Trudy Gold
Hollywood and Leon Uris Film Exodus, Part 1
Trudy Gold - Hollywood and Leon Uris’ Film Exodus, Part 1
CLIP BEGINS
- [Announcer] Otto Preminger presents “Exodus,” the biggest bestseller since “Gone with the Wind,” read by more than 50 million around the world, now on the screen, an epic of our time, the birth of a nation. With Paul Newman as Ari Ben Canaan, Eva Marie Saint as Kitty Fremont, Ralph Richardson as General Sutherland, Peter Lawford as Major Caldwell, Lee J. Cobb Barak Ben Canaan, Sal Mineo as Dov Landau, John Derek as Taha, and introducing Jill Haworth as Karen. Every scene filmed where it actually took place, on the island of Cyprus and in Israel.
I’m 15 years old now, Dov. I’m not little anymore.
You shouldn’t have come here in the first place.
But Dov, you’re always fighting, and you’re always in a place where you might be killed. And if anything should happen to you before I told you how much I love you, I just wouldn’t want to live anymore. Please love me, Dov. I’m not afraid.
[Announcer] “Bite Magazine” says, “Otto Preminger’s film ‘Exodus’ goes beyond the book as a tale told in proud passion.”
I will not take him back to Karaolos. He’ll go to Palestine with me, or right here on this ship, we will die together.
[Announcer] “New York Times” says, “The best blockbuster of the year, dazzling, eye-filling, nerve-tingling, rips the heart.”
You can’t fight the whole British Empire with 600 people. It is impossible.
How many minutemen did you have at Concord the day they fired the shot heard around the world?
I don’t know.
77.
[Announcer] “Time Magazine” says, “A terrific show, a serious, expert, frightening, and inspiring thriller.”
You heard what I said! Fight, not beg, fight!
[Announcer] “Exodus.” The “Chicago Tribune” says, “A tremendous picture.” The “Los Angeles Examiner” says, “Terrific impact and fury.” The “Dallas Herald” says, “A superb candidate for the hall of screen greats.” The “Boston Traveller” says, “Magnificent.” The “Miami Beach Sun” says, “Stands head and shoulders above all others.” The Cleveland “Plain Dealer” says, “One of the great films of all time.” “Exodus.”
CLIP ENDS
- Well, good evening, everyone. It’s extraordinary to think back to when “Exodus” was first written and when “Exodus” came onto the screen. It was a kind of different time. I’m going to talk about the personal, then I’m going to talk about the general. I first read the book “Exodus” in 1959. I was 11 years old. I won a prize at Hebrew school, and my parents were allowed to choose the book, and I read “Exodus,” and then my mother took me to see the film. You remember the scene because I’m taking a good chance on this and because we’ve had a breakdown of the people on our Lockdown University, and I learned the majority of you are of a certain age, and you’ll probably remember the impact of “Exodus.” When Ari Ben Canaan came out of the water in Cyprus, I fell in love. I felt so in love that I went to see the film six times, but much more important than that, it awakened a consciousness in me. And on the subject of people coming out of the sea, I think it had as much impact on my generation of women as when the great scene in “Dr. No” when Ursula Andress came out of the water. I remember a few years ago, I interviewed Mark Regev, when he was the ambassador to London, and I said to him, “When did you become a Zionist?” And he said, “I was in Australia, and I saw ‘Exodus,’ and I wanted to be Ari Ben Canaan. And I said, "Well, I was in love with Ari Ben Canaan.” But put all this aside, “Exodus” was a fascinating, it was at a fascinating time. It comes out in 1960, and it’s the first time that Hollywood brings together the Shoah and the creation of the State of Israel. Now, I want to make this point before I go on, because I think it’s terribly, terribly important. I think you heard all those reviews, what a wonderful film it was.
It had a huge star cast, Otto Preminger, who I’m going to talk about his biography, the music by Ernest Gold, who’d already, who went on to be one of the great music masters of Hollywood himself, an Austrian emigre from Nazi Germany, as was Otto Preminger. And it was a time when all of a sudden America began to love Israel. Not long after this, Kennedy becomes president. Jews were kind of coming of age. All of a sudden we didn’t feel, have to feel quite so scared anymore. And this was a time when, certainly in the West, because it’s not just “Exodus,” I’m going to talk about other films, there was a certain feeling that Israel was the place to be, that there was something special in Israel. In fact, David Ben-Gurion said that Leon Uris did more for tourism than anything else in the whole of the history of the State of Israel. It was a glorious film. It really extolled, as I said, not just the link between the Shoah and Israel, but the bravery of Israel. When I was choosing film clips, some of the comments on these film clips, this is pure Zionist propaganda. And of course the other interesting issue, it’s very difficult to get hold of “Exodus.” You will not find it on Prime. You will not find it on Netflix. And it’s, when I went through the list of Otto Preminger’s films, it’s very much played down. All of a sudden, or not all of a sudden, if you go back to the ‘60s, “Exodus” really did begin a strand of films which extolled not just Israel but also was very sympathetic to the link between Israel and the Shoah.
And speaking very seriously now, I think one of the problems that has gone wrong, certainly in Britain, and I believe the same is true of America, we’ve ripped the Shoah out of its Jewish consciousness and one, and of course we are looking at a world, we’ve just had the programme shine a light. We’re looking at a world where anti-Semitism is on the increase, and Israel is the bete noire of the world as far as the United Nations is concerned where Israel is now seen as the white supremacist colonial power and where other victim groups think of us as oppressors. And I think one of the reasons for that, you cannot think about the Shoah and not feel certain, a certain kind of horror and sympathy. But what seems to have happened is the Shoah has been de-Judaized. There’s no connection now, and I really mean this, between the horrific murder of a third of our people and the State of Israel, and these years, '45 to '48, are absolutely crucial in any understanding of Israel. And if you look at the way Holocaust is taught in England, it finishes in 1945. I was speaking to my friend Anita Lasker-Wallfisch. I’ve spoken to many survivors on this, it’s almost as though they de-Judaized the Holocaust. And when survivors go into schools to tell their stories, of course there’s sympathy for these people with a terrible story to tell, but they’re not rooted in Jewish history. And I think what Leon Uris did that was very interesting, he really did root the Shoah in the story of Israel, because it was very unlikely, if it hadn’t been for the horror that engulfed the Jews of Europe, there wouldn’t have been an Israel, because if you just look at the population figures, in 1933, there were only 215,000 Jews who’d answered the Zionist call.
