Community Magazine February 2019

Flying Fortress, of which he was navigator, crashed near Dyersburg, Tennessee, killing him and five others. Jack had always wanted to fly, and after his enlistment in the army in November 1942 he left no stone unturned until he was appointed an Aviation cadet. Tragically, Charles Abady, Jack Cohen, Jack Gindi, Clement H. Marcus, David Mehanna, Jack D Mizrahi, Robert Molko, and Edward Sasson were also killed in action during WWII. Hey, Peepul! While sadness and fear blanketed the lives of most in the first half of the 1940s, the Bulletin was meant to lighten that load. Glynne Nahem’s “Mayhem with Nahem” made the readers laugh, as did “Daffy-nitions,” and “Syrian-syncracies.” Marge Labaton gave her readers some community gossip in her column, “Hey, Peepul!” Soldiers abroad were happy to enjoy the details and a little color from back home. Here is a small excerpt from July 1944: “Everything’s up in Bradley this year. The Syrian colony is up here, the rents are up (and how!), the water’s up high, and even the gin rummy stakes are going up! Couples between the ages of 18 and 45 find the West End Casino in Long Branch the place to go on Saturday nights. Seen there recently were Seaman Eddie Perez, Sergeant Morris Marcus from Texas, and Private Meyer Tawil… Jack Sultan has been kept busy lately; Max Franco, just home from duty was seen horseback riding, canoeing, dancing, and so forth…” Oceans Apart “Meet the Wife of a Boy Overseas” ran in each issue. Some men were gone two or three years at a time, missing births, first steps, and more. In July 1944 Mrs. Ray Sultan was featured. “Ray and Al were married just before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. From the moment war was declared all Al’s furloughs were canceled, and soon afterwards he was sent overseas. They have a baby boy who is now over year old and whom Al has never seen. This is something they are both looking forward to with all their hearts. Al has been in the army for over three years now, and Ray, back home, is buying bonds for all she’s worth…” The soldiers did not have it any easier. After 27 months in the Southwest Pacific, Captain Sam Gindi beheld his two-year-old son for the first time. He writes, “Believe me, while I was overseas there were many times when I’d wonder which would be the right approach to my son. Would I frighten him if I ran over to him, picked him up, and made a big fuss? Should I stand still and let him come to me? There were hundreds of questions that ran through my mind. Guess what finally happened when I did meet him? I just stood paralyzed. I couldn’t say or do anything. As my wife held him in her arms my son looked me over from head to foot, and I felt as though I was standing in front of my CO at a Saturday afternoon inspection. To all of you fellows still over there, no one back home has forgotten you for a single minute. From the bottom of our hearts we pray that it will not be long before all of you are home again with your loved ones.” Letter from Germany In the Bulletin during later years many letters arrived bearing news of the shock and abominations the soldiers found upon liberating the camps. The soldiers would not become aware of the full extent of the Holocaust until much later. I will include this one, from PFC Albert Levy. “Nothing can compare with the horror of the concentration camps we entered some time ago. Living quarters were nothing more than small wall partitions, with room enough only for three men to lie down on the floor (but they always contained at least seven men in each one). Thousands of people were virtually murdered there, actually starved to death. They were political prisoners, mostly innocent Jews, Poles, Russians, and a few anti-Nazi Germans. “In one big hole there appeared to be a stack of logs piled up but as we approached it, we realized they were human bodies, shrunken from malnutrition. They were just skin and bones, without flesh at all. Each must’ve weighed about 75 pounds – full-grown men. “There were a few survivors who miraculously sustained the ordeal. These men and women had to be lifted on the G.I. trucks that would take them for hospitalization and the provision of food. Of course, the ‘innocent’ German civilians ‘never knew about these atrocities.’ They closed their eyes to all the starving dead left in the fields, and closed their nostrils to the smell of the dead and decaying bodies. I could go on forever but my blood is boiling and I can’t describe anymore. I just thought I’d write and give you a small idea of the ‘German culture’ and the civilization of the ‘master race.’” Abe J. Missry Jack W. Molchos Mickey Kairey Joe E. Mizrahi Ezra Husney Isaak Hob 34 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE