Page 16 - Issue 5

םיקיתו something of Europe before arriving in the Promised
VATIKIM
Name: Ivan Heimann
Country of Birth: New Zealand
Early in 1949 I left my native New Zealand for
Australia in order to join the hachsharah in Victoria.
There was no such animal in New Zealand. The
Australian hachsharah served all the movements -
Habonim, Bnei Akiva and Betar. This created all sorts
of problems, and because of these absorbtion
problems, it was some months before I was accepted.
In May 1951, a garin of twelve chaverim was got
together, and the ship chosen to carry us to Europe
was the s.s Cyrenia. The Cyrenia had been built for
New Zealand's Union Steamship Company on the
Clyde in 1907, thereby predating the Titanic by five
years. There was no room on the Cyrenia for four
funnels like the Titanic. It had to make do with one,
but it was the right height - about the altitude of the
main chimney on the Hadera power station.
After serving the New Zealand ports for more than
forty years, the Cyrenia, or whatever name the Union
Steamship Co. had given it, was showing its age. I
imagine that the passengers, most of whom were
probably sheep, must have had plenty to complain
about. Anyway, the Union people decided to flog the
ship off and found a ready customer in the Hellenic
Mediterranean Shipping Co. The buyer must have
calculated correctly that while the ship was no longer
fit to carry sheep, there would be no problem in
carrying Greeks. And on our voyage in May 1951 every
berth was taken. The fare was seventy pounds
sterling, and since the voyage took thirty five days,
that worked out at two pounds a day, which was about
what the accomodation was worth.
Setting off from Port Melbourne, our ports of call
were Freemantle (W.Australia), Colombo (Ceylon),
Aden, Port Sudan, Port Said, Beirut, Piraeus, and
Naples, with Genoa as our final destination. Members
of our garin were not permitted to disembark in Port
Said or Beirut. I noted that in each of the British
colonies and dependencies that we visited, there was
always a destroyer or cruiser in port, these ships
being no longer required to prevent olim reaching
Palestine.
On arrival in Genoa, half of the garin immediately
went on to Israel, but the rest of us opted to see
Land. I went on to London, where I stayed in the
deep shelter in Clapham for a few days. I then
decided to travel up to Glasgow, where I had family. I
wanted to get there by hitch-hiking and one day took
a bus along the North Circular Road to Scotch
Corner, where I hoped to pick up a lift. I was bitterly
disappointed and it was about 4 p.m. before someone
stopped for me.
My driver, who told me that he worked for the B.B.C.
informed me that there was no possibility of my
getting to Glasgow that day, and suggested that I
stay overnight in Cambridge which was on his route,
and see something of that beautiful city. I took his
advice and had no trouble in finding a youth hostel.
I laid my rucksack on one of the beds, and then
noticed that the two men in the adjacent beds were
engaged in an animated conversation. What were they
talking about - Israel and the Jews, of course!
One of the men - the one who was doing most of the
talking, seemed to be rather old to be staying at a
youth hostel. I waited for him to finish his
conversation and then introduced myself to him and
told him of my intention of settling in Israel. My
neighbour turned out to be Shimon Appelbaum, who
was doing post-graduate research in the archeology
of Palestine in Oxford and had come over to
Cambridge to consult a book in the university library
there. He also told me that Habonim was organizing a
summer institute at the hachsharah at Hurst Grange
near Reading in a week's time and recommended me
to take part. I followed his advice, and that was
where I met a number of Habonim members (including
my wife Vera Cainer) with whom I have remained on
friendly terms to this day.
I did manage to find my way to Glasgow, and after
the Institute was over hitch-hiked my way back to
Genoa, where I was pleased to find that the suitcases
that I had left in the "Deposito Bagaglio" many weeks
before after the voyage from Australia, could still be
located. In Genoa I also met up with the five other
members of the garin, who hadn't gone directly to
Israel, but had traveled in Europe, as I had.
We boarded an Italian ship, the "Filipo Grimani"
which took us to Haifa where we landed at the
beginning of October 1951.
From there we were taken up to Kfar Hanassi, where
I spent my first four years in Israel, and also found
time to get married to Vera.