Of course, after the Shoah, it becomes so, so important. And please don’t forget also what happened to so many of those survivors who tragically they went home to rebuild their lives. What happened to them? They were murdered by fascists either because of political ideal or ideology or because of venality. They’d taken their property. And Israel does become a target. But before we actually get on to the film “Exodus,” because I’m taking the luxury of two weeks to look at it, because I think it’s seminal in the history of film, in terms of Jews are concerned, and it does begin an awakening in America and in the English language films of interest in Jewish subjects. Of course after the war, there were films made on the Shoah, mainly in Eastern Europe. But the beginnings of an understanding of the Shoah on film, it begins with “The Young Lions,” which stars Marlon Brando as a Nazi. It doesn’t work on any level. Then of course you had “The Diary of Anne Frank,” which is more or less completely de-Judaized. So “Exodus” is incredibly important. Now, what other films came out around this time that, and I want to talk a little bit about that because I think it’s very important. “Judgement at Nuremberg,” following “Exodus,” “Judgement at Nuremberg” by Stanley Kramer, the music, the wonderful music that Ernest Gold won the Oscar for, and I’m going to play more of that next, on Thursday, he went on to write the music for “Judgement at Nuremberg.” As I said, he himself was a young Austrian Jew who came to America at the time of the Anschluss. He wrote his first symphony in 1939. It was performed at Carnegie Hall in '45. He goes to Hollywood, and he has a very, very interesting career. Now, “Judgement at Nuremberg,” it was written by a man called Abby Mann. Abby Mann also wrote “Ship of Fools” of 1965.
These are young Jews who are bought up in the consciousness of Israel, and they want to tell their story. Now, “Judgement ,” just as in “Exodus,” it’s full of Hollywood stars, more about that later. In “Judgement at Nuremberg” in '61, it starred Burt Lancaster, Judy Garland, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, Maximilian Schell, Montgomery Clift. It’s a brilliant film on the trial of judges at Nuremberg. I’m not going into any detail because Dennis and David already looked at it with you, but this is, what I want to show you is how really beginning with “Exodus,” you have a spate of films. You have, of course, the “Ship of Fools,” which I’ve already mentioned. It’s about a boatload of people, disparate people on a ship, made in 1966, going back to Germany. And it’s narrated by a real outsider, a man who, well, in the film, he’s called a dwarf, but everything in context, he and the Jew are the real outsiders. But it’s brilliantly done, and it evokes the picture of what is really going to happen. And then of course, the brilliant film “The Pawnbroker,” if you haven’t seen these films, they are absolutely essential, starring, of course, Rod Steiger, one of his best performances ever. But going on to the subject of Zionism, following “Exodus,” there were two. One was called “Judith,” which links the Shoah with Israel, and in “Judith,” what happens is, it’s not a good film because Sophia Loren, the absolutely beautiful Sophia Loren, plays a Holocaust survivor who is looking for her husband, who is a non-Jew and a Nazi. And she meets Peter Finch, who is the Haganah man, and she goes to work for him. It doesn’t work on any level. But then I suppose the other great film, which maybe we’ll look at later in the year, next year, is “Cast a Giant Shadow.”
It was made by Marvin Shavelson in 1966, and what he said about the film, he actually wrote a book on how to write, to make a Jewish movie. Evidently Israel was too expensive, so they made it in Spain, whereas “Exodus” was made in Cyprus and Israel. And then he threw everything at “Cast a Giant Shadow.” It’s the story of Colonel Mickey Marcus, who was the highest-ranking soldier to go and fight for the Jews in Palestine. I’m sure many of you know that between '45 and '48, a number of Jewish soldiers, British, Free French, American, actually went to Palestine illegally to fight for Jewish independence, and the highest-ranking one was Colonel Mickey Marcus. And he’s played by Kirk Douglas, who of course was Jewish, a very important figure in Hollywood, very much involved with breaking the blacklist, as was Otto Preminger. The man who wrote the screenplay for “Exodus” was Dalton Trumbo. Otto Preminger rocked the world. He’s an extraordinary individual, more about him later. but “Cast a Giant Shadow,” Kirk Douglas was thrown at it, Angie Dickinson, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Yul Brynner. It was the time of, if you like, the love-in with Israel. Now, the first film, though, on Israel was a film that was only shown in British cinema for three days, and that was “Sword in the Desert.” It was actually written by Ben Hecht, and it’s very, very anti-British, and it was taken off in three days. But so the point is, “Exodus” is important in the story of the telling of Israel at a time when America, Britain, there did seem to become a sort of lightening. As I said, those years between '61 and '67, when Israel won that dramatic victory, were what I call as far as being Jewish are concerned, we felt comfortable in our Jewish skins. It seemed almost as though even in England, the world was sympathetic to us. I remember in '67 when Israel blanketed the news for the first day. There was a huge fundraising drive.
Anglo-Jewry gave more money than they’ve ever given to anything before. But it wasn’t just Anglo-Jewry. English people were giving. It was almost as though we have to help embattled little Israel. Today, as I said, it’s very difficult to get hold of “Exodus.” It’s not banned. I’m not saying that. But as I said, when I went through the clips, choosing clips, what I would come up with time and again, this is a propaganda film. It’s very anti-British. It’s very anti-Arab. So of course it’s fiction, faction, but it is a story. It doesn’t, and many of the events in the story did happen. I’m going to tell you first of all about the biography of Leon Uris, because he’s a fascinating man. And then I’m going to tell the story of the real story of the ship, the Exodus, which is just as extraordinary as the story of the ship in the film. And we will, I promise, you see lots of clips from the film “Exodus.” But first of all, let’s start with Leon Uris. His dates, you can see, 1924 to 2003. His father, Wolf, was a Polish-born immigrant. He was never a very, very happy man, according to his father, to his son. He was never very successful in his own terms. He became a paper hanger. He worked in a store. His mother was first-generation Eastern Europe. His father had spent a year in Palestine after World War I, before he came to America. He was fascinated by Palestine, as Uris is later to be. And Uris said about his father, “I think his personality was formed by the harsh realities of being a Jew in Tsarist Russia. I think failure formed his character and made him bitter.” Well, you could not say the same about his son, who was a character who really rocked the world. Evidently he wrote an operetta about the death of his dog when he was six days old, six years old, beg your pardon.
He went to high school. He never graduated. He was a very, very mercurial character. Obviously he had a huge brain. I’m going to say this, he was amoral, but he rocked the world. Age 17, Pearl Harbour, he enlisted. He was in the America, he was in the US Marines, and he was actually recuperating from malaria when he married the first of his wives in 1945. He’s going to go on to have three of them. He came back, and he worked. What did he do? He worked for a newspaper. He wrote articles wherever he could get them placed. He was a man who was very hungry for success. And in his spare time, he begins to write articles. “Esquire” buys an article in 1950, and as a result, he begins to take his writing more seriously, and he writes “Battle Cry,” which is about the toughness of American Marines and their courage in the Pacific arena. The critics panned it, but it becomes a bestseller, and Warner Brothers, which was always the studio of the edgy films, they got in touch with him, and they told him to write the screenplay. And again, the movie becomes very, very popular with the critics, and he went, not with the public, and then he goes on to write “The Angry Hills,” which is set in wartime Greece. Now, it’s in 1958 that he writes his blockbuster, “Exodus.” He had always been intensely interested in Israel. Remember, his father had already visited. He financed his, he actually went to Israel to research, thousands and thousands of interviews. He actually, he traversed Israel from north to south, west to east, not that it was that big at that time. He actually sold the option on the film, remember, he’s already in Hollywood, to finance his travels. He goes in, he writes lots of newspaper articles on the Sinai Campaign.
