Victor Ozair M.Sc. P.E. Los Angeles
Towards the end of the forties the Iraqi Government reinforced a law, which forbids Jews from leaving the country. It also imposed additional regulations and stiff economic ordinances against the Jewish community, so that Jewish businesses were brought to bankruptcy and closed down. Many Jews were left without work and high school graduates were not allowed to reach for higher studies. Thus the Jewish community was subjected to a siege by both an Arab population imbued with hatred and antagonism and a government, whose policy culminated in discrimination and hostility.
Many young Jews, unable to withstand the debasement and that hard and galling enclosure, paid large sums of money in order to be smuggled across the border to another country, particularly to Persia. In a few cases the smugglers fled with the money given to them in advance and left the Jewish boys behind, alone, in the middle of the desert without food or drink. Those poor boys were either caught by the Iraqi police to be imprisoned for long periods, or worse, they lost their lives in that harsh environment, or at the hands of armed brigands.
In August 1949 after my graduation from Shamash high school and five years activity in the underground Hehalutz Zionist movement, I decided to escape to Iran on my way to Israel. One Saturday morning I accompanied my grandfather to a coffee shop called Kahwat al- Shatt. There I met an acquaintance whose son had been smuggled to Iran a month before. A day after that meeting, I got in touch with the smuggler, who agreed to charge me for the service of taking me across the Iranian border for the sum of 200 Dinars, however 100 Dinars was to be paid to him in advance and 100 Dinars paid three days after my departure, when he would bring back news to my parents of my safe arrival across the border.
A week later at a prearranged location at the railway station in Baghdad, I met the smuggler accompanied by a Jewish boy of my age called Heskel.
The smuggler took us by train. After four hours, the train stopped at a small town, where a car was waiting for us. We took the car to a small, lonely and deserted house. There we met two Bedouin Arabs, who instructed us to exchange our clothes and shoes for Arab garments. These clothes included (Egal, Shmarat and Zeri) Bedouin head cover, (Zebune) Arab garment, (Abaya) outer covering cloak, (Nea`al) slipper. They gave us some charcoal in order to darken our faces. They told us that we should cover our head and part of our face with the (Shmaghat) or head cover, and that we must be quiet and cautions, as there were lots of government spies looking out for Jews, who intended to escape from the country.
The smuggler left us with the two Bedouins and went back to Baghdad, but he had promised us earlier that he would return the next day. The two Bedouins said that they would be our guards and that they would take us to a specific destination, where we were to wait for the smuggler.
We walked with the Bedouin guards for three hours until we arrived at a Bedouin camp. Our guards led us quietly to a forward tent and told us to wait inside and keep quiet. The tent was small, filthy and dark, it smelled so bad. We sat down on a sandy floor. We ate the (laffa) or the sandwiches we brought with us and waited. After two hours one guard came and told us that he would guard us for the night.
As darkness fell, loud rifle shots were heard every now and then coming from the perimeter of the camp. The guard told us that these shots were discharged by the camp guards whenever a moving object was seen in the distance. This was done in order to deter wild animals or enemies of the tribe, who might come at night to settle some old dispute by hostile and violent acts against them.
Our sleep was interrupted all night by the loud noise of the shooting, the stench inside the tent, the constant itching all over our bodies caused by the lice, which had already invaded us, the hard bed of sand, which we had covered with a blanket we found in the tent, but above all, by the fear, which overcame us, that it was unsafe to stay in that tent.
The second day, the guard brought us some dry bread and a few dates with some murky water to drink. Our suffering during the day multiplied as it was very hot inside the tent. The second night our torture worsened. The guard noticed our discomfiture, so he sang us a few Bedouin love songs and told us about the beautiful young girl from another tribe with whom he was in love, whom he could not marry because he did not have enough money to pay her father.
The third and fourth days came and went with no further news. The smuggler was still absent. Our bodies ached, our energies dwindled. We felt sick and famished. We had became total wrecks.
On the fifth night, as darkness fell, there was an uproar of voices from men and women, some yelling, caming from the adjoining tent. Then we heard a shot. The second guard rushed into our tent telling us that he had just shot an Arab neighbor. It appeared that the neighbor was aware of the Jews hidden in the tent. He had a dream that he must go and kill those infidels. He told the people in the tent about his intention, then took his knife and made his way towards our tent. The guard stopped him forcefully. There was a quarrel, which turned into a fight and ended in shots discharged by our guard towards the other man. After this commotion the guard disappeared.
Our alarm intensified with the thought that ultimately the news of the shooting and the Jews in hiding would spread quickly the next day among the tribesmen, who would seek revenge against the two infidels hidden int the tent. We thought our fate was sealed. It was extremely dangerous to sneak out at night in order to escape, as we could be shot by the camp guards; while the next day would bring fury and vengeance on us. Thus we would certainly be killed.
There was only one solution - to persuade the guard to lead us out at dawn, when the tribesmen were still asleep. We were aware of one thing; that the guard was in love and needed money. We asked the guard how much he required and he said that he had to give the girl's father one hundred Dinars. We told him not to worry, as we could arrange it for him. We told him that every Jewish boy smuggled across the border would pay him 200 Dinars and that we had five boys in Baghdad, who would want to escape immediately across the border. These five boys would pay a total of one thousand Dinars. With this money he could be rich, able to buy his beloved girl together with her beautiful sister whom he had glorified so much the previous night.Then, I put ten Dinars in his hand and told him: See here, this is only the beginning. The guard smiled and agreed with our plan to leave at dawn, so we could avoid the shots of the night guards and the wrath of the tribe during the day.
During the fifth night we felt sick, we were frightened, we could not close our eyes, we were trembling with fear, every shot or sound agitated us, we were itching all over, eaten by lice; we were also starved and thirsty. We prayed and prayed that our plan of escape would succeed.
The very next morning, we quitted that hell in silence, following the guard, who was walking swiftly believing that the sooner he arrived in Baghdad the richer he would be. After four hours trudging through hills, fields and sand dunes we arrived at the railway station. We bought tickets for Baghdad and a return ticket for the Arab guard. Though we were frail and sick, we had the courage and the strength to buy those tickets and to climb on the train. Our condition was so miserable and gave us such a haggard appearance, that we were ignored by the other Arabs in the train. We sat in a corner and prayed continually. Soon we reached Baghdad. As we left the train we gave the guard some money and told him to wait for us in the station's coffee shop until four o'clock, when we would return with the boys.
Heskel left me at the station. I have never seen him since. I do hope that he reads this story and contacts me.
I walkswiftly towards my grandfather's house, which was nearest to the station. I paid no attention to anything in this hurried walk. I chose short - cuts through narrow winding roads. As I entered the house, my grandmother was taken by surprise and shouted (Wee bdalak Victor reja'at sagh) or "Oh my dearest Victor you have come back safe." She told me that she would send someone quickly to inform my parents about the good news of my return, as they had been very distressed and worried.
A year and a half later, after that unfortunate adventure, we left Iraq to go to Israel within the campaign of Ezra and Nehemia.
This is the story of my miraculous deliverance from certain death. This story was not told before, as I have tried to avoid bringing back painful memories from that traumatic experience among fanatical Arabs. After the passage of a half century, I feel the time has come to talk about the suffering and agony, and the danger and misery our generation endured in Iraq.