‘Be strong & brave’ could be clarion call

SUZANNE BELLING

PHOTOGRAPH: GRANT ROGERSON

Thus writes Dr Harold Serebro in his new book “The Canopy: Warriors for Justice; Facing the Ticking Time Bomb”, which was launched at the Killarney Golf Club last Sunday night with guests of honour Tokyo Sexwale (former Cabinet minister) and Israel’s Ambassador to South Africa Arthur Lenk.

Like Serebro himself, a man of many skills and facets – gastroenterologist, former senior executive director of the Altron Group, entrepreneur, philanthropist and author – the book spans time and place with a common theme: those who persecuted and still intend to persecute (or attempt to annihilate) Jews and other races they deem inferior.

This includes anecdotes from Europe and the Middle East and crossing the seas to South Africa; stories of the anti-apartheid freedom fighters, who with partners for peace and reconciliation, brought about a new democratic dispensation in South Africa.

The writer played a role – as a Nazi hunter, as a measured voice in the turmoil that was South Africa and in the conciliatory talks which followed, highlighting his close relationship with the late President Nelson Mandela and other key figures who brought about change.

The book opens with four heroines of Auschwitz: Rosa Robota Gate, Ella Gertner, Regina Sapirstein and Estera Weisblum, who together smuggled explosives used to blow up crematoria in the death camp. The book is dedicated to these four. Aged 23, 11 days before the liberation by the Soviet Army, Rosa and the three other women were hanged. Her final words were, “Chazak ve’ematz” (“Be strong and brave”).

Her words resonated with members of an elite Israeli hit squad, given fictitious names and poetic licence by the author, who switched to a novel in parts of the book. This group, akin to the superheroes of today, but the real thing, crossed borders and continents, relentlessly pursuing their targets, the torturers and murders of Jews.

Their success was unparalleled and extended to the allies of Iran, still hell-bent on their quest to destroy the Jewish people – this time through nuclear warfare.

Though the people may be fictional, their actions and characters are true, wholly based on fact.

Serebro’s imagery is woven across the years, cleverly bringing in his personal involvement and that of Brad, a friend from school days and fellow doctor, who shares his passion. The two were separated for 40 years by distance and events and verbally shared their experiences.

Brad had been part of Israel’s clandestine hit team “that faced its implacable enemies in the Arab-Israeli conflict, which included Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran”; while Serebro had watched “two arch enemies – the apartheid government and the ANC, achieve a lasting transition to democracy and peace”.

The question is posed: “Why did one peace process fail, while the other was successful?”

Another terrifying possibility is put forward: “Would the Holocaust of Nazi Germany be followed by a different genocide – a nuclear attack against Israel?”

Serebro emphasises in his book that the crack Israeli team is determined to prevent this catastrophe and avert the prophecy of Azzam Pasha of the Arab League, before the 1948 War of Independence: “It will be a war of annihilation that will be talked about like the massacres of the Mongols or the Crusades.”

Sexwale, talking at the book launch, expressed the hope that “somehow an iconic figure will appear” to bring about peace in the beleaguered Middle East. He said that the book was “a glimmer of hope”.