The period I worked with Aliya Bet in Europe was comparatively short, but very intense. My zone of operation was Antwerp, Paris and Switzerland. It consisted of smuggling gold. We received the gold from the girls who came by boat from the training farms in New Jersey, in the United States; gold transactions were against Federal Law. The exceptions were jewelers, dentists and naturally black marketers. Gold was bought at a fixed price $32.50/ounce (Troy gold). In Switzerland, the price was around $58 Troy weight. The difference was considerable and profitable. We had over 18 camps in the south of France, and they were always short of money. I traveled under an international laissez-passer as the organization was using my US passport. We worked with professional smugglers and General Anders Polish soldiers who were untouchable. They crossed borders like the wind. One time, while in Marseilles, I discovered that one of the group decided to run his own business on the side and committed a crime, which caused our group to disperse in a hurry. I now needed my passport and contacted my boss, who contacted his boss, and finally I met the big boss who notified me that I was on my own and in any case the passport was in circulation and unavailable. 
After a severe and heated meeting in which he spoke to me in Hebrew and someone translated it in English, because at the time my Hebrew was insufficient and he supposedly did not speak English, I finally told him what I thought of him in plain English. Luckily, I had a US Coast Guard’s Seamen’s ticket and headed for Antwerp where I knew all sorts of people. I got a job as a work-a-way sailor, arrived in Norfolk, Virginia and managed from there on very well. A year later, while serving in the newly formed IDF, I decided to visit my cousin Hadassah, who was a member of Kibbutz Beit Hashita in the Jezreel Valley. I remember it was in the height of summer, where the temperatures rise to 42 degrees. As it turned out, he was born in LA, came to Palestine, and studied at Gymnasia Herzlia from the age of 14. The rest is history. We became good friends, and it was a shock to hear that he was killed in a work accident in the kibbutz years later. Printed with the kind permission of the artist and author Sol Baskin, a Machalnik from the USA and veteran soldier of World War II.
Excerpt from his art book “Mosaic of a Lifetime” 2007
Produced and printed by Total Print Ltd. Israel, 03-689-4333
פסיפס של חיים 2007
הופק והודפס ע”י טוטל פרינט בע”מ, ישראל 03-6894333