RE: [Cz-L] FW:Prof. Zwi Yaavets Passed away - My former schoolmate and our "Mister Czernowitz"

Shalom Mordecai,

 Thanks for your great story.

 Marcel Enzer had a similar experience with the ship "Viitorul" . I cannot
remember the name of the ship on which Zwi Yavetz ( Harry Zucker) left
Romania some time later.

Of course they were hungry boys !

Harry was 17 and Marcel 20 years old , and on their own.

I don't know what their legal status was, but they were relatively free
people , living in a hotel in the mountains.

In those years there were no detention camps for illegal emigrants in
Cyprus,

 Their job was to be "madrichim" to the younger children. Zwi Yavetz told
that he liked to go to the coffee-houses in the village and play shesh-besh
with the locals.

Their dream was to go to Eretz Israel and study at the Jerusalem University.

As far as I remember they both managed to convince the authorities that they
are wasting precious time in Cyprus and they received an approval to go and
learn at the University in Beirut.

 They left Cyprus together and went straight to Israel (how, through
Syria?). In December 1943 they were already here and started soon their
studies at the University.

As I said I'm sorry that in his last years I could not visit him and ask
some questions about those adventures.

Best wishes,
Irene

-----Original Message-----
From: lapidotm_at_inter.net.il [mailto:lapidotm_at_inter.net.il]
Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2013 11:24 PM
To: Irene Fishler
Cc: 'Miriam Taylor'; 'Abraham Kogan'; Czernowitz-L_at_cornell.edu
Subject: Re: RE: [Cz-L] FW:Prof. Zwi Yaavets Passed away - My former
schoolmate and our "Mister Czernowitz"

It is indeed quite a loss, but for Prof. Yaavetz it was a deliverance
because in his last period he was quite lost. He was a great man and was
perhaps the pioneer of the establishment of the Tel-Aviv University and
quite a fighter and fund raiser for it and for his department,

A little story about him - apropos the comment of Irene re his period in
Cyprus.

In 1942 several Jews from Czernowitz, together with some others - I suppose
from Bucharest - were able to purchase a Danube boat from some Romanian,
fitted it with some food and other basics and, I do not how they managed it,
were able to leave Czernowitz and board the boat in Constanta with thei
families. and leave Constanta..I have the story from my late aunt, Mrs.
Regina Grossman.

They encountered a heavy storm in the Black Sea on the way towards
Constantinopole, the motors failed or drew sea water, and the mechanic of
the boat was dead drunk. Luckily my uncle, Leon, who was a highly
experienced mechanical meister (he owned and operated a textile factory in
Czernowitz) took charge and was able to get the motors working, but they
struck a shoal , luckily at the Northern part of Turkey. Their the Turks
imprisoned them, and only thanks to a lot of efforts by the Jewish Agency
delegates in Constantinople, who negotiated with the British and Turkish
authorities, were they not returmed ot Romania but were interned for the
rest of the war in Cyprus.

My aunt remembered well the adolescent Zvi (I believe she remembered him as
Hershel or something like this, who was with them on that boat and later in
Cyprus. Thanks to her husband's experience, he was able to establish a home
loom wool spinning industry in Cyrpus, the local peasant women processing
the wool from the sheep and goats, and thus was able to provide cloth to the
local economy, since they could not obtain it from Britain, cut off by the
German and Italian U-boats in the Mediterranean. Thanks to this contribution
to the local economy and population, they became the protegee of the
Commissioner, obtained a villa in Nicosia. and were somewhat food-affluent -
taking into consideration that Cyprus was in a wartime Austerity regime. Zvi
was a hungry and active adolescent and therefore she used to prepare for him
daily lots of sandwiches. and he used to come to their kitchen and devour
them without leaving a trace.

I suppose your late cousin, Mr Enzer also was on that boat and later with
them In Cyprus.

Laila Tov

Mordecai

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Received on 2013-01-08 17:36:58