He goes to Israel around the time of Sinai. So he’s there for the Sinai Campaign, which attracted an incredible amount of interest, obviously, and he’s sending a lot of articles home. Evidently he made over 1,500 interviews. Who did he interview? He interviewed people in the Irgun, people in the Haganah, every sort of character. And what happens when it finally comes up? I don’t have to tell you because I bet you there’s no one on this Zoom who either hasn’t seen the film, I’m taking a chance, but I’m talking about people of my age now, who hasn’t seen the film and who hasn’t read the book, worldwide bestseller. It was top of the New York bestselling list for eight months. It was translated into a dozen languages. It becomes influential amongst Russian refuseniks. Of course, they couldn’t read it in, they couldn’t officially buy it in Russia. But the story was told in the prison camps, in the Gulags. It was smuggled into, it was smuggled into Russia. It becomes an incredible hit, because it gave Jews back their pride. If a book and a film can do that, then I think “Exodus” did it. Now, you don’t have to agree with me, but I think I can actually put quite a strong case for it. Anyway, that was not the end of his career by any means. He goes on to write “Topaz,” which was actually made into a film by Hitchcock. And then we come to his second great Jewish book, “Mila 18,” which has never been made into a film. Again, I read it as a young girl, and it had a profound impact on me. It’s his story of the Warsaw ghetto. And what he does in “Mila 18,” which he also does in “Exodus,” there is always a gentile heroine. He understands his public.
There is the beautiful blonde heroine. But “Mila 18” is the story of Andrei Androfski, an incredibly brave man who chooses to go and die in the Warsaw ghetto with his comrades. And Mila 18 is, of course, the last bunker where Mordechaj Anielewicz died. And he weaves into “Mila 18” the story of the, of course, of the great writers of the Warsaw ghetto, the bravery of the Warsaw ghetto, and it did a huge amount also to bring the Shoah to world attention. His next film was fascinating because it’s called “QB VII,” and that was made into a television biopic, I think it was six hours long, starring Ben Gazzara. And in “Exodus,” he was accused by a Polish doctor of libelling him. This Polish doctor had become an important figure in Britain. He had been awarded, I think it was the OBE. He’d been knighted for services in Africa. He was one of those doctors who went out to give everything. But according to Uris, he was guilty of experimentation in Auschwitz. Now, he sued Uris for libel, and the court it was in was QB VII. I remember at the time a close friend of mine worked for, he had just articled with Maxwell Batley, who were the solicitors in the case. So I saw quite a few of the transcripts. But in the end, Dr. Dering was awarded a ha'penny damages, which really is, it means that you’ve, that you have not proved your case. And in fact, Uris, he wins his point. There isn’t enough proof to actually nail the doctor, but all the overwhelming evidence, that is what the jury says. He goes on, he writes a novel of the Berlin blockade. His last wife was Irish, and he got very involved in Irish nationalism, et cetera. So he, by the way, “QB VII” was the second book to top the “New York Times” bestseller list. So he also, by the way, wrote the screenplay, his most famous film that he didn’t write the book for, is in fact “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.”
Now, oh, he did write “Haj,” which was the life of Palestinian Arabs from World War I to Suez. So Leon Uris is an incredibly interesting man, and the film is very long. Mort Sahl actually said at the, he actually said at the end of the review, “Let my people go.” But it’s, so it’s divided into two halves, which is really good for us, because as I said, it gives us time to spend quite a bit of time on the story of “Exodus.” But before I get to the film, I’m going to tell you the real story of the ship the Exodus, because that was also incredibly important, because in the film, I’m going to tell you the story, Leon Uris’ first part of “Exodus.” It begins with Ari Ben Canaan, played by Paul Newman, who is a member of the Haganah. He enters Cyprus illegally. Those of you who know the history of this period, and I think many of you know it very well, I lectured on it about a year ago now, and I think at some stage we really will have to go back to this period. He enters Cyprus illegally, why? In 1945, after the Shoah, the new Labour government completely horrified Jewish opinion, also to a large extent American opinion, because they refused to open the gates of Palestine to the Jewish population, the population of survivors. In fact, they were only allowing a tiny minority into Palestine. And as a result, there was a plan to block, to actually stop this and to run the gauntlet to Palestine. Many, many ships, either by the Haganah, by the Irgun, the Irgun was a paramilitary organisation. You know, we live in an era where we have to watch every word. The Irgun were referred to by the British government as terrorists. By many Jews, they were referred to as freedom fighters. And the Haganah was the official underground army of the Yishuv.
There was another group called Lehi, which of course was headed later by Yitzhak Shamir. Begin was the leader of the Irgun. So going back to the film, it begins with Ari Ben Canaan entering Cyprus, because when the British captured the ships, and they had captured the majority of the ships, they would send the prisoners who are Holocaust survivors, remember, back to interment camps on Cyprus, which was a British protectorate. Cyprus had actually been awarded to the British in the period of Benjamin Disraeli, those of you who like the ironies of history. So Ari Ben Canaan arrives in Cyprus with a plan, he is Haganah, with a plan to take back, the last ship that arrived in Palestine had been arrested, there were 600 of them. He’s going to take them on another ship to run the gauntlet to Palestine. What happens? And what happens is the first part of the film is how they fool the British. They manage to actually get the survivors on the ship. Paul Newman plays the part of a British captain. And in fact, the captain in the film, Leon Uris’ film, did serve in the British army. And as I’m sure you, all of you know, there was a large contingent of Palestinian Jews who did fight for the British. And what is interesting, it wasn’t until late in the war in ‘41 that they were allowed into the army because the British, the British in Palestine, the British authorities in Palestine were so frightened that eventually they would turn against them. So this is very credible.
