we were invariably received with a mixture of curiosity and amusement. The military field had no fuel suitable for our aircraft and we left immediately.
At this time we were short of fuel and night was coming on; I was worried that we would soon be running out of daylight. We were without night flying equipment and instruments so I decided to continue as quickly as possible to Brussels. By the time we arrived there, it was almost dark. Shortly after landing, while taxiing to the dispersal area, we ran out of fuel and the engine stopped. That proved how extremely foolhardy we were in flying into the night without instruments or fuel.
I found the Shell agent and after refueling the Auster he obligingly smuggled us out of the airport in his van, for we were without visas. The following morning we left for Basle in Switzerland. The weather was still bad, but eventually we found our way. As we approached the field, I turned as usual into a left-hand circuit. However, seeing a large cloud reaching down to the ground close on the side of the field near the airport, I decided to do a right-hand circuit andlanded. There was no air traffic in the area. At the field there was only a skeleton staff, who were surprised to see a light plane flying when all large aircraft were grounded because of the weather. When we had settled down, I asked them whether they knew the reason for the cloud almost on the field and extending right down to the deck. They said, âDonât you know that cloud covers a mountain? This field has a mandatory right-hand pattern.â We must have used up about three lives on that reckless flight.
A new problem arose. I did not need a Swiss visa because of my South African passport, but Ezer was in trouble with his Palestinian passport and no visa. We explored every possibility and finally Ezer exclaimed, âMy Uncle Chaim is here at the Zionist Congress! Letâs try and get his help.â After inquiries, he telephoned Chaim Weizmann at the Drei Könige Hotel, the venue for the Zionist Congress, and he arranged entry for his nephew into Switzerland. We arrived at the hotel in our flying togs, looking scruffy and quite unlike the elegantly attired delegates at the congress.
Chaim Weizmann was kind to us, and I spent some time chatting with him. He seemed uneasy and asked me while pointing to delegates who were sitting at a nearby table, âAre they some of ours?â I did not understand who he was referring to, but it was later explained to me that he meant the Revisionist delegates who were the main opposition party to the mainstream Zionists. I heard later that as he advanced in years he became paranoid about the Revisionist opposition and in particular about their leader Menachem Begin.
After one night I took the train to Arosa and left Ezer tofly the Auster back to England. On the way back, he got lost and after landing in a field to ask directions, he damaged a wing when he struck a fence during takeoff. He patched it up with adhesive tape and eventually got back to Pans-hangar in England.
SAM BENNET
My first confrontation with the horrors of the Holocaust came when I went to the cinema in 1945 in London. Customary at that time, a long newsreel was shown before the main film. It started with some mundane news about the end of the war in Europe, and then without warning, a film appeared about the Nazi death camps. The pictures of the skeletal Jewish prisoners, the gas chambers, and the crematoria threw my mind into turmoil, and I walked the streets of London in a daze.
Deeply disturbed and feeling more Jewish than I had ever felt before, I tried to learn more about the Holocaust. I sought out survivors of the death camps to hear firsthand accounts of the atrocities. It was hard to learn many of the details, for understandably, the survivors were reluctant to recount their experiences. But by late 1945, information about the Holocaust was beginning to appear, and I delved deeply into the
At this time we were short of fuel and night was coming on; I was worried that we would soon be running out of daylight. We were without night flying equipment and instruments so I decided to continue as quickly as possible to Brussels. By the time we arrived there, it was almost dark. Shortly after landing, while taxiing to the dispersal area, we ran out of fuel and the engine stopped. That proved how extremely foolhardy we were in flying into the night without instruments or fuel.
I found the Shell agent and after refueling the Auster he obligingly smuggled us out of the airport in his van, for we were without visas. The following morning we left for Basle in Switzerland. The weather was still bad, but eventually we found our way. As we approached the field, I turned as usual into a left-hand circuit. However, seeing a large cloud reaching down to the ground close on the side of the field near the airport, I decided to do a right-hand circuit andlanded. There was no air traffic in the area. At the field there was only a skeleton staff, who were surprised to see a light plane flying when all large aircraft were grounded because of the weather. When we had settled down, I asked them whether they knew the reason for the cloud almost on the field and extending right down to the deck. They said, âDonât you know that cloud covers a mountain? This field has a mandatory right-hand pattern.â We must have used up about three lives on that reckless flight.
A new problem arose. I did not need a Swiss visa because of my South African passport, but Ezer was in trouble with his Palestinian passport and no visa. We explored every possibility and finally Ezer exclaimed, âMy Uncle Chaim is here at the Zionist Congress! Letâs try and get his help.â After inquiries, he telephoned Chaim Weizmann at the Drei Könige Hotel, the venue for the Zionist Congress, and he arranged entry for his nephew into Switzerland. We arrived at the hotel in our flying togs, looking scruffy and quite unlike the elegantly attired delegates at the congress.
Chaim Weizmann was kind to us, and I spent some time chatting with him. He seemed uneasy and asked me while pointing to delegates who were sitting at a nearby table, âAre they some of ours?â I did not understand who he was referring to, but it was later explained to me that he meant the Revisionist delegates who were the main opposition party to the mainstream Zionists. I heard later that as he advanced in years he became paranoid about the Revisionist opposition and in particular about their leader Menachem Begin.
After one night I took the train to Arosa and left Ezer tofly the Auster back to England. On the way back, he got lost and after landing in a field to ask directions, he damaged a wing when he struck a fence during takeoff. He patched it up with adhesive tape and eventually got back to Pans-hangar in England.
SAM BENNET
My first confrontation with the horrors of the Holocaust came when I went to the cinema in 1945 in London. Customary at that time, a long newsreel was shown before the main film. It started with some mundane news about the end of the war in Europe, and then without warning, a film appeared about the Nazi death camps. The pictures of the skeletal Jewish prisoners, the gas chambers, and the crematoria threw my mind into turmoil, and I walked the streets of London in a daze.
Deeply disturbed and feeling more Jewish than I had ever felt before, I tried to learn more about the Holocaust. I sought out survivors of the death camps to hear firsthand accounts of the atrocities. It was hard to learn many of the details, for understandably, the survivors were reluctant to recount their experiences. But by late 1945, information about the Holocaust was beginning to appear, and I delved deeply into the
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