the action in gaza

The Action in Gaza

By David Verveer

I am not going to tell you about the bloody fight going on since yesterday in, about and around the Gaza Strip, a strip of land, housing more than 1.5million of Palestinians, and run by the terrorist organization of Hamas.

I won't explain why now, and why our Government did not have any other choice than a punitive action against the missile shooting terrorists, terrorizing the civilian Israeli citizens living in the border area on the side of this God forsaken center of International Islamic terror, as if you do not realize until now, of Israel's right to defend itself, please don't bother in reading his post, as I will be wasting your time, trying to convince you that even Jewish Israelis have the basic human right to live in peace.

Having said this, of course I realize that also our Palestinian neighbors have the same rights and should be respected by all sides, however, not we, the Israelis endanger their existence, the ones who endanger them are their masters, the Hamas, who use them as shields, sacrificing those poor people, in order to allow them to continue their terrorist crimes. And, irrelevant on which side your sympathies are, war is a dirty business, and innocent people suffer, nobody found yet to conduct wars without sacrifices.

But the real reason I am writing this post is my incomprehension of the talk-backs of world opinion reacting on the war. I understand that in Western societies the poor Palestinian underdogs get all the sympathies, specially if the clever Jews are on the other side, but surely, the stupidity and peculiar (rather racist) comments, blaming Israel for everything, and making the Hamas, holy soldiers, are shocking me more than I was prepared to admit. I am not talking about careful wording by World Governments, they have to stay neutral, objective and vague, especially with their own Muslim population, but I am talking about the main stream population, writing their comments on Internet after reading a news story about the fighting in Gaza.

How come, they don't comprehend the fact that for 8 years, the Hamas punks hurled missiles on the civilians living on the other side of the border? For 8 years children were terrorized by those criminals, and on the day before yesterday, they managed to fire more than 80 missiles in one day. How would you react if somebody was shooting at you, would you sit back, smile and present your other cheek?

I don't think so; you would require your Government to protect you with all the might they can produce. How can those humanistic writers of letters justify their stupidity, by blaming Israel of aggression? You must be blind and really mentally retarded in accusing Israel of any wrong doing, even though every one knows that any war is dirty, the way Israel tries to minimize hurting innocent bystanders, did they not hear our warnings that this could not continue, we had to take a strong action.

Than there are those who wrote about Israeli exaggeration, that we reacted too strong, that we put in too much power, which is of course bull shit, we are fighting not a fair game but a bloody war, and we need to punish those terrorists with all the strength we have, to make it as effective and short as possible. The days of talking are gone, now is the time for action, don't preach us, try to think what your Government would have done if this happened in your country. I apologize for sounding angry, as reading those civilized reactions, I am again happy that I live here, and not there.

my shrinking clothes

My shrinking clothes

By David Verveer

Finally I gave in to the continues remarks by my wife, that I have outgrown most of my wardrobe, and the time has come that I throw (give) away, dispose of, or any of those nasty expressions, which mean to part of my soul, of those which have served me so well over the last 40 years. The remarks by my spouse that I am a "Smattekeeper" which means collector of old clothes, is of course exaggerated, so is also the false accusation that I still have my pajama's from my Bar Mitzvah is of course a imagination of a jealous women, incapable of enjoying possessions, not that it is true, as I never in my live, wore pajama's, which I think is old fashioned, and uncomfortable. Of course I will not discuss here my bed habits; we won't make this a blue story.

Funny anough, I noticed that most trousers seem to have shrunk around my belly section, probably bad tailors, but what do you want, most of these trousers and jackets served me well n my hungry and slim days, and did not adopt themselves for better times and especially better food. Not that I got fat, but the expression of pleasantly plumb might be more suiting.

But tell me, why in heavens name, I had to try on every pair of trousers and decide on its fate to go or stay waiting in my dressing wardrobe, for the day when I finally will start with dieting and sport, and my body-weight will be reduced to my former belt size, something I am planning already for months, but due to chronic complains of laziness, which effects me every time I get near the excise bike. My dear wife tells me that the sport of "FreeCell" (a card-game on the computer) won't help me to reduce, she simply has negative thoughts.

There is an expression saying "clothes make the man", throwing clothes away is thus "unmanly". Look in which a mess I got, having now, at my age to proof my manliness.

My wife, is on a continuous diet recycling course, every time she has lost weight needs to change her wardrobe and throw her last one away, complaining that she has nothing to wear, a few months later, the new clothes won't fit her because she has gained weight again, and again the wardrobe has to go.

I remember when we got married, she had such pretty clothes, where have they gone, and don't give me those stupid arguments as fashion changes, we don't live in the Riviera, we don't have to show off.
Than you get those famous arguments, my friend (my neighbor, my co-workers), wear everyday a new suit, dress, shoes, hairdo, and so on, their husbands appreciate their wives, they care how they look. You wouldn’t mind if I go in rags to work, arguments which repeat themselves on a daily base, but seem to be a part of the marriage relations, not that I ever interfered with my wife's renewing her collection, knowing that this is extremely dangerous terrain.

Didn't Shakespeare, our Jewish lard, say the following: " Thou villain base, Know'st me not by my clothes? No, nor thy tailor, rascal, who is thy grandfather. He made those clothes, which, as it seems, make thee." I have no idea what he intended to say, but it looks very educated to finish with a quotation of Shakespeare.

the people we meet

The People we meet.

By David Verveer

The loud lady:
It was late in the morning, the doctors and nurses had finished their rounds, and the patients were left alone to rest and recuperate. The visitors sat in the chairs by the beds, and more or less joint in the slumber party, suddenly we heard a rather monotone voice of a lady, reading to someone the head lines of the daily newspaper. She read a few sentences and then explained it to somebody near her. Of course, we did not see her only heard her from the corridor or room next door. The item she read, dealt with a tragedy of a women, who after given birth to a twin suddenly died (apparently from an inner bleeding). You could hear from the way she read it and explained that she was very experienced in the task of reading the news to the person near her. The problem was that her monotone loud voice and the explanation of the text were irritating the patients of the floor, who did not want to hear somebody else's problems, and preferred to deal with their own lot, which had landed them in hospital.
Eventually a mother visiting her daughter after an operation, got fed up, and went to the reading lady to tell her to shut up, which she did by apologizing and indeed for the next half an hour it was quiet on the floor.

Of course, visitors can not sit near their relatives without sometimes to get up and walk around in the corridor, or going to the coffee shop outside, and during such escapade we met the reading lady in question. She was extremely slim, in my eyes rather old (but according her story only in the early sixties), brought to the hospital by the emergency health services, due to an enlarged liver). Het husband, who was illiterate (cleaning the streets of our fair city) accompagnied her, as he was totally incapable of looking after himself. She told me, the last time they put her in hospital, he stayed home alone, and because it was Sabbath and he is religious, he walked by foot some ten kilometers, till he reached the hospital, where he waited near the gate as he did know how to find her, Of course, nobody gave him anything to eat, and in the end he fainted, which saved him from dyeing in the lobby of the hospital.

This time, she insisted that they took her husband as well, or else she would not go into the ambulance. The husband, totally depended on his wife, not only for information, or maintenance, but incapable to take care of him self, to prepare a cup of coffee or a sandwich, follows her around like a dog. I hope, the hospital can take care of the poor woman, as the man is a simpleton in the worst grade of stupidity, and the woman, a saint, and I am a little bid embarrassed that her explaining the news from the daily to her husband somehow irritated me.

It is true, that we do not notice the simple people around us, sweeping the street, or becoming politicians as an elected member of parliament, we know, those people exist, but never really have contact with them, unless you are confronted with them, in public places like the hospital floor. They say, we should know our enemy, but in fact, we don't know anybody who is not member of our selected surroundings, and who is outside our circle of acquaintances, and if you realize that in practically, a person is capable only to know a very limited amount of people good, it is no wonder that we do not see the people on the edges.

