מכתב מד"ר חיים סעדיה, כמזכיר זמני של בח"ד, אל מזכיר בח"ד בלונדון 30.7.48 (אנ')

HAPOEL HAMIZRACHI - BNEI AKIBAH CAIRO 30.7.1948 To the Mazkir of Baohad, London. Dear Chaver, In the name of the Hanhala of Hapoel Hamizrachi in Egypt, I send to you this detailed but simple and concise report of the activities of our different Sniffim in Egypt, and of the general situation in Egypt, with special stress on the Jewish community here. Being out from Eretz Israel since the 15th May 1948, we have caught this unique occasion of being put in contact with our movement in Eretz by yourself. We beg you, then, to read this report, but not to publish it (for security reasons) and to make it reach, integrally and completely, the Hapoel Hamizruchi in Eretz. Chaver Yaacob Barth, now in Shliohut in Great Britain (according to "Chayenu" of June 1948) knows us very well. He was shaliach in Egypt a few years ago. Let him be acquainted of our developments for which he so much worked. Pass him our Birkhat Torah Va'avoda, and of our Mazkir (permanent) Morduchai Oludgis which is now in concentration camp and who has asked us to pass his Brakha. With this is a code which we beg you to use, and which we shall use in our letters, since the censorship is very strict in Egypt. We ask you to put us in contact with Eretz using that code. Mr. Wien who will give you this report, is a person of extreme confidence. Please hear him and help him as much as you can in everything he will ask for the common cause. Beshem Ha'hanhala Shel Mitzraim, The Temporary Mazkir, Chaim Saadia. X THE SITUATION IN EGYPT Tight censorship on everything + lies, visible and easily detected, to the population from the government - Military communiques. absolutely false Ignorant Population, and of very low standard in all respects, especially intellectually, morally, politically and socially - Intensive propaganda in the papers, radio and Mosques against the Jews by all means - I) Shouting libels and diffamation and attacks against the Jews, by the meanest and lowest ways. This propaganda is lead, encouraged, paid and directed by the government. 2) Religious fanatism, etc, Result: Pogroms and agressions of which you are surely acquainted. THE JEWS Double martyr : moral and corporal (i.e. of mind and body) only diminished by the news of the Haganah and "Kol Israel" which send encouragement by acquainting us of the strength of our State, its military success, its political success, its Unity, its solidarity and its decisions. Moral martyrs : Insults, despise, fanatism, diffamation, low and mean by newspapers, radio and in the mosques. Jewishemployees put out of their work. Corporal Martyr : Bombs, crimes, murders (individuals) and collec- tive against the Jewish population. Systematic attacks against Jewish houses and homes. During the weeks from the 16th - 23rd July 1948 : 300 persons killed, of which 200 were Jews and the rest of Europeans or persons having light coloured faces. Imprisonement, interning in Concentration camps, sequestration of Jewish money and possessions, and the Jews have been put out of their homes in the districts of Abdin, Kubbek,etc. by a military proc- lamations in Cairo; more than 052 families became homeless. But where is the Council of the Jewish Community? As if it has never existed. The Great Rabbi Chaim Nachum does great efforts near the authorities, but they always send him out with arrogance and his reclamations are ignored. ZIONISM IN EGYPT. As a direct effect of this persecution, Zionism has gained every heart and every mind. Where is the Zionist Organisation Part of its members are in concentration camps and the rest, and the "great" personalities of Zionism have become very afraid and completely incompetent, and want to hide to save their money, being "so" afraid. But the Hapoel Hamizrachi, who have known since a long time, the complete incompetence of these persons and who have had to suffer during years from their opposition to us. The Hapoel Hamizrachi has learned since long to work by his own means. The Zionist work is now done by the youth. There are 3 movements working now in Egypt : Hapoel Hamizrachi, Hechalutz and Hashomer. HASHOMER: 150 chaverim in Cairo - 80 in Alexandria - Intensive work. Very developed selfishness. At many occasions has put its own interest in first place, ignoring the interest of Egyptian Zionism and movements. 10 Chaverim in Concentration Camps at Cairo and 15 at Alexandria. ...../2 Hechalutz: 160 chaverim in Cairo, of which 40 in concentration camp 50 not working and 70 working well. Alexandria: 100 chaverim of which 20 are in concentration camp. The chaverim in concentration camps are: The mazkir the whole Hanhala and the Moatza and the majority of Bogrim and responsible chaverim. The chaverim who are not in concentration camps and who wanted to work tried to collaborate with the Hashomer. One week after, the Hashomer asked them to liquidate their movements and to act here individually to the gedudim of the Hashomer. Result: the Hechalutz was indignant and refused. The colla- boration with Hashomer came to an end. The chaverim of the Hechalutz asked it a duty to reorganise them in the same way it had organised its own gedudim (see below) to give them advise, and furnish them with all sichot and materials. Since one and a half months, by decision of the Hanhala, our temporary Mazkir has given them loyally all the help and all the sichot. 70 chaverim of Hechalutz are now working intensively as gedudim of Hechalutz. OUR MOVEMENT. Cairo, 150 chaverim all working intensively, except, 4 chaverim in concentration camp. Alexandria, 60 chaverim - none in concentration camp - all working actively. Port Said, 15 chaverim of whom we have had no news, being cut since the 15th May. Our Work: 1) Usual work of the movement 2) Work for the families and for the Jewish community in Egypt 3) Defense I. Our usual work as a movement. By our very narrow security system, the Political Police is very scarcely acquainted with our activities and our persons. This security system has proved since 3 years, to be very efficient. First result:- Only 4 chaverim have been caught and put in concentr- ation camp. While other movements have lost their whole staff of Hanhala and many of their Madrichim. Our Mazkir (permanent), Mordechai Quidis, is one of our 4 chaverim imprisoned. A code has been established with the concentration camp and we are in constant contact with our chaverim there. At Cairo: The hanhala has chosen a temporary Mazkir. The work is done as follows. Since there are great security difficulties and dangers each group has been divided into "cells". Each cell is of 3,4, or 6 chaverim according to the social group and the easiness to meet so as not to arouse the attention of the Political police. Gedudim: 4 Bogrim with 46 chaverim, 7 Benounim with 85 chaverim. Tzeirim: Since the difficulties of meeting, especially for the Tzeirim we have been obliged to have a great number of Tzeirim. Only 2 gedudim work with 17 chaverim. 