Abraham Mondry - June 15, 22, 29 & July 13, 1992
Revisionist Cousin II
Did he join the Jewish brigade?
They had to. First of all, he was, he was an old fighter, you know. He fight El Alamein, in Libya, in Libya. He started in, in, in, in London, you know? He, he liberated Holland, Amsterdam.
With the Canadians?
No, he liberated Amsterdam, Holland.
The Canadian Army liberated Amsterdam. It was the Canadians.
No, he was with the English, the English, Canadians. And he married a, married a, a girl. The girl was the, you know, the ??? shul. He was the ??? He had the keys to the shul, the oldest shul in Europe. You know, the, the Dutch didn't let them burn down. Didn't let them destroy it. He moved to another state. He come back after the war. He looking for me, I'm looking for him. He look all over for me, he couldn't find me. He told me, the ocean was like red, all blood, the ocean, you know.
Where was this?
Where they make, where they make the, the landing, you know, so many people got killed there. You see, the ocean was red, like all blood on the top you can see. So his father was in the shoe business, you know, his father-in-law, you know. I was the... Three times in Holland. So he took over the business, father, father and the whole family. He had a partner, not Jewish partner, Dutch and he saved, they saved, saved the whole family.
When he left for Palestine, did, did you know he was going?
Yeah, yeah, I was in Warsaw. That's why he called me. He called every day, he called.
Did he say come with me?
I was too young. He was older, two years older.
And you were sixteen?
When the war started. Well, you had to be seventeen to move.
How about your older brother. Did he ask your older brother to go?
Yeah, he was married. He had a kid. The Polish Jews, you know, they never want to leave their land, you know.
Like the German Jews.
I was a Jew. They listen to Jabotinsky, what else could we say.
Were you a Zionist? Were you a, did you know about Jabotinsky before the war?
Yeah, I belonged to, to a young group.
To the Betar?
Yeah, Betar. He too, but a was older. He was a, what do you call it? Revisionist, that's what they called it, a Revisionist.
Revisionism. Did you want to go with him?
He wouldn't approach me, I don't know. Perhaps he knows I wouldn't leave the family.
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