And what is also credible is in fact the camps on Cyprus. We know they existed, and we know that the British officers’ attitude to the Jews was hostile because in ‘45, between '45 and '48, the new Labour government under Ernest Bevin, who was the colonial secretary, he took a totally harsh attitude to the Jews. He’s appeasing the Arabs, and I think I’m going to say this, he crossed the line from anti-Zionism to anti-Semitism. And also the other reason that the, that’s given in the film that they want to run the ship to Palestine is because the United, and it’s now 1947, and the United Nations is going to make a decision on whether to partition Palestine, and the Haganah is out for really good publicity. Now, so that’s the part, that’s the first part of the film, and of course it’s interwoven with a love interest. There’s an American woman, a nurse who comes to Palestine to find out how her husband, who had been a photographer, an American photographer, had died, and she’s very friendly with the British governor of Palestine. So that, and she becomes Ari Ben Canaan’s love interest. There is also, there is lots of scenes in the camp where there is a very pretty young Danish Jewish girl who Kitty decides she wants to adopt. And then there is a young man who wants to join the Irgun, played by Sal Mineo.
He brings out all the threads. So what he does is he takes facts, and he makes them dramatic. What is also interesting, the same technique was used by Spielberg in “Schindler’s List” when you have a conflation of figures. But before I go any further and show you any more film clips, I’m going to tell the real story of the Exodus, because as I said before, it’s just as important. Now, the ship the Exodus, it’s going to leave, the real ship, is going to leave the South of France in April 1947 from the port of Sete. It originally was an American pleasure, a pleasure steamer. Its name had been the President Warfield, and it had once been a glamorous boat. Now, those of you in America will probably, this will give you echoes, because it ran the, it ran from Baltimore to Norfolk, and it was a very glamorous ship with dancing. And this is before of course, the Second World War. It had by this time, it had become a rust bucket. The Old Bay Line of 1942, in the war, it had been used as part of the Allied invasion. Then it was sold for scrap. Now, in 1945, Haganah came to, a group of Haganah men came to America to try and influence American Jewry. The Irgun were also there. American Jewry played a huge part in the foundation of the State of Israel, more about that at another time. But anyway, they come to Israel to recruit, to America to recruit people to fight in Palestine, and they want people who are prepared to run the ships. Many of the Haganah ships are going to be run by people who were in the American Navy. And also they need money. They wanted to buy up ships. And this old rust bucket was bought for $40,000. It was refitted, it was refitted, beg your pardon, for $40,000 because the ship is going to be a ship to transport refugees.
So on it, you’re going to need medical supplies, blanket supplies, the volunteers. The American volunteers, they’re all under the age of 19. They’re all under the age of 22. Many of them have been interviewed. They did it for heroism. They’d been in the Army. They knew what had happened to their people. They wanted adventure, some of them, but above all, they wanted to help in the creation of a Jewish state, and the Jewish Agency would make contact with these people. And also fundraising, the fundraising in America was absolutely extraordinary. Golden Meir is going to be the best at it. In 1947, she raised a startling amount of money. Ben-Gurion, when she returned to Palestine, Ben-Gurion said, “Madam, you saved the Jewish state.” But the Irgun was also raising money, and the Irgun actually got a lot of money from the Jewish mafia, which is another story, another time, but it’s an incredible tale to tell. Now, the American Christian Palestine Committee, the representative, very pro-Jewish, he also hitched a ride. And then Haganah came to take charge of the ship, and all the American sailors, and a few who had been former soldiers who were on board to help, they were all sworn into the Haganah. So it’s, in America, it becomes an open secret, and he British are worried because they’re always on the lookout for ships. There’s even articles in the local papers. February the 25th, 1947, it departs officially for Hong Kong, and of course the British realise it’s a blockade runner, and it goes to the Port of Marseille. It then goes in to, in Marseille, the British agents identify the American crew. They try and have the ship impounded, but it slips away from, it manages to slip away from Sete, which is a wonderful place in the South of France.
Meanwhile, the Haganah, working with people who’d been in the French underground plus sympathetic French, there was a different feeling in 1945, '46, '47, '48, they were actually transporting from the DP camps in Germany thousands of survivors. And they were transporting them. It was an incredibly difficult thing to organise. They transport 4,500 survivors to meet the ship, and they pull it off. It’s fully supplied, and they’re underway. The British Navy was waiting for them, and their plan was to trail them and board her in Palestinian waters. Now, they followed, British warships followed the ship. On July the 16th, 1947, three more destroyers joined the chase. The Haganah send orders, beach the ship at Tel Aviv. On July the 17th, 1947, trailed by an escort, they’re waiting for the showdown. And what the people on the ship do, because what the British tried to do always whenever they got into these situations and board the ship, so they put up barbed wire on the ship. And at this stage, there’s no firearms. At this stage, they actually fly the Star of David, and they change the name. It’s announced it is the Haganah ship Exodus. Okay, meanwhile, the Haganah have ordered 20,000 Haganah people in Palestine to meet them at the beach. And this was Yossi Harel, who was the commander of the Haganah in charge of this organisation. It was a very dark night. There were two destroyers. It was 25 miles off the coast of Gaza. It was not in Palestinian waters. Two war ships attack. They squeeze the ship on both sides, the search lights, the British board with guns and tear gas. The survivors fought back with tins and with potatoes. A young boy was shot and killed. The British board, and 10 Marines attempt to take the wheel where a young American volunteer is clubbed, and he later dies from that. In the end, the ship fought for four hours before it surrendered. 146 people out of 4,500 were injured, and there were three dead.
The ship then limps into Haifa harbour, and they have a brief time in Palestine, and it’s then that the US crew and the refugees are transferred to three prison ships. Now, they lost the battle, but this is when the Palestinian Jews were at their best in terms of publicity. If you think about it, Holocaust survivors killed by British soldiers, an American volunteer killed by a British soldier. Two of the delegates from the UN, the UNSCOP delegation, were actually on the dockside at Haifa when the ship came in. Women were running at the British soldiers with knitting needles. It made those delegates realise just how important Palestine was to the Jews, Jewish survivors. Now, the world press is there. The news flashes all around the world. It captures the compassion of the world. Bevin will not allow the boat to go to Palestine. He decides to send them back to France. That’s where they came from, so send them back to France. They go back to France. The passengers refused to land. The agents of the Haganah say to them, “Your act of resistance will help us create a homeland.” The Americans stayed on the ships to help the refugees, and for three weeks they refused to come ashore in France. And this is, of course, when UNSCOP is meeting. And by the way, the Christian representative, he was interviewed by the UNSCOP committee, and the questions they asked, “Had the ship been boarded in international waters?” Yes, it had, that was illegal. And remember, the UNSCOP asking these questions now. “Had the refugees used for any firearms?” No. So Britain really is in a lower, can you imagine, British, the publicity for Britain. Headlines in American newspapers, “Homeless people carried from port to port.” And it’s hot. They’re on a ship. There aren’t proper conditions, sanitary conditions. And it’s this, the British are absolutely furious. It goes on for four weeks, the stifling conditions. Bevin then said, “I’m going to give you 24 hours to disembark, or I’m sending the ship back to Germany.”