2 sichot are prepared every week and done to all the cells of the gedudim. 1 sicha on ideology (Zionism), palestinography, Hapoel Hamizrahi, Socialism, etc), and 1 sicha on the Political and Military situation in Eretz Israel, according to the true news. These 2 sichot are prepared by the Temporary Mazkir with the help of the Madri- chim and of an information bureau, formed of 2 commissions, one for the radio and one for the press. The 3 chaverim of the commission, hear the news programs of the radio day and night, of the "Kol Israel" and "Haganah" in all three transmissions, and of the B.B.C., Moscow, New-York and Lake Arabic and world press. This bureau directed by the temporary Mazkir is used I) The sichot and the information of the chaverim, and 2) for the propaganda bureau (see below) The sichot are given to the madrichim in a systematic and very simple way, so that they can remember them completely by heart, without using any paper or any map (for security reasons). The sichot are given by the madrichim or the Mazkir in 3 times by cells for security reasons). Every madrich has to adopt the sicha to their personality of his chaverim in his cells. In all this, no paper and no map are used. Also the majority of the chaverim go every night from 8-9 to a Yeshivah for Limmud Torah. They hear by cells the "Haganah" and "Kol Israel" (especially the Hebrew programs) as frequently as possible. They are in groups at the synagogue. They do manual and intelectual work by small groups. Talking about the chaverot. Because of the security difficulties the chaverot, we are sorry to say, are in separate cells, lead by Madrichot. This is not to attract the attention of the Political Police. Alexandria. The same system of work is used in our Snif at Alexandria, but the gedudim are devided into cells of 6 chaverim, since the Political police is not very active there. A chaver of the Hanhala of Cairo has been sent to shlichut to Alexandria. He is expected to come today after 20 days in Alexandria, Port Said. We are sorry to tell that we are completely out of from our chaverim numbering 15, in Port Said. Heliopolis. Are out of our snif in Cairo. Recruitement. An Intensive work of recruitment is done. New gedudim are formed. We announce to our chaverim of Bachad, that a new gedud of University students has been created and works since one month. This gedud has chosen the name of "Kvutzat Kfar Etzion" our heroic Kvutzah. 2) Work in the families and for the Jewish Community in Egypt. The state of complete insecurity in which the Jewish Population live in Egypt, has made the desire for Aliyah, general. Being afraid that in case where the situation becomes slightly better in Egypt many of the families who wanted to go to EretzIsrael change their mind, we have organised systematically, an extensive propaganda between the Jewish families for the Aliyah; and our Mazkir (temporary) has organised the same propaganda with the Hechalutz movement which has our help. We must say that a Shaliah at that moment would have been of great help for us and his absence is something we regret bitterly. Also work of propaganda and making higher the morale of the Jewish families in these difficult hours in Egypt, is undertaken by us in Cairo and Alexandria, and we have asked the Hechalutz to do the same. The true news is systematically propagated, so as not to let the Jewish population become the victim of the Egyptian press, censored, lying and diffamation. You know that our community has passed through numerous critical moments, especially after the explosions of the Jewish quarter, the tombstrom Cairo, and the programs of the week from 16-23rd July 1948. After each of these regretable occasions, we had to organise ourselves rapidly so as to put up again the morals of the Jewish population, doing in that, only our duty. 3. Defence. About the work of active defence in Egypt, which is shared by our chaverim, we are not in a position to give you details; there is a special organisation for that. We have also created a Bureau of propaganda which tries to diffuse in the different spheres of the Jewish, Christian and Moslem population the true news about the war in Palestine and false news prepared by us to counteract the false and diffamatory propaganda against Jews in Egypt, and try to do moral sabotage in Egypt. We are trying by our weak means to do our best in that respect. THE CODE To be in contact with Eretz by means of you, without danger for our movement, we ask you to address your letters to Mr. Maurice Mizrachi, c/o Ottoman Bank, P.O.Bag, Cairo. EGYPT. These letters must be in the form of commerical letters or friendly letters, without any dangerous indication and without the initials of Bachad, and in the name of a chaver of your movement who will tell us his address. The code is the following. Mr. Wien will give you a paper holes in which this paper is marked by a cross in the upper part of the face to be used. Put the paper with holes on your letter paper, with the cross mark facing you, and so as the mark is up the paper. Write in every hole one word of your message to us. Take off the paper with holes. Then fill up the spaces between the words on your letter paper. We have holes-paper indentical to yours, when we shall receive your letter, we shall put our paper on it and we shall read easily your message. This code has been used by members of the French Maquis (underground) and I hope it will be efficient in our correspondence. We beg you to give our news to our chaverim in our Kvutzah in Eretz, Kvutzat Chahar, Kfar Ata, Haifa, and tell them that their families are in good health and that their chaverim in Egypt are trying to give their maximum to merit the privilege to have a State. Our heart is with them in their struggle. Please give us also their news. We beg you again and repeatedly to help Mr. Wein, who has kindly accepted to bring you this report and to help him as much as you can. N.B. Please do not publish this report Vivirkat Torah Va'avodah Haim Saadia for the Hanhala Temporary Mzkir.