TWO NURSING SISTERS – LILY MARGOLIUS AND JUNE BLOCH
Lily Margolius, South African Nursing Sister and her husband “Bully” had left Palmietfontein Airport, Johannesburg with a group of over 20 other volunteers including another couple, Rudy and Zafrira Matz, on 26th June 1948
Their arrival at the Tel Litvinsky Absorption Camp was greeted with the sounds and flashes of guns nearby.
On their own initiative left the camp looking for postings. Their first try was Tel Aviv’s Sde Dov Airport. The Commander was not interested in taking a man & wife, but the Margolius’s were determined to stay together.
Returning to Tel Litvinsky, accepted the advice of another volunteer to try 101 Squadron, the fighter squadron being formed at the Herzliya Air Strip.
The O.C. was happy to welcome the couple, delighted at recruiting a nurse and a mechanic. The frequent crashes of the faulty Messerschmitts kept her and the Squadron Medical Officer, South African Dr. Harry Feldman, quite busy.
Lily, now widowed, lives in Perth, Western Australia.
June Bloch, South African Nursing Sister
June and her husband, Dr. Bernard Bloch, advancing their careers in London, left their respective posts and volunteered in May 1948. They were sent, via Paris, to the Displaced Persons Camp, Grand Arenas, near Marseilles.
After a short period there, they sailed to Israel on a small fishing trawler, the “Marie Annique” with some 250 others, serving as ships Doctor and nurse.
The boat’s captain and crew were French, but the whole operation was in charge of an Israeli known as Jimmy, a former blockade runner during the “Aliya Bet” period.
Their voyage took about two weeks, and they landed at the port of Jaffa.
Postings included a busy Field Casualty Hospital at Kfar Blum, and the Givati Field Hospital at Gedera, under the direction of South African Doctor Stanley Levin, particularly busy at the time of the Latrun Battles. Then to 101 Squadron where they shared a tent with Lily and Bully Margolius.
Later with the Bomber Squadron at Ramat David and with the final truce there was a period at the Scottish Hospital run by South African Surgeon Jack Wilton.
Today the Blochs live at the Protea Village Retirement Home in Tel Mond.
Foot Note: Amongst South Africa’s 800 volunteers, 29 were married couples, and in addition six surgeons and physicians were accompanied by their wives.