The Arab family
Apparently the mother was hospitalized for observation, and her daughter and son, with wife and grandson came to visit her. The child, around one year old, most of the time slept in his wagon. It was obvious that the family were Muslims, as the girls and mother wore veils to cover their hair. Their conversation was in Arabic, but like all Arabs in Israel, they throw into their conversation many Israeli words and expressions, and the result in a mixture of both languages.

They were carrying mobile phones, and I was curious in what language the phone was arranged, as here in Israel you can choose between Hebrew, English, Arabic, Russian, French or German. However, they replied that their interface was in Hebrew, I asked the why they had chosen Hebrew instead of Arabic, and it seems that the Arabic they speak is unlike the written Arabic, and even their SMS's they send in their spoken Arabic with Hebrew letters.

There are several Arab television stations available in our area, but mostly the local families look at the popular Israeli stations, without much interest in political issues. Surrounding the town Kfar Saba, were I live are large concentrations of Israeli Arab towns and villages, with most of the families having relations on the other side of the Green line (the border between Israel and the Palestinians), created in 1948 and later the border between the occupied territories and Israel and more or less the route of the Separation Wall. The Palestinians on the other side of the border are not permitted entering Israel without special permit, nor are allowed to work here. Of course, our Israeli Arabs, who were lucky anough to remain inside our jurisdiction, have full Israeli citizenship with all rights and duties as the Jews.

I won't say that there is no discrimination in Israel, because that is untrue, most of it is caused by the peoples behavior, as the laws try to wipe out as much as possible, the differences between the people. Funny enough, the Israeli Arabs discriminate against there own kin, and even though, complain about the Israelis, they refuse to be seen as Palestinian Palestinians, the are Israeli, and do not want to endanger their status.. The interaction between our Arabs and those of the Palestinians is relatively cool, and if they would not have had such stupid politicians, they would have been totally integrated into the society. And we, the Israeli, we keep to our own, we know not many people outside our caste, we look upon the popular television game, "the big brother", as games for the lower classes, we are snobs, playing on an entire different level, and are surprised when once in the 2 to 4 years, we lose the elections to precisely those people, getting so popular in "the big brother".

Also our Arabs look at "the big brother" and had even a (Christian) Arab girl participating, who was outvoted as she wanted to leave, getting fed up with the low politically popularity games played by the participants and the television management.

Now remains only one question, why did I write all this? I wanted to bring to your attention that irrelevant where you live, who are or were your parents, what color you have, you will have to live your own kind of life, don't envy the other, as also the fortunate people can die of cancer, suffer and find that nobody cares for them, if they are not out of the same nest.

this is not my lucky day

This is NOT my lucky day

By David Verveer

First of all, I have to admit that I do not believe in luck, bad eye, lucky number or any thing else that can not be explained logically other than "coincidentally". Would I have been superstitious, I would not have dared to write this letter before the bad luck had finished showing its ugly head. I will start with relating what occurred to me this morning until now (the time is just past 8, 30 in the morning).

My wife informed me this morning, that I forgot to congratulate my oldest brother on his 75th birthday, which took place 4 days ago, something, which until now, never happened before, as birthdays are very important in our family, and celebrated yearly with the traditional birthday call on the actual day of the happy occasion, when the culprit changes the number of years on this earth. In order, that the others (my other brother and sister) won't forget, we phone each other as reminder to phone. This year, nobody phoned, all three of us forgot, shame in the family, is it the age, or simply bad luck (that doesn't exist).

Of course, I phoned my brother, the moment the time was decent, as forgetting his birthday is one thing, but phoning somebody out of bed, telling him that you forgot his birthday, is really chutzpah (cheek), my sister in law answered the phone, and told me that all three of us failed to phone, you must admit, that is not very pleasant to hear, but my brother was very large, and after my confession, he officially forgave me, which means that when we are called up (to heaven or hell) he can not use this as an accuse for complains on his brothers.

But enough about the birthday, drinking my morning coffee, reading in the mean time about the problems of the world, the economic crisis and local politics, feeling happily a little bid as outsider, as I have no investments (what so ever) which are in danger of loosing their value, local politics such as "who is joining which party" really does not concern me, as all politicians are the same type of nincompoops (it’s a real word in the dictionary). Than, for no reason at all, my slurp of coffee went in the wrong direction, and I spit coffee on the computer and on the notes,I wrote down, for a project I am working on, making the notes illegible, the floor and computer smelly and dirty, which I had to wipe up and clean. And even though, I did not drink a lot of coffee this morning, I think that it is wiser not to try again.

I am not a breakfast person, and my daily breakfast consists most times only out a cup of strong coffee and a portion of yogurt, this keeps me going till noon, when I eat my warm meal, people tell me that this is really unhealthy, as your breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but since I already reached the age of pensioners in relatively good health, (knock on wood), and most of those who warned me about the importance of breakfast, developed during the days, different health complains, the need for an healthy breakfast might be in the same group of alarmists promoting health foods, no red meat, caloric poor foods, and all the bullshit, which we are exposed to daily, by radio and TV.

If you really believe all those slogans sold to you by the media, it is a wonder you made it till today, and if you add to this, those green maniacs, who tell you that modern live is killing you, slowly but surely burning you up, reading that another oil tanker was kidnapped by terrorists near the Somali coast, that the Government is not yet prepared to guaranty the value of our pensions, that the settler fanatics in Hebron are treating their neighbors and our soldiers like real Nazis, and that I promised my wife to clean the house, and I would have added the sad demise of our dog, but that happened more than 25 years ago, a very sad fact but slowly and surely it seem to lose its punch. But you understand my current trend of thoughts, life is hard, but truly I am not complaining (which does not help), and compare my lot with anybody else, and realize than I am damn lucky (even though, I don't believe in luck, which is simply superstition (and making sure, some more words, such as: "pfu-pfu" – an expression by elder Ashkenazi, against the "bad eye" – somebody who spreads bad luck, but I was told that a Hamsa (and / or mezuzah, near the entrance door of the house has the same strength as "pfu-pfu", but be careful, an single EYE hanger is NOT sufficient strong to defend you against those witches).

Thus, with an optimistic expectation for the remainder of the day, I wish you well, please note, the sun will come back, even if you were so clumsy to spill salt.

global fincial crisis / global warming, we are the litle monkeys

Global Financial Crisis and Global Warming, we are the little monkeys

By David Verveer

For the normal world citizen like myself, (not a politician, nor an industrialist, nor a player in the financial wilderness of international economics), our existence is threatened even more, not alone will be burn (not in hell, but here on earth), we will have to do it in poverty. Not so long ago, they (the mass media) warned us, that if we continue to use our car in order to do the shopping, will cause eventually that our great grand children will have to live in a much warmer place, without ice bears, but with new touristic sites at the tropical north pole, were you will get a tan in no time, as there is no ozone layer anymore. I could live with this horrible threat, as the supermarket opposite my house, does not have the products I want, and do not want ice bears to swim around in the wild, they are nasty animals, they eat fish, and cause every so often a price hike in the supply of fresh gefilte fish, but now, only recently, they (again the same Media) tells us that we are now in a financial crisis, that people get fired, that our life savings are loosing its value, and we are slowing down (at my age, slowing down comes naturally, but that is irrelevant).

The above nonsense, is a short summary of the facts and figures we are bombarded with on the internet, radio and television, without that we have any choice to evade them, and we accept them in our stride, just like we accept the calamities we see is the reality programs on TV, as they (the Media) do not provide any solutions, and if I understand it, they don't know either, the are in the same sinking boat, and do not have any better life savers, than us, the common man.

