon into language units, lead by corporals who understood English. One member of this group was Johnny van Heerden, an English-speaking Afrikaner from Rhodesia who had jumped ship in Haifa in order to join the Israeli Army.
Editor’s note: Joe Woolf, while on holiday in Durban in the 1950s, was perusing a local newspaper and could not help noticing a front-page photograph of van Heerden, ready to board a ship with a Rhodesian Army contingent on its way to join the British forces fighting local insurgents in Malaysia.
During Operation Hiram which began on 28th October, 1948, Johnny van Heerden, Benny Landau, Gordon Mandelzweig and a volunteer sapper from England, Zev (Emmanuel) Swift, who had by then joined Gordon’s platoon, were sent to support 7th Brigade sappers who were demolishing a bridge close to Meron; their aim was to prevent the enemies’ retreat westward, or the arrival of reinforcements. Zev was wounded and cited for bravery at the bridge. He later became the first Israeli Ambassador to China under the name Zev Suffot. Meron was liberated by the 72nd Battalion English speaking “B” and “D” Infantry Companies. In total, some 30 fellow South Africans participated in the fighting at Meron.
Gordon Mandelzweig also spoke about Dr. Mary Gordon, a very well known South African physician, who was his aunt. She had served in a British Medical Hospital in Britain in World War I, in the South African Army Medical Corps in World War II, had served as the Chief Medical Officer of the British Military Hospital’s Jewish wing in the refugee camps in Cyprus, and later served in the IDF Medical Corps during the War of Liberation. His brother Sim served in the 79th Armoured Battalion, 7th Brigade, so three close members of the same family served together.
Postscript:
Some years later, during the first Zionist Federation elections in Diaspora countries after the establishment of the State, the South African Federation consisted of parties aligned with those in Israel, such as the General Zionist, Revisionist, Zionist Socialist and Mizrachi parties. Representatives of organizations like Magen David Adom, the Israel Maritime League, Friends of the Hebrew University, and others, were also represented. As a result of their Machal service, Sammy Tucker and Lionel Hodes approached Gordon to join them in proposing that the Zionist Federation electoral system in South Africa be changed from the Israeli party alignment representation system, to society representatives as well as individuals elected on a “best man for the job” system. They felt that anyone who wished to vote for Israeli political parties should do so in Israel, as Israeli citizens and not as South African Jews in South Africa. The three of them organized and campaigned for a “Non Party “party with only one nominee, Lionel Hodes, instead of elections by the previous system. They did very well, but not enough to change the system. Gordon still has originals of their “Non Party” Association of South African Zionist election pamphlets and flyers.