Dragons & Butterflies: Sentenced to Die, Choosing to Live by Shani Krebs Page B

Middelburg were happy with this state of affairs. Knowing very well that they wouldn’t or couldn’t provide us with any, we decided to demand kosher food anyway. With any luck we hoped we might be transferred to Voortrekkerhoogte, outside Pretoria, where apparently there was a kosher kitchen. We also refused to train on Shabbos.
    We went to talk to the corporal in charge, who was singularly unimpressed when he heard our requirements. ‘ Gaan na julle tente en vrek! ’ (Go to your tents and die) he ordered. When I got back to our camp site, about 40 guys had congregated around the entrance to my tent. My friend from Arcadia was standing there, his face white as a sheet. He looked really nervous. He told me that, because we had refused to exercise, there were a few individuals making racial remarks.
    I turned around and said loudly, ‘What’s the problem here? I will take on any one of you. Who wants to fight? I’ll show you what a Jew can do!’ Nobody said anything, but just as they were about to back away, this big, fat, dark-skinned guy came pushing his way through the crowd. He reminded me of a charging buffalo. Both thumbs pointing inward to his chest, he shouted, ‘ Ek sal jou opfok! ’ (I will fuck you up).
    I stood my ground, waited and when he was within punching distance I hit him with all my strength smack on the jaw. He just stood there, like nothing had happened. Then, angrier than before, he raised his arms and attempted to grab me around the throat, at which moment I felt myself being pulled from behind and yanked out of his reach.
    The two guys I had met on the train stepped in front of me and, in a threatening tone, told the fat guy to get the fuck out of there. Fok off . And they made it quite clear that anybody who fucked with me or my friends in the tent would have them to deal with. The fat guy wasn’t happy, but he backed off, rubbing his jaw ruefully, and the crowd dispersed. I thanked my two protectors, who had surely saved me from a good ass-kicking.
    Later that afternoon, we Jews were all told to report to the first-aid tent. When we got there, the medic, who had the rank of lance corporal, said in a harsh tone, ‘ Hier is die fokken Jode – spuit hulle diep in ’ (Here are the fucking Jews – inject them deep).
    I was totally taken aback. Up until then, I had never really encountered anti-Semitism, and certainly not so blatantly. Fortunately for me, I was first in line for our tetanus injection. This fucking medic used the same syringe on each of us and he really thrust the needle into our arms. Afterwards all eight of us were marched around the parade ground for some three hours. I had hardly been in the army a couple of days and already I was hating every moment. How I wished I had gone to college. Even repeating matric would have been better than this!
    I don’t think that in the history of the SADF there had ever been a soldier or group of soldiers who’d refused to train on a Saturday or eat the food because it wasn’t kosher. In addition, we demanded extra vegetables. We were certainly audacious, but we had also given them something to think about. By the end of the week, our transfer papers to 3 SAI in Potchefstroom, where there was a kosher kitchen, had been signed. Most of us had been hoping to be moved to Voortrekkerhoogte but we guessed Potchefstroom had to be better than where we were.
    On the train ride to Potch, the eight of us fellow Jews really bonded; we had beaten the system, which seemed like an excellent start to our army experience. When we arrived at the Potchefstroom military base, the authorities didn’t know the first thing about us or where we had come from, nor could they understand why we had been transferred so early into training. The new intake of conscripts was already into their second week of basic training. The fact that our heads were so closely shaven that we looked like convicts, compared to the moderate short back and sides of the