Only 21 of the 4,500 passengers, just imagine, they’re in an old pleasure ship that had been for under a few hundred people. There are 4,500 of them on bunks in this ship in stifling conditions, and only 21 of them disembarked. And the three prison ships are sent back to Germany. They’re taken back to the place of death. And this is what flashes around the world. They have, when they arrive at Hamburg, they have a sit-down strike. There’s tear gas, there’s clubbing. That shoots around the world. This is Britain’s lowest hour. And of course, the partition plan is about to go towards the United Nations. So in the end, the story does have a happy ending because the majority of the passengers on the Exodus eventually made it to Israel. And Bill Bernstein, the brave American soldier, there was a eulogy for him in Madison Square Garden, and 20,000 people attended that eulogy. And in August '52, just to tell you the end of the Exodus, it was kept in Haifa harbour as a sort of symbol, and unfortunately it burnt down. It was actually, it was destroyed by fire in 1952. But that’s the real story. Now can we come onto the clip, the first clip which is on the boat. Now, in the “Exodus” story, Ari Ben Canaan has taken the, I’ll come back to Paul Newman next week. But before you show that clip, I want to just talk a little more, I’m sorry. Ari Ben Canaan has taken his 600 passengers onto the ship, and they are trying to make it out of the harbour when the British blockade, so what they decide to, so let’s listen now to what happens. There are some interesting characters. There is Dr. Lieberman, but let’s the film speak for itself. So can we hear, can we see this clip, please, Lauren?
CLIP BEGINS
This one to Haifa. You wanted to see me?
Yes, Captain.
“Yes, Captain,” His Majesty’s Jewish brigade, North Africa, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. The decorations are real. Is that what Sutherland sent you to find out?
You lied to me about the girl. She’s not at the camp. She’s on this ship, and you forced her to come aboard.
We don’t force anybody. Tel Aviv yet?
No.
Go on.
You’re not even listening.
I heard every word you said. I lied to you about the girl. What else?
I’m going to take her off this death trap.
Don’t you tell me what you’ll do aboard this ship. You’ll do exactly what I tell you you can do.
Tel Aviv beginning to send.
Fine, assuming we’ve got the girl, how do you know she wants to get off?
I am trying to save a Jewish child. Can’t you understand that? Don’t you have any respect for human life?
Now, don’t expect me to get hysterical over the life of one Jewish child, and don’t you get hysterical, either. You’re late, lady. You’re 10 years late. Almost two million Jewish children were butchered like animals because nobody wanted them. No country would have them, not your country or any other country. And nobody wants the ones who survived. Jewish flesh is cheap, lady. It is cheaper than beef. It is cheaper even than herring. You and your respect.
Tel Aviv complete now.
If you can find the girl, if she wants to go with you, take her. Take a dozen if you want to.
Kitty, Kitty! It happened so fast, I couldn’t even leave you a note. I had to go, Kitty, to find my father. When you asked me to go to America, I didn’t know. I mean, oh, Kitty, we’re going to Palestine.
Karen, you don’t know what it’s like in Palestine, and the British won’t let you go anyhow.
They’ll have to, Kitty, they just have to, because we’re not going back to Karaolos, not ever.
Then let me take you to Palestine. I can find a way. The man in charge here, Mr.-
Ben Canaan.
Yes, if you want to come with me, you have his permission.
I couldn’t leave now, Kitty. I don’t know how to explain it to someone like you. But we all came here together, and now we’re trying to do something. And I must stay here, Kitty.
[Sutherland] General Sutherland calling the Olympia.
This is the Exodus. Come in, General.
I have received instructions from the Colonial Office in London. No attempt will be made to board the Olympia, but the harbour will remain blocked. You may return to Karaolos whenever you wish. If you choose to remain in the ship, provisions and medical supplies will be sent to you as you need them. Message completed.
Not even now?
Kitty, I couldn’t. It’s, it’s like leaving your family when things are bad.
I know. If you want anything, will you let me know?
Yes, General Sutherland’s your friend. Tell him to let us go to Palestine.
They’re just going to turn this ship into another concentration camp.
[Passenger] You’re wrong, Leon Lakavitch. We cannot stay here. We shall have to go back sooner later.
Stay here, go back, nonsense. Did we escape for just ourselves alone? No! We’ve done it for hundreds of thousands of Jews all over Europe who couldn’t get out. Also, it makes news, world news.
I want your attention for a minute. Now, you all heard General Sutherland on the loudspeaker. You must now make a decision. You can go back to Karaolos.
The only way to go back to Karaolos is by crawling!
Or you can stay aboard this ship.
Who are you making the propaganda for? Them or us?
Quiet, quiet, please. There is another possibility. You were picked by Haganah for this ship so that your escape to Palestine would have some meaning to the world. Now, if you still want it to have some meaning, if you want to try to finish what we began, you can go on a hunger strike.
Now you’re beginning to make a little sense! We shall tell to the British, “We spit on your food.” And the little food we’ve got here, we shall throw overboard. We are going to Palestine, or we going to die right here!
Now, just stop and think for a minute. To go on a hunger strike is a very serious business because once you strike, it can only end when you have won or when you are dead.
What is so unusual about the Jews dying? Is that anything new? I stay right here. There is no excuse for us to go on living unless we start fighting right now so that every Jew on the face of the earth can begin to start feeling like a human being again. You heard what I said, fight, not beg, fight!
Everybody aboard this ship agreed to accept Haganah discipline. I am now giving an order. We will sit down, and we will maintain silence for 20 minutes. Each one of us will listen to his own heart and to his brain, too, and then we will vote. We will now maintain silence.
I saw the people on that ship. They’re not dangerous. They’re just poor, miserable people. Why can’t you let them go?
You must understand that we British have shown throughout our history an extraordinary talent for troublesome commitments. Palestine is a British mandate imposed upon us by the League of Nations, which makes us responsible for keeping the peace in the area. The Arabs simply won’t keep the peace if we allow further Jewish immigration.
I don’t know much about the mandate, but I do know the Jews were promised a homeland in Palestine.
During the First World War, Britain needed and accepted Jewish support from all over the world. In return, the Balfour Declaration of 1917 made such a promise. Well, that promise was reconfirmed during World War II. This chap Ben Canaan probably wasn’t lying when he said he fought with us. Thousands of Palestinians did.
How can you promise something and then not deliver it?
England was fighting for her life in 1917. Nations are very like people in such circumstances. They make promises they’re not immediately able to fulfil. During that same crisis, we made the Arabs certain assurances. Hence, they have their claims, too. The Arabs are fanatics on the subject of Jewish immigration. Just now, we need their goodwill.