If it wouldn't be so sad and dangerous, we would look at the humor of it, as both calamities (global financial crisis and warming) are man made, and occur (or don't exist) only due to human reaction. Global Warming, as we discussed before, is a hoax, in order to increase the value of alternative / green energy, and reduce the use of petrol and conventional fuels, based on false and fabricated, so called scientific studies, with center piece, a close up of penguins. The results until now are worldwide hunger, due to rising food prices, as surplus cereals which were sent to the third world were redirected to the Methanol production.

The Global financial Crisis is even more peculiar, it is caused by greed, loss of faith between banks and investors, using money to cover bluff transactions, and then, somebody pulled the plug, like domino stones, the reaction was started, all stones tumbled down, Governments started to pump money back in the collapsing chain reaction, without any results, as there is no bottom yet in sight. Of course the players themselves are not affected, gone are the days they lost all there possessions, and committed suicide by jumping from the roofs, they simply closed the shop and fired the employees, so that they have the opportunity to jump from the roofs instead of them.

In both situations, nothing real happened to start those calamities and both are man made, and both are affecting us, the peons, the non players, while the culprits remain high and dry, and unlike gifted journalists, I have no solution other than tell you a joke, about this small island in the middle of the ocean, on which lived a special kind of small monkeys, living in and around the only tree on the middle of the island. The Zoo of Aalten (a small town, eastern Holland, without any Zoo, as far as I know, used only to make the story sound truer) decided that they needed these apes in order to complete their collection, and went on the expedition to catch some of these animals. The landed at the island, got a landing permit from the authorities (irrelevant to the story but I want it to sound real), started to surround the apes with nets, those poor monkeys, frightened like hell, retreated to the tree, and the brave hunters circulated the tree. We had now a classical case of blockade, and our question to you, what in your opinion, those poor small apes had to do, in order to escape capture. You will think for a little while, suggest some stupid suggestions, until you raze your hands, and tell me, that you have no solution for the poor little monkeys, and than I am supposed to say, if you as giant ape, have no solution, how do you expect a solution from those small apes, (end joke).

But wait a moment, my dear fellow apes, this comparison fits us precisely, hunger, poverty and disaster are on the way, and no power in the world can stop our self destruction, my advice, enjoy the time we have before it reaches us.

human greed caused the financial crisis

By David Verveer

Blessed are those scientists who used their genius in order ensure humanity living a healthier life, who dealt with killer diseases such as aids, cancer, strokes, and further back: plagues, cholera, pests and all those terrible mass killers, that practically disappeared from this world which endangered once our life. The result of their efforts can be seen in an increasing duration of our lifespan. Together with the improvement in living conditions, better education, care for our environment, and many other measures taken worldwide, our living conditions are improving daily.

But then something peculiar happens, suddenly the World economy collapses totally, the rich, the speculators and the people who played around with our savings and investments, decided to enter the crisis mode, with result that suddenly the economy remained without a bottom, and again we found out that this human invention, we called "global economy" is something theoretical, something that does not exist, as this was based on mutual trust and pure bluff, gone are the days when money represented and covered payment for work performed.

The baker of bread pays his suppliers for the raw materials needed to bake the bread, and sold it for a selling price, sufficiently high to allow him in making a living, but not too high, ore else the potential client could not buy his bread.

The baker was bought out by the industrialist, who, with increased efficiency produced a mass product, not as tasty as the bread produced manually in the past, but people need bread, in order to live. Of course, his economical risks as mass producer are much higher, and according our money system, he was forced to increase the price per loaf. But our mass producers have no tools to sell their products directly to the customers, for that he needed the super markets and transporters. Of course the client pays for every one handling (theoretically) the bread. The baking factory becomes slowly but surely, old fashioned, and his competitor produces more and cheaper bread, thus our factory owner goes to the bank, and takes a loan, based on a business plan he presented, prepared by a professional consultants, who promises the bakery owner that if this new machinery is bought, and new real estate is acquired, the bakery will be able to increase his production and in seven years, the money invested,will be returned. The bank provides him a loan, but as the bank employees have to live as well, the monthly pay back contains also the fees for the bank including the risk insurance to the investors of the bank.
I could go on like this for hours, and eventually you the customer pays for it, when you buy your loaf of bread.

This system worked perfectly for hundreds of years, and providing a living for everyone who provided somehow services, but than the bankers started to play around, they started marketing these loans, speculating on successful investments, which are going to make the investors rich in a very short period of time. And if they were good sellers, these shares traded became extremely attractive, and a good investment for the speculators. Soon we got into a situation that all those shares were valued much higher than their actual or real value, based on the loan or investment they covered.

This is a perfect system too get rich, provided that nobody one moment stops and looks at the bundle of shares in his position, and asks himself, is it really worth the money invested, could I get back the full payment for those high valuated shares I bought. If only one hesitate, only one sells his assets, nothing bad happens, but if people start rumors that the bank who gave the loan and issued the shares, has financial problems, the entire neighborhood gets in a panic, runs to the bank, and request the value for their investments, and if the national bank does not save the bank, it collapses, and anybody invested in the bank looses his lifetime savings.

I know, I simplified the world money crisis, as many other factors play a factor in the make believe market, in which we pay with money. But what is money? Money is a promise from the issuer (the bank with credit cards or national treasury with bank notes) that he will pay the owner, the written value in gold or silver, and originally the national treasurer kept for this tons of gold in storage, but when the use of money and the exchange rate between the countries started to be very big, the gold reserve promise became irrelevant, and the exchange value between currencies became a part of the international game of global economy.

Now we reach the current world economic crisis, in which nobody trust anymore the value of money or / and shares, as there is nothing back there to show for, there is no gold reserve, bank notes are valueless (see Zimbabwe) when the exchange rate for example of one dollar runs in the millions of Zimbabian dollars. This time, everybody suffers; the poor are deprived of their job and do not have money to pay for their food, the rich (and in between) don't earn as the economic activities comes to a halt.

But now, let's look back, what happened, which virus caused this disaster? The answer is "human greed". The economics went astray, when the commercial value extended the real value, when the investor bought shares for "high tech", without any tools to check if this "high tech" product really has a market. The speculators worldwide caused this disaster, which will in the near future still demand many more sacrifices, until we go back to the same insane and un-real world economy.

Of course, there is no solution for this human made disease, greed, which just as war is incurable and planted in the human, in order to prevent over-population.

I accuse Channel 10 of rating piracy

I accuse Channel 10 of Rating Piracy

By David Verveer

I am extremely angry because of cheap trick performed by Channel 10 of the Israeli Television, who, only in order to get higher rating caused un-called for panic in the continuous growing elderly population in Israel.

Sounds harsh, but the truth has to be said, as the purpose of the entire program last Thursday, at nine o'clock in the evening, on channel 10, was to lure the viewers away from the popular news cast on channel one, with a populist program, in which a journalist and a medical doctor discussed the danger of mixing medications and pseudo medicines, food additions, natural and alternative medicines, etc., with remarks such as, "this is killing you".

I am not an expert in medicine and healthcare, but there are points I do know:

1 – The average age in this country is growing in an enormous rate, mostly due to our good health care and health control.

2 – Like me, most people do not have medical knowledge and rely entirely on the advise given by our personal physician, who, knowing our health history, the results of our medical tests and current safe health care, keeps us healthy, and makes it possible to reach a really old age (ten years ago the 80's, now 90 years old).

3 – Elderly people, and I don't put an age limit to this group, have naturally developed medical problems, such as High blood pressure, diabetics, heart problems, rheumatism, and I could go on like this, but surely you understand what I am talking about.

