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No Mercy for Ruchama**
Ruchama, a kibbutz in the Negev, was the site of an underground field hospital manned by doctors Ivan Barnett and Ossie Treisman. The hospital treated the many young men injured in the fighting as well as those who were hurt by driving over Egyptian and unmapped Israeli mines.
Since the hospital shelter had not been built according to the specifications of the stretchers in use in Israel, moving the loaded stretchers in and out was a challenge. Only one man, Harry Miller, managed the maneuver – by tilting the stretchers at a certain angle. Once out on the airfield, doctors and patients would wait for the promised airlift from Tel Aviv. But sometimes it was several nights before the evacuation took place.
In the hospital in Ruchama, like in the other hospitals, conditions were harsh. At first, lighting was provided by paraffin lamps – hardly adequate for operating. Then, in a hut on the kibbutz, a crate containing an X-ray machine and a generator was uncovered. After installation, the hospital had electricity – until the night Dr. Treisman performed the last operation on Ruchama. “…The plant failed during the last operation, while we were operating on a man’s leg. [The engine] lasted exactly the right length of time,” said Dr. Treisman. This and other miracles Dr. Treisman attributed to “incredible good fortune… God seemed to be working with us.”
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Two Non-Jewish Zionists
During her nursing career in Britain, Sister Audrey Benedict felt the anti-Semitism aroused by the conflict between the British and the Irgun in Israel. Sympathizing with the Zionist cause, she began to visualize Palestine as a Jewish Homeland. She longed to do something for the Jews.
A short while later, back in South Africa, she and Sister Marie Roux answered a cabled summons from Professor Jack Penn and boarded a Dakota headed to Israel. Thus, two non-Jewish women rose to the call and began to work at Bat Galim Hospital in Haifa alongside surgeons from America, England, Germany, Romania, Russia and South Africa. Sister Benedict was given the Hebrew name, Bracha and Sister Roux the name Ruth.
“I was not a Jew, but I am a Zionist,” said Bracha in an interview with Gita Freedman, explaining her motivation.
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A Patient Gives
Gita Freedman of Johannesburg, a volunteer nurse from South Africa, arrived in Israel on a Dakota after a harrowing trip. Like Ray Burton, she too served at the Djani Hospital in Jaffa. “This hospital in Israel during the Israel War of Independence was filled with suffering, tragedy, loneliness, and heartbreak,” writes Gita in her memoir.
Sixteen-year-old Eli was one of Gita’s patients. Despite having lost his family in the horrors of Europe and one of his legs in a bombing raid in Israel, Eli remained perpetually cheerful. He was the symbol of happiness, hope, and stability in the ward and was always able to soothe and support the other patients in the ward. Until one night, when after yet another operation, Gita found him crying quietly.
“The whole ward is looking to you for comfort…without your courage and understanding they have nothing to live for,” Gita said in an attempt to rekindle his passion for living
Her words, together with a cup of hot tea, worked. “Let them go on thinking that I haven’t a care in the world. I only laugh and am merry. I am the life and soul of the ward,” Eli replied. Amazingly, thinking of how he was helping others gave Eli the courage to move forward.
Did fighter jets and war ships win the War of Independence or did the hidden sacrifices of little-known heroes and heroines swing the pendulum in our favor?