How is it ever going to end?
I don’t know. The whole question now is before the United Nations. I hope they solve it. The sooner I stop operating detention camps, the happier I’ll be. That goes for every British officer and soldier I know.
Telephone, sir.
Thank you. Yes? The devil. Of course. Send the boat alongside at once. I’ll join you in 10 minutes. They want to send 23 people back to Karaolos. The rest have declared a hunger strike. Can I drop you at your hotel?
Of course.
This one to Haifa.
CLIP ENDS
All right, I think that’s it. Okay, thank you for the clip. Should we go back to Paul Newman’s face? Yeah, that’ll do for the last few minutes. So what happens in the first half of the film, of course, in the end, Ralph Richardson, who is a man of great sympathy surrounded by a couple of anti-Semitic officers, one played by Peter Lawford, he decides in the end, the hunger strike goes on, even the women with the small children. They refuse to let Ben Canaan stop the hunger strike. They say they’ve got to get to Palestine, and in the end, he resigns. He goes back to London. He resigns, and the ship sails for Palestine. And let us see the last clip of this section if you don’t mind, Lauren.
This one to Haifa.
No, not this one. There’s another clip, I believe, I hope, a small clip. No dear, dear, anyway, it doesn’t matter because we can sort the clips out for Thursday. In the second half, the story is really going to be about the birth of Israel, and the situation is very cleverly wrought by Leon Uris. As I said, the screenplay was by Dalton Trumbo, who was brought in having suffered the blacklist. The majority of the characters in the blacklist, of course, had been people who’d been liberal or left in the '30s, and Otto Preminger was an incredibly charismatic, brave character, he really didn’t care, as later on, Kirk Douglas brings him in for “Spartacus.” So going back to the plot of “Exodus,” Ari Ben Canaan’s father is a man called Barak Ben Canaan, played by Lee J. Cobb, and he works on a moshav. He is the real pioneer. He is important in the Jewish Agency, and he’s going to have his role very much as a leader of Haganah in the new Israel. He has a brother, played by the brilliant Yiddish actor David Opatoshu. Having lost his wife and child in an Arab raid, he is the head of the Irgun. And what the film brings out in the second part is the terrible clash between Irgun and Haganah.
And it’s interesting because there is one line that comes out of the mouth of David Opatoshu when he talks about Ari Ben Canaan, the Paul Newman character. He says, “On one level, you are Haganah. On the other level, you are Irgun, but you are Israel.” So really the film is a paean to Zionism. And I just thought it was interesting to show it at the end of the secular year because it does take us back to a time when the propaganda for Israel was far more, I’m even using the word propaganda. Should I even use that word? Well, Israel certainly had a special place for a short time in America and to a lesser extent in England. But of course, post '67, it’s all going to change. And for the reasons I think I’ve, I think there are so many reasons why Israel is now the bete noire of the nations, and tragically I think much of it is tied up with the Shoah. I’m talking now about the Western world. So let me stop there because I can see an awful lot of questions, Lauren. Thank you so much for helping me with the clips. So let’s have a look at the questions, yes.
Q&A and Comments:
Yes, oh, Susan, you’re joining from Baltimore, the home of the boat, oh, that’s so fantastic.
Ken says, “Wrong 'Exodus.’” “Eva Marie Saint is still alive.” Yes, I know. She was a very interesting actress. “You’re not the only one, Trudy,” oh. “‘Exodus’ was on Turner Classic Movies a week ago.” I’m so glad to hear that, Gloria. And it’s very difficult. Remember, I’m in London, and I couldn’t get it on Prime or on Netflix, but I did manage, I have a copy anyway.
This is from Rona. “My book ‘The Ship to Nowhere’ tells the story of the Exodus through the eyes of the child survivor,” fine.
Good to hear from you, Marilyn. Yes, so “Exodus,” “Cast a Giant Shadow,” by the way, is much easier to get hold of.
And this is from Marcia, “For people in Johannesburg, ‘Exodus’ is available in the Joe Green Audiovisual Library and should be available in 2020.”
Rose Rahami, “Heather Morris, author of ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz,’ after publication of the book and wanting to write other books with the theme of love stories outrageously asked if we Jews own the Shoah. She was invited to speak at the UJA in Canada, and I was, of course, furious. There was an outrage in ‘The Guardian.’” Rose, it’s a terribly complicated issue. Howard Jacobson’s line, let me give it to you to think about, “They can’t forgive us the Shoah.” And my particular bete noire is the de-Judaization of the Shoah. I do not approve of Genocide Day. Now, let me be very careful. Any horror perpetrated against anyone is, to use the Yiddish word, a shanda, but by linking them all together into a soup of horror, you know, the Shoah was not Rwanda. Rwanda was horrifying enough on its own, but we have become a very, very strange species. That’s all I want to say.
I mentioned “Mila 18.” Of course, it’s a wonderful book. And Gloria’s saying, “Bob Dunkelman from Toronto also fought.”
Oh, Arlene, “Mickey Marcus was a close relative of my husband.” “Most of the film is fiction.” Yes, of course, but it’s faction. Can we call it faction? “So did my husband, age 16.”
Oh, this is so lovely. So many of you were really involved in the event. “I tried to find the ‘Ship of Fools,’ but I can’t get a copy of it online. Any ideas where I can get it?”
Robin, ay, it is shown sometimes on British Channel 81, I think. I have all these films. You never know, if possible, one of these days we might be able to put them online.
This is from Anna. “Several days ago, our local museum opened a special exhibit celebrating the life and heroic tenacity of Ruth Gruber, 20th century pioneer and trailblazing photojournalist, her work documenting the Exodus, the Cyprus internment camp and prison ships, which forcibly took refugees back to Europe, et cetera, et cetera.” Yes, she was a very, very important woman, Anna. Thank you for bringing that to our notice.
Frank Hillman, “Many Jewish leaders deliberately disconnected the Shoah from the creation of Israel so as to negate the argument that the establishment of Israel was only agreed in order to compensate for what had happened to Jews in the Shoah.” It’s a very interesting point, Frank, and a very big debate. You know, I’ve discussed with Israeli historian friends, they say Israel would’ve happened anyway. Some diaspora historians say if it hadn’t been for the Shoah, it wouldn’t have happened. It’s a very, very, very, very dark argument.
Q: Barbara, “What was the ship, what was the film after ‘Ship of Fools’ that you said mustn’t be missed,” blah, blah, blah. What did I mention, on which order?
A: “Pawnbroker,” probably, one of the great films. “Judgement at Nuremberg,” “The Pawnbroker,” they’re important films of the ‘60s. One of these days when I am more adept and when Lauren and Judy help, one of my subjects I’m most interested in is the historiography of the Shoah in English language film. So I think we’ll put on a session on that, as I said, when I, when Lauren and Judy have the time to help me assemble. There’s a lot of clips to be seen.