4 – Our own house doctor is responsible of keeping all these problems under control, and to make sure, one medicine doesn't clash with another, for example, I am relatively healthy, but take daily 5 different medicines, I have no idea why or what each pill does to me, but I trust my doctor, as he is supposed to know what he is doing. If you do not believe in your doctor, choose some one else, as he is the person who enables you celebrate your next birthday.

5 – The elderly population (especially the women in our group) are very health conscious, and are prepared to try anything, from vitamins, to skin treatment, all in order to feel young and healthy, and indeed, taking medicines or vitamins, without consulting your doctor is stupid and dangerous. On the other hand, questioning the doctor's choice is useless, and again, if you do not believe in him, change him immediately, as this is really a question of life and death.

6 – So what do I have against this program broadcasted on channel ten, is that they attacked defenseless people, by telling them, that they will die, if they continue taking this pill, together with that medicine, which might be true in some cases, but in most cases, a balanced risk taken by your doctor, knowing your history, your reactions and your weaknesses.
By spreading this kind of panic amongst the elderly population, they only created chaos, without helping anything. People are not sure anymore which medication they are allowed to take and which not, phoning or seeing your doctor urgently, causes stagnation in the health care, and the medical staff, which are fighting to have more time for every patient, are now disturbed with stupid questions, as, even though, the patient is alarmed and frightened by the TV, your life is not in immediate danger, no harm if you wait to your next appointment, in order to ask him, if this and that do not clash.

7 - I am also angry with Yaron London and Motty Kishenbaum, in their popular and good news program, who helped to promote this stupid broadcast, by interviewing the lady journalist and the distinguished doctor / professor. They, Yaron and Motty belong to our own age group, they should have understood the panic such program would cause.

8 – If this program would have somehow helped the health conditions of the viewers, I would not have protested, but by announcing "You are killing yourself", you don't cure, you create panic, the viewer can not judge and has no background information how to cope with the panic such sentences cause.

9 – If ratings is what channel ten is after, they should continue with programs like "the gnome and the beauty", (my grandson, age 9 loves it), and cooking lessons, but stay away from pseudo intellectual programs, such as the program under discussion.

10- Even commercial channels should have a certain amount of responsibility to understand that creation of panic is not a good policy for the elder.

24 hours after the end of the world

24 Hours after the End of the World

By David Verveer

It is now about 24 hours after "the end of the World", and I am not sure which law of physics and /or philosophy is now ruling our existence.

Let us start with philosophy, Descartes, the father of modern philosophy stated "cogito ergo sum", which sounds extremely intelligent, and even makes sense after you learn the translation of this statement in English, namely: "I think, therefore I am". I always accepted this statement as true and logical, but now I started wondering, How can I be sure that I really exist (yesterday, before the experience in Switzerland, when one of my front teeth broke, I had the distinct sensation of my existence) but today, after the experiment took place, it might be that I don't exist anymore, and simply because it was not announced officially, and the matter that in combined form makes my body (and soul?) simply continued living on in my mind only, a type of inertia, before the antimatter takes over, and fade us out.

But let us assume that my knowledge of philosophy is based on hear say, without really understanding it, I always considered that "meat is better than bones" (of course this Old Dutch expression relating to a visit at the butcher, and not any macabre reverence of our own body, and in translation means, I believe in reality, based on facts. which brings me to the second argument, "laws of physics".

There are only a very limited number of people who manage or claim to understand what the World of scientists are researching near Geneva. The big bang theory, with scientists researching with enormous expensive, large and complex machinery, created only in order to comprehend how and why our world and the entire outer space were created.

I don't want to sound stupid, but the entire experiment, sounds and looks like "the emperor's new clothes" by Hans Christian Andersen, in which a small boy cries out that "the emperor is naked" as he did not comprehend the theory of invisible clothes, a doctrine and theology which was accepted through out the imperia, by the intelligentsia.

Another relevant example is the enjoyable promotion clip on TV by Muller (dairy products) where the driver of the van asked the question: What does it matter, how the cow produces milk, the importance is, that she is good in doing it". I know it should have been in Latin, stated by scientists such as Einstein or Zweistein, but really, let us get back to reality, what are they doing, trying to establish a new fable (sorry, I mean religion).

Somebody really mixed up our priorities, if I understand, we are running out of potable water, energy, food, space to live in, clean air, public health, but the question of the big bang is certainly not one of them, that can wait until we solved the above shortages, which are about to eliminate our existence on this globe, long before an anti-bang theory end this world with every on it or circling around it, even though, I think this will not happen during my, my children and grandchildren's life time.

The alternative energy development is much more important, using underground thermal (inner globe) massive energy resources which never have been taken into serious research, nor the use of nuclear / plasma power been considered as energy source (not that we do not have the knowledge how to use this unlimited source of energy, but because the world powers backed by the oil industrials, oppose development of alternative energy sources, which will surely be cheaper and cleaner than oil energy.

But coming back to the experiment of the big bang theory, indeed, if we knew what created us, how this world came into existence, we really got one step further in our knowledge, but perhaps this will destroy us as which probably has happened before, during the billions of years, this globe exists and is circling around the sun in this universe. Humans, as we know them, have lived only in a part of a second, in the existence of our globe and solar system, who knows, humans or other living creatures might have reached the same or higher degree of civilization before, and were wiped out by man made (creature made) catastrophes such as research and experimenting with the big bang.

If there is a God, he most likely has given up on us, and is planning to replace us with a more intelligent creation, such as the blue men of Mars (why we always talk about Green Martians?).

better late than never

Better late than never!

By David Verveer

Confidential, for you and your attendants only

Good days arrived; finally our representative in the Israeli Government, Minister Rafi Eitan, the heroic ex-super spy and Eichmann kidnapper has finally awakened. Our super-star has suggested that he and his team will kidnap this time the President of Iran, Mr. Ahmedinayad, in order to bring him in shackles to face the Israeli high court for high crimes against humanity and Gillette, the razor-blade factory for not shaving.
You must admit, it was high-time for the veteran party to take initiative in World Politics; they are not Yes-men and can not be bought with money by Gaidamac.

I have volunteered as member of the expedition and even discussed it already with my doctor, who agreed that exercise will do me well, provide I take my medicines on time. I ordered a new set of false teeth, and a blond hair-piece, and contact lenses, and a nice mini hearing aid, which is nearly invisible. I will be ready, in all weather conditions. I even started to brush-up my Farsi (many years ago, in the time of the good Shah, I spend 5 years in Iran, and was capable to shop in Farsi).

Our team will exist out of 4 volunteers, including Rafi Eitan himself, all extremely fit and well seasoned veterans, most of us capable of walking uninterrupted (even though assisted by a female attendant) for more than a half hour, in the blazing sun.

According to the plan (not yet published officially) we will fly to Georgia, where we will be trained in fighting tanks, there we will receive new identities and papers. It might be possible that a short Russian correspondence course (the Putin Institute for propaganda) will instruct us how to shoot tigress and or elephants (to be found in the Iranian desert), if the environmentalists won't disturb us.

From Georgia we will be taken by horse and cart, through Turkey to the Iranian border, which we will infiltrate in the middle of the night, posing as Islamic refugees fleeing the Communists and Jews. After our arrest by the Iranian secret police, we will be taken to see the President of the Republic.

We have prepared a present for the Iranian leader, an authentic Strudel, which we will offer to Ahmedinayad. The Strudel (prepared by our Mossad Laboratories) contains a drug that will put the person in a passive mood. After the drug will have drugged the President, we take him to the Presidential garden, where a small helicopter will be waiting for us, to take him back to Israel.

