commander haim bunt vc

Commander Haim Bunt VC

By David Verveer

Professor Doctor (Med) Joseph Bunt, with his wife Flora (nee Solomon) and their three siblings, Hanna, age 5, Haim age 3 and baby Benjamin arrived in England in the winter of 1920 from Germany, where living conditions for Jews became extremely unpleasant, due to the rising anti Semitism, blaming the Jews for the defeat in the First World War and all other problems facing the Germans during the period between the two world wars.

Professor Joseph Bunt was a distinguished and leading expert and pioneer in PBL (problem based learning) , a new trend in discovering the way our brain functions and possible causes of dysfunctions and abnormalities influencing the natural learning process. The Liverpool University Medical School approached Professor Bunt and offered him a research position, and as Professor Bunt correctly worried for the future of the Jews in Germany and the future of his children, he accepted the offer with both hands, and packed his bags and moved his family to Liverpool.

Liverpool at that time had a relatively large community of Jews, many of them, immigrants like the Bunts. For those families with money, Brownlow Hill, situated between Lime Street and Paddington, was the perfect place to set up home and make a living. There was a huge proportion of the street dedicated to Jewish families; although they lived quite happily alongside English families.

The majority of Jews arrived in Liverpool around 1900 to escape the Pogroms and persecution in places such as Russia and Poland, the Jewish community in Liverpool stretches way back to the 1700s. The Jewish Community has helped to shape the future of Liverpool, and played a large part in its success building libraries and businesses, taking several of the Lord Mayor positions throughout the years - and even helping to develop Liverpool's renowned musical heritage with Brian Epstein managing the Beatles amongst others

The Jewish community goes much further back than the beginning of the 1900s, there is a misconception that the Jewish people only arrived in Liverpool round about 1900 when there were Pogroms in Russia and Poland and thousands of them decided to emigrate to America. That's when the majority of Jewish families settled in Liverpool, they had to go through the UK and the boats brought them over, they came through by train to Liverpool with the plan to get on the boat to America and although a lot of them actually did go to America, hundreds of them decided to stay in Liverpool! Because they arrived by train, immediately behind Lime Street Station was the neighborhood where they decide to settle, in the Brownlow Hill, Coppras Hill, Pembroke Place, Crown Street area."

The earliest Synagogue was a little house in Cumberland and Stanley street round about the 1740 or 1750s. They were a mixture of hawkers and peddlers, but then there came quite established people, they were merchants who came from Hamburg or came from London and who saw great opportunities as Liverpool seaport was expanding and they contributed very extensively to the well being and wealth of Liverpool."

The families that came over were fairly poor, they couldn't speak English, and the first thing they realized was that they had the opportunity to send their children who were born in Russia, to schools. So this generation became very educated, and they became doctors, lawyers, solicitors, architects, businessmen, and they did very well and they thrived.

There's something in the makeup of Jewish people that they believe that if the city that they've lived in and thrived in has been good to them they want to give something back to that city, so Jewish people gave back by taking part in local politics, for example there were seven Lord Mayor's from the Jewish community in Liverpool, many benefactors for example the Lewis family which goes back well before the 1900s, they were the founders of the Lewis' store and are a family that has given back a lot to the city.

Every university student who has studied in Liverpool will know the Harold Cohen library - well that was the Lewis and Cohen family who donated money for institutions to be built. In entertainment - Frankie Vaughan is synonymous with Liverpool and the Jewish community, the Beatles I think will always owe a lot of their success to having a Jewish manager Brian Epstein who was from a Jewish business family in Liverpool.

Princes Road Synagogue

One man who remembers when the trans-migrants came from Russia ready to go, they weren't staying in Liverpool so they were put up in lodgings over night near the Oceanic Hotel and places like that by the shipping companies while they had to wait for the ship going off to the States. He recalls going down there when he was a young kid, and they would come and do street entertainment while they were waiting for the ship to take them to America, they would play the accordions which they managed to bring with them, and he used to delight in it and remembers very clearly the atmosphere that they produced during the very little time they spent in Liverpool, just in the two or three days before they were shipped on elsewhere."

Liverpool opened its arms to the new settlers…

Remarkable is the social acceptance of Jews, there was very little anti-Semitism, in fact John Wesley the Methodist preacher mentioned in his diaries how well the townspeople of Liverpool get on with the Jewish community, although it was only a small community then.

"There was an interesting established community even before the major immigration from the pogroms going back to the 1740s, who had produced some very interesting characters, including the Quack doctor, Dr Samuel Solomon who became exceeding rich from his sale of the very cleverly named tonic called 'The Balm of Gilead' with it's biblical overtones, and there were all sorts of other interesting characters like that.

Another indication of the social acceptance of Jews in Liverpool is that well before they were allowed to stand for parliament or municipal officers they were accepted to become members of the Athenaeum, a very high cultural society, an indication of the city's cosmopolitan tolerance, that Jewish communities and other communities have been more welcome here than other locations you can think of in England and elsewhere.

Haim Bunt, who was called James, went to the King David Primary school and continued the King David Jewish high school , which he finished with high grades, that enabled him (with the finances of his rich father) to enroll Eton on a literary scholarship, (this was near the end of the European conflict of the second world war, in the year 1945).

Even-though, talented, James was not the scholarly type and soon his scandalous behavior with friends of the opposite sex, caused him to be expelled. James was not religious, nor interested in Jewish way of life, and even his best friends did not know that James was from a good Jewish family. Not that he lied about his religion, he simply never mentioned it, and thought it irrelevant, specially, now when anti-Semitism started to show its ugly head in England.

With the help of friend of his parents, James enrolled at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. The Woolwich Military Academy and the Sandhurst Military College were closed during the Second World War. The Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst was reopened in 1947.

Getting accepted at Sandhurst is quite a feat, specially for Jews, who are a rarity in this selected group of gentlemen, but James, who had changed in the mean time, his family name from Bunt to Bond, had no problem to fit in this society. He proved to be extremely suitable in intelligence, speaking several languages without any trace of accent, and a remarkable memory which enabled him to get out all problems placed before him, thus it was no surprise when after two years, he graduated and joined the Army as Intelligence Officer.

We are now talking about the Cold War Years. The golden years for espionage, intrigue and spy romance, and getting a spy debriefing his adventures to an intelligence officer with writing talents is a fantastic recipe for spy stories. Indeed, the author Ian Flemming, an intelligence officer, who had also served abroad, was appointed the debriefing officer of James Bond, and recorded his tales, which became the raw material for his James Bond books and films.

After getting seriously wounded during a failed action in Hungary, James retired from services and bought himself into an import and export business , and due to the publication of Ian Flemming's James Bond books, he changed his name back to Haim Bunt.

Today, Haim Bunt, (James Bond) is 90 years old, retired and lives in a luxury retirement village in Florida, together with his wife for 20 years, Batya (nee Cohen). When I asked him, during the meeting last month, what are his thoughts on Israel and Zionism, he told me that he contributes to all Zionist causes, but is not interested in living in Israel (too risky), but had visited the country several times. When Batya left to bring a new round of drinks, he told me in confidence, that he liked specially the Israeli girls, he had seen during his visit.

When I asked him, if he saw all James Bond films, he told me that they were too much romanticized, that espionage is rather boring work, where patience is not only a virtue but also a necessity. When I asked him, if there were still untold stories, he laughed and told me, that the best stories remained untold, due to signing the secrecy act of Her Majesties Services.