“About the ship the St. Louis,” yes, no, no, it wasn’t, Sally. “Ship of Fools” was about a fictitious ship going back to Germany in 1933. There is a film called “The Ship of,” there is a film about the St. Louis, and that stars Orson Welles who was very philosemitic. It’s another film, very interesting film. Yes, there are so many, like “Cast a Giant Shadow.”
Q: “Don’t you think,” this is Betty, “that after winning the Six-Day War, Israel won the war but lost the battle?”
A: Yes, I think that is a very important point. There’s a lot of interesting writers who’ve commented on that. I think Saul Bellow wrote that if Israel had lost, the world would’ve sent 30,000 blankets to the surviving Jewish orphans. That is a very cynical remark. There are those who say, “Can the world ever cope with Jews who are not victims?” It’s the Bar Kokhba/Ben Zakkai debate. There are so many issues for you to think about.
This is Irene, “If you link the establishment of the state with the Shoah, you delegitimize Israel’s right to that piece of land. It could be a Jewish state anywhere. It also repels people to think that six million people had to be killed to enable Jews to take over lands. It must go deeper than that. There was a Jewish connection with that particular land. Also, there was idealism, a determination to build an equal society. Sadly, some of the idealism has gone from there, as it seems to have gone from everywhere. But I’m hopeful it will return.”
Irene, there’s very interesting points you’ve made, but let me be very, very, very careful. I am not for one minute denying Israel, the Jews’ connection with the land of Israel, of course not. You know, it goes back 3,500 years to when Joshua crossed over. So let’s be very careful here. I’m not saying that. All I said was in 1933, out of 18 million Jews worldwide, only 215,000 chose the Zionist option. And please, let’s be incredibly careful. The argument that six million Jews had to die for Israel to be created, there is not one Jew on the face of the earth who would’ve said that was a price worth paying. So let’s be careful. One of the most obscene pieces of propaganda that unfortunately came out of Russia, and I’ve lectured on this, and I will again if it’s important, came out of Russia. If you look at the Soviet press from the ‘50s onwards, particularly after the feudal regimes begin to collapse in the Arab world, and characters like Nasser come to power, and who’s got Nasser got working for him, a lot of Nazi propagandists. The actual notion that the Zionists were in cahoots with the Nazis, and that came out in that terrible play “Perdition” written by the Trotskyite Jim Allen, the notion that there was complicity. The fact was that certain Zionist leaders like Arlosoroff tried to do a deal in '33 to save Jews, that Kastner tried to do it to save Jews, I will say if I would’ve traded with the, I would’ve traded with the devil himself if I thought it would save my family. So let’s be very careful about this, Irene. What you’ve said are some very important points. It’s a debate. One of these days we’re going to have to think of a format where we can have proper debates.
And this is from Sue. “I travelled through Europe in '74 with the book, and went to all the places I could,” how lovely.
Oh, Sally, this is, oh, this is amazing. “Leon Uris wrote 'Exodus’ at my uncle’s house in Israel.” “This is really interesting. What made him choose this site for writing? Were they related?” You know, I have never, I’ve said this many times, I’ve never come across a group like you.
Michael, “I don’t think the Shoah has been de-Judaized. In my opinion, the world’s feeling of collective guilt after the Shoah led to the creation of Israel. But sadly, this missed the real reason for the creation of Israel, namely, after 2,000 years of powerlessness and persecution, the creation of a Jewish state, a strong Jewish state provided the prospect that the repeated consequences of this powerless and persecution could never happen again.” You’re coming up, some of you are coming up with absolutely extraordinarily good arguments. And I seem somehow to have lost my questions. It makes me realise just how much we need these debates. This is, “The de-Judaization of the Holocaust arose initially when the Labour MP Andrew Dismore introduced in parliament to institute a Holocaust Memorial Day.” Yeah, it’s that, that’s another argument that we’ve got to talk about. The Holocaust memorial, this day, this year, on the 27th of January, I’ve invited Howard Jacobson in. I’m going to talk, I want to talk about what’s happening. So I think, I am obviously also inviting a survivor.
Q: Oh, this is from Ken. “Did you know that today was the 10th of Tevet?”
A: Thanks, “But the 10th of Tevet is to remember the destruction of the temple and the exile in Babylon, horribly ironic, but without the exile, we’ve no Jewish monotheism, and as Trudy has implied with the Holocaust, no Israel.” I didn’t quite imply that, Ken. There is a debate about it. Let’s be very, very careful. And the debate really is between many diaspora historians and Israeli historians. Robert Wistrich would never, would’ve been furious with me for even bringing this up. He believed passionately that Israel was going to come into being anyway.
This is from Yehuda, “You’ve invoked many memories. You mentioned that his last wife was Irish. This drew him into Irish politics. Do you know whether Irish hostility to Israel was already in place when he wrote ‘Trinity’?” I believe it was, I’m afraid.
Now, this is from Linda, “My daughter-in-law’s grandfather, Elie Blankfeld, was recruited by the Irgun towards the end of the war to get as many Jews as he could out of Europe to Palestine. He was instrumental and involved with getting people onto the Exodus.” This, I’m so glad that I’m invoking memories. You know, I’ve had a very privileged life. I was teaching Jewish history in Hampstead from the ‘80s, and so many incredible people turned up just because they wanted a pattern for their lives. And I met people who’d been in the Irgun, in the Haganah. I actually, at one stage, believe it or not, in my very strange chequered career, I taught Jewish history at Eaton to 18-year-olds, and I took an Israeli general, was actually in Israel, and he’d been one of the chaps on, from Israel was in London, and he said, “Can I come to Eaton?” And he told the story at Eaton. It was extraordinary, the reaction of the boys.
Naomi, “The British established an internment camp near Haifa, I visited it last week. Horrified that Jews were locked up behind barbed wire in Israel.” Yes, can you imagine what this did to the image of Britain in world opinion? And it’s actually, yes, of course, Bevin was foreign. He was foreign and colonial secretary.
This is Debbie, “A friend of mine was a child on the Exodus and has a certificate.” Oh, “The President Warfield was owned by Wallis Simpson’s uncle. Incidentally, her first husband was Jewish.” Fact is stranger than fiction.“ Yes, that is so interesting. In fact, the synagogue in Plymouth, it was Mr. Simpson’s grandfather who was the major donor to that synagogue.