If we, by any chance, will be caught by the Persians, we will deny everything, and claim that we were programmed by the GGB. Rafi, our leader has already spoken with: one moment, my wife calls me, I will be back in a moment, yes Pupi, I have taken my pills, and will go for a nap, immediately after I finish this article. I hate it when they disturb me when I am working; it is difficult to remember precisely where I left of, oh yes I remember, " I was talking to my friend, the other day, in the park, he asked me if I remember, that we both competed for the friendship of Amelia, and indeed I do remember distinctly, but can not remember, why?

yesterday, my email was hijacked

By David Verveer

Yesterday, some friends with whom I had not talked with for a long time, phoned me up and all asked me a question as follows: "where are you at the moment?"
I told them, I am home, and then they asked me, if I am O.K., as they received an urgent plea from me As follows:

"I am sorry I didn't inform you about my traveling to Europe for a program called Empowering the youth to fight racism, HIV/AIDS and lack of education, the program is taking place in three major countries in Europe, which are England, Holland and Germany, I am presently in England.
I misplaced my wallet on my way to the hotel where my money and other valuable things were kept. I will like you to assist me with a soft loan urgently with a sum of (&2000) pound to sort-out my hotel bills and get myself back home. I will appreciate whatever you can afford, I will pay you back upon return, The money could be wired through Western Union money transfer with the information below..
Name: David Verveer
Address is: 30 Leicester Square
City: London
Country: United Kingdom
Zip Code: WC2H 7LA.
Text question: For who?
Answer: For Me
The amount you send?
As soon as you do it please email me back with the Western Union information, so that I can pay the bill's and get home.
Thanks for all the help
David Verveer"

First of all, I am not stuck in England; I did not participate and never will participate in such a program, and all above bullshit is a hoax, trying to find suckers who are prepared to donate money for the cause of funding crooks.

But now comes the question, how come and how did they do it?
First of all, because my utter stupidity, and my trusting official looking letters, which I never should have answered, but I did, and apologize for it, as I should have known better.

Yesterday, I received an official looking letter from dpberches@hotmail.com
With the subject: Hotmail Warning!!! Verify your account now to avoid it closed (VX2G99AAJ)

Verify your Hotmail account now!!!

Dear Account User.
You are advise to verify and confirm your account details below to enable us to upgrade your account, E.G. your hotmail I.D. Password, Date of Birth etc.

Anyone who fails to do his or her own will Automatically loses his or her own account
Thanks for using Hotmail

Dear Account User,
This message is from Hotmail message center to all Hotmail account owners and premium account owners. We are currently upgrading our data base and email account center. We are deleting all unused Hotmail account to create more space for new accounts.

To prevent your account from closing you will have to update it below before three days from now!
Hotmail I.D.
Password:
Your birthday
Your country or territory:
Your secret question answer:
Then follows another threat of closure,

Signed by: The Windows Live Hotmail Team.

On purpose I copiedt the text with grammar mistakes, which should have alerted me, but stupid me, after hesitation, I answered and gave them the above data.

The biggest mistake was of course giving my password, which opened for them my address book. I don't think that anybody was so stupid to transfer money to England, without contacted me or my family first.

If I really would have got stuck abroad, I first would have called my wife or daughters, and never friends or family, but today, flight tickets are computerized, you can not lose them, credit cards are used to transfer money, and ask yourself, if I would have got stuck, I would have on me, in London, the complete address book of a email service I hardly use, and contains names of people and organizations, which do not exist anymore, don't know me, and certainly are not willing to invest in me.

What did we learn from this, never give anybody your password, and don't worry about somebody closing your account, you can always open a new one.
In the mean time, and for the time being, my hotmail account is closed and taken out of service. If you need me, you know how to find me.

I apologize for my stupidity,
Yours,
David Verveer

just back from a trip to mars

Just back from a trip to Mars

By David Verveer

I am just back from a round trip to Mars, (on the way we visited also the moon, and some other outer space regions). My travel companion, my grandson Tom, still on vacation from school, was so kind to hold my hand in frightening moments, but in general, I must say, the trip was wonderful and enlightening. I would have preferred a newer model of space ship, as the one we traveled in was a rather shaky affair, but for the low fees, we should not complain. I thought, however, they would serve some drinks, half way, but no, we went directly up, but wasted some time on the moon, which is really a pity of your time, nobody there, dry like hell and such a silence, the only thing we heard was the guide, telling us what we saw.

Of course, you understood by now that we visited the planetarium in Tel Aviv, and participated in a simulated flight upwards. But this made me think, my grandson is now 9 years old (9 and a half to be precise), and he, most likely, will participate in such trips when he gets to my venerable age (passed 50 years, a long time ago).

When I was a kid of his age now, we did not have TV, or transistor radios, or mobile phones, and if you wanted to phone, you had to go to the sole public phone in the neighborhood, but of course, to whom would you call, nobody had a phone those days. We had a huge radio, standing in our living room, with a station indicator, on which local (one) and foreign stations were written, I don't think it broadcasted the entire day.

Still, we never got bored, like the kids of today, we played, read and enjoyed ourselves with primitive equipment but time available was always too short. Today, my grandkids continuously get new electronic equipment, from play station to hi-fi, what ever that might be, but surprisingly, they get bored, with more than 5 TV stations for kids alone, with DVD (video is already out, not to mention tape recorders, or gramophone players), and their own computer, with non limited sources of sites for kids, and still I hear Saba (Granny in Hebrew) I am bored!

I feel like a prophet, when I imaging my grandson, with his grandchildren go for a weekend to Jupiter, where he rented a solarium for the weekend (included of course a rented rocket for visits to the surrounding moons). There, grandmother prepared for them a take away breakfast) and their favorite entertainment program, injected through their toes, when the youngest child tell his granny, that this antique manner of traveling bores him, his friends from school flown with his parents on robototic plasma waves. Sound wild, remember that if somebody in those days, would have prophesized that you would be able to talk and see each other through the computer (what is a computer in heavens name?), and that it won't cost you a cent (if you don't take into account that your equipment and your connection to internet cost lots of money, and that you have to replace after a year your equipment, because it is not anymore capable to cope with the basic requirements).

O.K, I have to stop now, because my daughter has just sent me by email, pictures of their trip with their kids to Canada, and I have to figure out, how to open them and view them, together with my wife.

the web night mare we live in

The Web nightmare we live in

By David Verveer

This letter should be seen as a complaint, the problem is, I do not know to whom to address it, who is the sick mind and Internet bandit, that makes my and many other's life a hell, and who causes that I sit until midnight to try to get rid of an other attempt to infect my computers. Who is the person that in actual fact enjoys it that suckers like me desperately looking for help, knowing that there is nobody out there, and every one is fighting for him self.

When in the fifties I got infected by "Cyberitus" a contagious disease which is incurable and has many side effects, which I will not discuss here, as I will not give the enemy their satisfaction of having succeeded in pestering me, day and night.

Of course, there also times, the disease is in a lull (a calm and inactive period), the computers are working without any problems, telling me that all antivirus, registering and security programs are up to date, and my compute is working satisfactory. I know, that is just before a new attack of hackers, of spyware and viruses thought out by young freaks that do this for the fun of it.

Who, in his sound mind, writes Trojan virus software, which has only one target, ruining our computers? Do they do it in order to increase the sale of ineffective antivirus software, or are they at war with the civilization, showing that they are capable to cause enormous damage to anybody courageous enough to operate computers. Or could it be that the antivirus software manufactures write there own viruses, which can be removed only by their own particular antivirus programs, but no, that wouldn't be nice, people do not on purpose harm people in order to make a buck, don't be funny, we do not live in a free for all society, there are responsible people who control fair business, or am I mistaken to think nobody makes malware on purpose.

