I interviewed my uncle in Burbank about his participation in Israel’s founding. The following is a condensation:
“My name is Oswald Harber. I was born in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1919, and immigrated to England in 1939 to escape the Nazis. I enlisted in the British Army’s Jewish Brigade in 1944, and re-entered Stuttgart as part of the Allied Army of occupation in 1945. You can imagine the stares I got in my old hometown: British uniform, Enfield rifle, speech noticeably Swabish, Jewish Star on my shoulder.
“When the Jews of Palestine declared their intent to seek statehood, my wife, Zelda, and I decided to join them. We made our way to Israel as illegal immigrants. A Jewish underground railroad slipped us through a displaced person’s camp in France and then to Palestine on a tramp steamer out of Marseilles. Once in Israel we both enlisted in Machal (Volunteers from Abroad). We were mainly ex-servicemen from English-speaking countries. Some Machalniks had been members of the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War. Some were idealists, some were just looking for something to do. There were no uniforms and no training. I was assigned to an artillery unit. We had two World War I-era 75 mm French cannons. Our first engagement was up in the Galilee.
“After the war ended, Zelda and I helped found Moshav Habonim, an English-speaking farming collective located south of Haifa. We emigrated from Israel to America in 1954, where we rejoined family who had survived the war.”