This is from Terza. "You mentioned that Palestinian Jews fought in the British Army. So here is my personal story. My parents came to Palestine in 1935 from Germany. So my father served in the British Air Force in Cairo in the 1940s.” Wow, I hope you write all these stories down. Anna Benita, “Had lunch at a commissary next to Leon Uris and James Dean. Had cocktails with Ben-Gurion who said, 'Send me your boys, not money.’ And his wife said, ‘Shut up’ to him on the 10th anniversary in Israel, am I lucky?” That’s Anna Benita, who is 85 years old. Oh, what memories?
This is Hindi, “My dad’s cousin, who survived the Shoah, were united in Cyprus. Husband, wife, son, and daughter unfortunately ended up in Tel Aviv where their children and grandchildren are flourishing today,” lovely.
“‘The War’ by John Hersey is a compelling book about the Warsaw ghetto written by a non-Jewish author.” Thank you for bringing that to our attention, Jonathan.
Sally, “In the 1950s, my 100-year-old father visited Israel and stayed with one of the American sailors who was on another one of the ships that left France, Murray Greenfield, who is still living in Ramat Aviv. Murray’s ship was captured by the British, and they were sent to Cyprus for a year. Murray also wrote a book about his experiences.”
Ellie, “I read ‘The Haj’ later. A cousin who was liberated from Auschwitz was smuggled into Israel as a teenager and said every word of what is described in it is true.”
Sharon, thank you. “My mother, a South African who was,” this is from Hazel, “My mother, a South African who was working in a displaced children’s camp at Klosters in Germany was involved with smuggling some of the children out of the camp to get into the Exodus.” How amazing, isn’t it amazing all your stories. And I hope that, oh, you know, we are collecting stories, so just send an email to Lockdown, and we’re keeping them, and one of these days, ‘cause we’ve got to, Wendy and I are really thinking about what do we do with Lockdown? Because who would’ve thought we would’ve had an audience like you? Les Berger, “The UNSCOP delegates were not there by accident. Bevin ordered for them to be taken there, get organised,” yeah, that’s extraordinary.
Judy, this is from Claire. She likes my lectures. Thank you.
Q: “I referred to the movie Anne Frank not a particularly historical story. I agree, but in my case, haven been a hidden child in Holland, I’ve been educating students for 40 years to emphasise the role of the rescuers, starting with my primary question, why did Anne not survive, why am I alive?”
A: Yes, yes, all I said about the film “The Diary of Anne Frank” is it’s been de-Judaized. Now, we could have a big debate on that. Yes, of course, the role of the rescuers, 35,000 people honoured in Yad Vashem. We must honour them forever and ever and ever. But in fact, my view is we should spend more time studying rescuers. If only we could find out what made people into rescuers, we might just change the world. “'None Is Too Many,’” she’s recommending a book.
Carol, “That’s why Canada said and refused to take any Jews from Europe, too, so politically clear.” Look, if you actually look at it, Karen, nobody, no country behaved properly if you’re talking about the moral high ground. That’s why these 35,000 rescuers were so very important. And of course, there are many, many thousands of other people who are not honoured by Yad Vashem. So, and people have estimated that for every rescue, there were at least another five, there were good, decent people. If only we could work out what made them say no. And many of them died for it.
“You mentioned Haganah and the Irgun, but further to the right, of course, were the Stern Gang, disbanded in 1930.” I called them the Lehi, Barrington. I choose my words very carefully on this. I once had, I’ve had students in my classes who have been Haganah, who have been Irgun, who have been Lehi. I’m not going to make any moral judgement .
And Barrington says, “The only anti-Semitism I experienced at school was following Stern Gang activities. But how much more forceful would my tormentors knowing my secret admiration for the insurgents.” Yes, that’s when Anglo-Jewry was very challenged. It’s a fascinating period of history, ‘45 to '48 in Britain. And I have a friend, unfortunately no longer with us, whose father was one of the biggest supporters of the Irgun, and he was watched, he was actually watched by MI5 for years.
Nicholas, “I’m told that Mark Ruttenberg, a passenger, was a distant relative.” Neville Shulman, “During my early days in Hollywood, I met Kirk Douglas several times, and he said the story and film of the Exodus affected him so profoundly. It was a huge influence on his discovering and searching for his Jewish roots and accepting him as Jewish.”
Thank you, Neville. That is so important because of course he did become a huge benefactor in Israel.
This is Sheila, “Thank you for being prepared to spend two sections on 'Exodus.’ In 1998, I showed it in two parks at West London as it was a, and it was open to the public as well as our students. Hardly anyone came. Just one observation regarding the way people link the founding of Israel to the Shoah. A few weeks ago, the earlier lecture echoed Yehuda Bauer analysis Israel came into existence in spite of the Shoah. The reservoir of potential immigrants have been wiped out. The issue of Aliyah Bet, Aleph, Gimel, Daleth had taken place. The infrastructure of state was there, and it would’ve happened, maybe not in ‘48 in that respect. The catalyst for the date and the timing were influenced by the facts of the Shoah, not whether it would’ve happened or not.” This is a very important debate, Sheila. Let me try and put my brain around how we should do it. I’m not even sure if we could or we should. Would the UN have, would the UN have voted Israeli into being? You’ve got to remember that. It came into being at the last possible time because Russia and America voted together. Gromyko electrified the assembly. He made a pro-Jewish speech. He said the Jews are owed a state. Stalin backed the establishment of Israel. We’re getting into, the Cold War is turning into the hot war in Korea. You needed the Soviet Bloc to work to vote for it as well. You needed a two-thirds majority. Would it have happened? Would they have declared statehood without the UN? You know, there are so many ifs and buts. This is such an emotive issue.
Yes, Carol Naim, “Paul Newman had a Jewish father. I heard a story that filming in Israel, he was here for Yom Haatzmaut, and though invited to take part, he opted not to.” Now, Paul Newman was interviewed about his Jewishness. He said, “Yes, I’m half Jewish, and I find being a Jew more interesting.”
This is Yitzhak Rabin from Suzi, Susan. She went to Mickey Marcus’s grave at West Point every year on his Yahrzeit. Mickey Marcus was a great hero. I think actually, I know there are more questions. Maybe you could put them on on Thursday because we’ve got another superb lecture coming up at seven o'clock with Julian, and I really think it’s important that you watch it. So let me thank Lauren for keeping me out of trouble with the clips. Lauren, are you there?
[Lauren] Yes, no problem.
I must say, I like working with film clips. Can we think of a way of doing it, Lauren, that I don’t drive Judy completely insane.
[Lauren] Absolutely.
Okay, so, and I admit, it was actually my grandson who put the clips together for me. I told him what I wanted. So anyway, I think we’ve done the right thing to look at “Exodus,” and I know it evokes so many memories in me. I actually sat up in bed and wallowed in the film, and I did the same with “Cast a Giant Shadow.” So anyway, I wish you all goodnight, and tune in to Julian. And on Thursday it’s “Exodus” part two. So thank you all very much.