I am not worried about big companies, which can afford to take in account software damage to their computer systems, this is an item which can be taken in account in the yearly budget, and they always have sufficient backups and computer experts who know what and how to deal with an attack. But what about the private man, using the computer as his main connector to the world, already for ages he did not use the postal services, or go to the bank to check his account, he stopped with expensive abroad phone calls, using Skype or similar VOIP programs. He has taken his office home, his source for information, is reference material, and even, how to make a cake. The computer is an essential equipment in a normal household, which when it breaks down, has tremendous effect on the sanity of the users.

The antivirus software companies are blood suckers, which require continuous renewal (updating) and at least a yearly payment, but don't think you solved the problem, after installing an antivirus program, you need as well anti adware, a driver checker (drivers are software that operate hardware but don't do anything for cookware), register controller (as software registers itself on your operation system, and not always work nicely together with other software registering, so called conflicting with each other. So let us assume you agreed in your desperation to install a program that promises to deal with all your expected and un expected failures in operating your computer, and you agree paying yearly their fees, 2 days after installing the anti-everything program, your computer tells you something like, you do not have sufficient ram, or simply gives up and does not work anymore, and your technician or lab will tell you a story which you can not check if true, so he will reformate your hard disk, put in new parts, and your lovely computer is reduced to an old model, ready to be replaced with a newer model computer who does everything much better, much faster, has a memory of x mega -/ no chica bites, which you can use also for making coffee and also for operating the washing machine and can be operated with remote control or with your mobile, the only thing you need is money.

What, don't you have a mobile, are you from the Stone Age? School kids take a mobile to school, and the elementary school teachers request the children to present their homework with the help of a computer. I remember, in my time in school, we were not allowed to use a ball pen, only a crown pen, which you had to dip in the inkpot, or a sharpened pencil (which was checked by the teacher).

I know, I need now a closing argument, a point making the entire writing relevant, but to tell you the truth, I really don't see a solution, the world is for the youngsters, I don't have the patience to fight with it anymore, mister virus producer, you won, but I hope that you will invent a virus that will explode in your bloody, (excuse me for my vile language) own face.

god zij dank ben ik een israeli en leef ik in israel

Gods zij dank ben ik Israeli en leef ik in Israel!

Geschreven door David Verveer

Introductie
Dit commentaar hat ik orgineel in het Engels geschreven, en toen naar een paar vrienden van mij gezonden. Hun reactie was, dat ik deze brief direct naar de krant moest schrijven, en niet aan hun. Ik weet niet of mijn verroesten kennis van de Nederlandse taal goed genoeg is om mijn mening duidelijk te maken, maar wie niet probeert, weet nooit wat hij is in staat om te doen.

Mijn brief, vrij vertaald.
Ik heb net 200 reacties gelezen op een artikel bij de Nederlandse Journalist Jaap Hamburger, die zichzelf als objectieve beschouwd over Israel en de Israeli politieke situatie, vooral over de Israeli behandeling van de Palestijnen (Arabieren) die in en om de grenzen van Israel leven. Het artikel was gedrukt in de Nederlandse krant Volkskrant, en kreeg meer dan 200 reacties en opinies van mensen die voor of tegen Israel waren, meestal met ideeën die kwamen uit geloof overtuigingen, geschiedenis en rasism maar de meeste, geschreven door mensen die onvoldoende kennis hebben en door de propaganda media halve waarheden herhaalden die van beide zijden van het konflikt geuit worden.

Natuurlijk begrijp ik dat dit een intellectuele oefening is, die geen enkele invloed heeft op wat er werkelijk in de regio gebeurd, en mogelijk is gemaakt door de aanwezigheid van de Internet, die iedereen vrij kan gebruiken, om de misdaden van die slechte Israelis of Arabieren te bespreken.

Maak U absoluut geen zorgen, ik ga nu niet mijn kant (de Israelische)van het argument schrijven, en uitleggen waarom wij ons zo gedragen, en tamelijk veel sukses hebben, met wat en hoe wij het doen. Mijn brief heef een geheel andere bedoeling, ik probeer U uit te leggen waarom ik een Israëli en Zionist ben geworden, zeker niet omdat ik mijzelf superior voel ten opzichte van andere volken, maar door wat ik heb doorgemaakt gedurende mijn leven, waarvan ik heb geleerd dat de enige mensen die ik kan vertrouwen, zijn de mensen van mijn eigen volk, en dat ik altijd een vreemdeling (en vluchteling) zal zijn in mijn geboorte land Nederland.

Ik ben geboren, een jaar voor de tweede wereld oorlog en de Duitse bezetting, en op drie jarige leeftijd (en een dag) ben ik ondergedoken, en gedurende 3 jaar van adres naar adres over gebracht, daar het vorige adres te gevaarlijk werd (roddelende buren en NSB ers) in de omgeving. Mijn leven was gered door goede Christenen, die hun eigen leven in gevaar brachten door mij in huis te nemen.
De laatste anderhalf jaar was ik onder gedoken in Oegstgeest, vlakbij Leiden, bij een Gereformeerde naast de kerk wonende Kerk leider, in het midden van een buurt geheel over genomen door het Duitse leger, als regionaal hoofd kwartier, met de officieren die de huizen om ons heen hadden op gevorderd. Een van de redenen dat ik de oorlog heb overleeft, was vooral omdat ik in het midde van het spinnenweb woonde, waar de Duitse Officieren zich niet bemoeiden met vragen zoals, hoeveel kinderen er naast hun woonden, en waar de SS niet durfde te opereren.

De bevrijdingsdag kwam, en Nederland werd nu beheert door de Geallieerde, met een van de eerste maatregelen, reis verbot. Iedereen die buiten zijn gemeente wilde gaan, moest dus een reis vergunning krijgen, die werd uitgereikt door de plaatselijke gemeente, door ambtenaren die tijdens de moffen, de vijand dienden, en nu weer goede Nederlanders waren, maar ja, Anti semitisme is iets dat je kan leren, maar niet vlug kan verliezen of vergeten.

Mijn vader, een bouwkundig Ingenieur en Architect was gearresteerd bij de SS en gefusilleerd in Oktober 1944, toen hij voor de ondergrondse,de beroemde IJssel Linie in kaart probeerde te brengen, zodat in Londen men zou weten welke dijken te bombarderen, zodat een gedeel van het land onder water zou komen staan, en het Duitse leger zich niet vlug zou kunnen terug trekken met hun zware cavalerie terug over de Duitse grens. Ik ben een van vier kinderen, drie jongens en een meisje, mijn zus, de jongste, had niet ons geluk en was verraden (ze was toen 2 jaar oud) zij werd naar de concentratie kampen gezonden die ze overleefde. Een documentare film is hiervan gemaakt, het heet de onbekende kinderen. Na de oorlog over was, werd zij naar Holland gestuurd door het Rode Kruis, en na een weekend samen met mijn moeder in Maastricht Mei '45, is zij naar Zwitserland gestuurd om aan te sterken.

Mijn oudere broers hebben de oorlog ook overleeft, en direct na de oorlog naar Denemarken gezonden om aan te sterken.

Ik had niet zo'n geluk, daar de Rode Kruis mij niet wou mee nemen, om dat ik een huid ziekte had, dus mijn moeder en ik bleven over en de burger vaderen van het dorp van waar wij gevlucht waren 3 jaar eerder, besloot dat een vrouw alleen met een kind, geen recht had op ons huurhuis dat sinds we het verlaten hadden, gesloten stond, met alle onze spullen, die door gezonden werden naar de Nood gebieden. In plaats van ons huis, kregen we een lek zomer huisje (in de midde van de strenge winter van 1945 / 46).

Uiteindelijk was de familie (behalve mijn vader) weer compleet toen mij moeder de positie van Directrice van het Haags Joodse Ouder tehuis op zich nam. Het tehuis fungeerde als Ontvangst Centrum voor Joden die terug kwamen uit de kampen, en ik hoef natuurlijk niet uit teleggen dat dit was geen ideale plaats voor het opvoeden van kleine kinderen, de oudste 11 jaar oud en de jongste amper 4.

Pas in 1947 werd mijn vermoorde vader erkent als ondergrondse strijder, (niet als Jood maar als een Nederlander) met gevolg dat wij een staats pensioen kregen, en eindelijk mijn moeder kon beginnen met haar kinderen op te voeden in een tamelijk normale omgeving.

7 jaar later viel de familie uiteen, mijn oudste broer immigreerde naar Israel, mijn tweede broer ging naar Suriname voor het leger, en ik ging studeren in Engeland. Mijn zus en moeder zijn nog drie jaar gebleven.

Uiteindelijk zijn we allemaal, een voor een naar Israel geïmmigreerd, daar we niet in Holland wouden blijven, niet omdat er Anti semitisme was, maar omdat, hoe dan ook, wij werden beschouwd als “anders” en de weinige Joden die gebleven zijn in Holland, houden hun zelf voor de gek, met het denken dat ze ten eerste Nederlanders zijn.

En nu kom ik eindelijk aan de reden voor mij dit veel te lange verhaal te schrijven. Israel geeft mij het gevoel van behoren, ik ben hier omdat mijn volk hier leeft, hier word ik niet gejaagd voor ras of geloof. Natuurlijk ben ik niet eens met alle beslissingen van de Israelische regering, en nog minder, met daden van extremisten van beide zijden, maar ik ben thuis, dit is mijn land, waar we voor hebben gevochten en zeker niet voor niets, maar wij zijn er in geslaagd om een land op te bouwen, waar we trots op kunnen zijn.

Hoe stom klinken die argumenten in de internationale pers, van alle zijden, tegen en voor de Joden / Arabieren, Palestijnen, terroristen, discriminatie, apartheid, die heeft gezecht, daar stond geschreven, allemaal niet belangrijk en nutteloos, Israel is een democratisch eiland in het midde van dictatorische en autocratische landen, wij proberen zo menselijk mogelijk te zijn, en soms onze acties niet erg logish in jullie ogen, maar herinner, wij zijn hier en blijven hier, en hebben wij geen andere mogelijkheid dan be sterkste te zijn, want wij kunnen ons geen nederlaag permitteren.
Jullie moeten herinneren dat Europa heeft ons verbannen, niet bij de verbanning wet van de Spaanse vorsten 1492, maar door het toelaten van de moord van 6 miljoen joden bij het Duitse Nazi beest.

De enige manier om nooit meer vernietiging van het Joodse volk, is door een sterke vestiging te bouwen, die niet perfekt is, maar onafhankelijk, sterk en in staat te zijn om terug te slaan. We hoeven niet meer onder te duiken, en ze kunnen ons niet meer jagen als beesten. De Europese community kan ons dit niet garanderen, maar niet alleen Europa, nergens op de wereld kan men zo iets waar maken, zeker niet nu, dat jullie eigen vrijheid in gevaar is door de groeiende macht van de Islam, die voor niets stuit, en geen democratie aanvaard. Kritiek op ons kan jullie niet redden.

Thank God I am an Israeli, living in Israel!

Thank God, I am an Israeli, living in Israel!

By David Verveer

I just finished to read 200 reactions on an article by a Dutch Journalist, Jaap Hamburger, who consider himself in having objective opinions on Israel and Israeli policies, specially concerning Israeli treatment of the Palestinians (Arabs) living in and around Israel. The article was published in the Dutch daily, de Volkskrant, and received more than 200 reactions, opinions of extremists against and pro Israeli, with arguments based on religion, history, racism and mostly, insufficient data based on propaganda media proclaimed by all sides involved in the conflict.

Clearly, this discussion is an intellectual exercise which has no influence, what so ever on the situation, but today, with the existence of the Internet, people are free to try to convince others of their insight on the crimes and behavior of those terrible Israelis / Arabs, etc.

Don't worry, I am not going to add to this my one-sided opinion on our rights (Israeli) and why we do what we do, and are rather successful in doing it. This letter has an entire different purpose, I am trying to show you that I became Israeli and Zionist, not because of having a feeling of superiority on other people, but due to what happened to me, during my life-time, I can put my trust only in people of my kind, as I was a stranger (and fugitive) in my native country, "the Netherlands".

I was born one year before the German invasion of Holland, and being only three years old (and one day), I was taken into hiding, and during 3 years, I was moved from one place to the other, when the last place became unsafe (neighbors talking and traitors living near by). I was saved by good Dutchmen, who risked their own life in order to save mine. The last 1 and half years I lived in a village near Leiden, in the house of a Protestant church alder, in the middle of the German Army Division Head quarter, which had taken over the neighborhood. The fact that I survived was mainly because we lived in the middle of the spider web, a place were they did not count the number of children next door, and the SS hesitated in entering.

The war ended, and the war-worn country was run by the Allies, who put restriction on traveling. My mother, who had been hiding in the north of the country, in order to find her family, had to fight to get travel permits put upon her by the Allies, but mostly fight the Dutch civil administration, who during the war served the German, and now again carried on as loyal civil servants. Letters and permits issued by these Dutch clerks showed that anti-Semitism is something you can learn, but not lose.

My father, an civil engineer and architect was caught by the SS and murdered in October 1944, when in service of the résistance, tried to prepare drawings of the famous Ijsel Line, a design of critical dikes systems, which if bombarded, would put half of Holland underwater, and complicate the Germans from retreating with their tanks, back over the German border.

I am one of four children, three boys and one girl. My sister who is the youngest, was not as lucky as me, and was arrested by the Germans (she was nearly two years old at that time), and transported to the concentration camps, which she survived. A documentary was made of this called "the unknown children".
After liberation, she was send back to Holland by the Red Cross, and after uniting for a weekend with my mother, sent to Switzerland to recover and strengthen.
My older brothers also survived, and were sent for recuperation to Denmark.
I was nor so lucky, suffering from a skin disease, the Red cross did not accept me, and my mother and me received a temporary home in the village from where we fled 3 and a half years earlier. Our previous prewar (rented) house was still standing empty with our own furniture inside, but the wise civil administration decided that a woman with one child does not have to live in a big house, and should live in a leaking wooden summer house, in the middle of the woods, during a severe winters (1945 / 6)

The family was united in 1946, when my mother was appointed director of a Jewish parent home, which served at the time as first stage collection center for Jews surviving camps and returning to Holland. I don't have to explain that this was not an ideal place to bring up children, having them selves suffered sufficient traumas to last a lifetime.

Only in 1947, my murdered father was recognized as War hero and resistance fighter, and we were allotted a pension that enabled my mother to move to a flat and start rebuilding the family. We never became a normal family, and about 8 years later, the family fall apart, when one brother immigrating to Israel, the other brother in the Dutch Army sent to Suriname (S.A), and me, going to England to study Agriculture. My mother and sister remained together in Holland.

None of us remained in Holland, as we felt not belonging, not trusting anybody and un-equal with our neighbors. Not that we suffered anti Semitism, but we were and are treated as "outsiders", and the few Jews who remained in Holland know either that I am right in this observation, or try to deny this and remain an outsider for life.

And now, I finally reach the reason of writing all this, Israel provides me with a feeling of belonging, I am here because this are my people, here I can do something against being hunted as animal because religion and race. Of course I do not agree with every political move of the Israeli Government, of course I don’t agree with any extremist from either side, but I am home, this is my country, which we fought for and succeeded in creating against all odds. We did not get the country as present from anybody, just the opposite; nobody made it easy for us.

How irrelevant and stupid are arguments from all sides in the Dutch, English or US papers, "promised land", Arab Palestinians, Israeli Arabs, discrimination, this one said, that one wrote, all bull-shit, Israel is a relative democratic society, existing in the middle of a sea of dictatorial and autocratic regimes, trying to be human, even though sometimes our behavior sounds illogical, remember we are here, we stay here and we have no other choice in being always the strongest, as we don't have the luxury of losing. Remember, the Europeans ousted us, not by a decision of the Spanish Monarch in 1492, but by allowing the Nazi beast to kill 7 million of my people.

We made true the phrase "never again" by creating our own fortress, not perfect, but independent, our current enemy fights us and tries to terrorizes us, but we are able to defend ourselves, we hit back, we do not have to go into hiding, we are not hunted as animals. The Europeans, or anybody else in the Diaspora, can not give us such assurance, the Islam is invading you and slowly but surely, you are losing your democracies, your freedom and right to live, and you will have to fight to regain your freedom, just as we did and do, and the sooner the better you need to realize that your criticism of our policies will not save you, nor spare you.

more dat on our scoop a few days ago (new olmert scandal)

Re: More data on our scoop a few days ago (new Olmert scandal)

By David Verveer

We brought you a few days back rumors on about a new scandal developing, which concerns our Prime Minister, who allegedly and illegally stole (took) sugar bags from the sugar bowl in the Restaurant of the Knesset, put them in his inner pocket, and sold them on the black market, in order to enlarge his personal bank account.

Since we brought this news-breaking story, we received supplementary information, which will emphasize the precarious situation of Mr. Olmert, who currently seem to succeed in reducing the public damage made by Mr. Talansky, who under cross examination appears to be extremely confused and suffering of memory blocks, and might be unsuitable for being the crown witness in shooting down a ruling prime minister.

Also the case of double or triple invoices for flights in service of charity funds (the so called shnor flights), seem to cool down, when discovered that the Opposition leader used free mileage points from his "shnor" flights to pay for the flight of his lovely wife, which is of course, just the same as double invoicing, and quoting the bible, "don't walk with butter on your head in the midday sun", the police was asked to go slow in that case. The other scandals such as Bank Leumi, house in the "what you call it" street, etc. seem to lack sufficient meat to make it stick, and if not our new scandal of the sugar bags theft, the police would have remained without work, oblige them to deal with crime families and traffic offences.

When talking about the Police, we like to quote the police spokesman, when we asked, why the investigation team heading to the USA and France, includes 8 officers, we received the following logical explanation, as you know, said the spokesman, a police man is not allowed to interview anybody, when alone, as he needs a witness. Further more, it is known that you need for any investigation, a good cop and a bad one. In addition, in order to operate abroad, they require a translator and / or interpreter to relay the questions from Hebrew to English and reverse, and what about French? Of course, when travelling in such a large group, one needs a commanding officer and an organizer, how many people are needed; I think 8 is the absolute minimum, end quote the spokesman.

We also like to bring you some first reactions from the Prime Minister's office, which vary from "no comments" to our Prime Minister never drinks or sits in the Knesset Restaurant" and "the Prime Minister doesn't drink sugar sweetened coffee, but uses sweeteners, which are carefully checked by the security people. We think that the above excuses are all weak attempts to spin the attention from this hideous crime.
Our legal expert told us, that even though, the law doesn't mention theft of sugar bags as major crime; it remains theft, which is a crime punishable by imprisonment of 7 years.

In order to know what the people think of this new scandal, our reporters asked people in the street (Jews, Arabs, Palestinians, Youth, Religious, Free thinkers, etc.), many people told us, that the Prime Minister should resign immediately and bring back Bibi, others told us, that everybody does it (stealing sugar bags), some told us, that since they heard about the new case, they too, started stealing sugar bags, which might explain the national shortage in sugar bags.

A well know Psychiatric expert, with expertise on mental conditions of ruling Prime Ministers from the Kadima party, told us that the sugar bag stealing is an obsession (of course, if proven) caused by continues stress brought upon him by the police, which is an unconscious reaction, called the Post Trauma Kleptomaniac Reaction, (PTKR), a natural mental defiance reaction by battered people.

A note from the Publisher
We try to report this case objectively, without taking sides as we wish our loved Prime Minister Sweet success following his resignation and sentencing.

what is the truth?

What is the truth ?

By David Verveer

The past week was very traumatic and sad, when the Hezbollah returned two dead soldiers that were kidnapped on the border, two years earlier. The exchange of bodies for prisoners was arranged with the assistance of the Germans. The deal was struck after years of indirect negotiations, in which the Hezbollah started of with huge demands, and ended up with getting back a young terrorist who twenty odd years ago killed several people, including a 4 year old girl, by smashing in her scull.

This terrorist spend his time in Israeli prison, by studying and even gained university education, received visits on a regular base by the Red cross representative and would have remained in prison for life, if not liberated by the exchange deal, last week.
This terrorist was actually a Lebanese Druze, belonging to the Communist party, and in ideals, just the opposite of those of his liberators, the Shiite Hezbollah.

The horrible truth is, that in order to free this terrorist, the 2 soldiers were kidnapped, which led to the second Lebanese war, and if Israel would have returned this terrorist with the last exchange 2and half years ago, when Israel received 3 dead soldiers and an Israeli drug dealer, in exchange for some Lebanese prisoners of war, they would not have attempted to kidnap our soldiers, who were most probable killed during the kidnap action.

Of course, the Hezbollah played their cards right, and did not release any information on the conditions of those soldiers (who were already dead) and Nashrallah in his speeches played with the feelings of the families (and all Israelis), Red cross was not allowed to visit prisoners, information and medical assistance were nor given, and even though, the local medical examination of the scene, indicated that the soldiers might have died in the attempt, there is nothing more stronger than hope, and the entire nation hoped for safe return of the kidnapped soldiers.

Eventually, the Government agreed to release the killer terrorist, in exchange for the soldiers. This drama took place 3 days ago, when until the last moment, the fate of the soldiers was still in doubt, until the television cameras showed the two coffins.
In Beirut, posters in English stated something like; "Israel cries while Lebanon celebrates"., which was sad but very true. The liberated terrorist was received like a hero, dressed in an officer's outfit of a officer in the "soldiers of Allah" semi military group, with everyone important in Lebanon, kissing him and hailing him as having performed great deeds for his nation, irrelevant that if he would have managed to return to Lebanon, after his killing spree 20 years back, he would have been eliminated by communist hating Shiite Hezbollah, but who cares about the truth.

An Israeli Journalist Uri Ourbach wrote in Y- net and open letter to the Lebanese people, in which he asked them, if this ruthless child killer represents their sentiments, the published back-talks were blood chilling. Many of those talkbacks were written by Arabs, Palestinians and Lebanese, and of course, talkback response by Israelis and Arabs. Most responses were angry replies, that Israel's army has killed many innocent children and women, in capable in comprehending the difference between accidental deaths, when Hezbollah shoots from civilian concentrations, and willful terrorist killings. To those talk-backers, the truth was not important, eye for eye and tooth for tooth, the Israeli is an occupier of Arab Palestine and killing Jews is allowed (as there is no innocent Israeli).

Based on those talk-backs, I conclude that there is no hope for the Middle East, the irrational killing will continue, our and their extremists will drive us from war to war, truth, humanism, historic facts will all be pushed away by religious fanatics and zealots, who over and over again, will justify their ways, by claiming that it is Gods commands, which makes them to behave this way.

All this would not have been possible, if the world would not be depending on Arab Oil, as our human society is driven solely by economics. Funny enough, organized crime driven by the Islam are taking over the democracies of Western Europe, and there is nothing we can do about it, and even here in Israel, we seem to be incapable of dealing with corruption versus continuing our only democracy in the Middle East. The opposition parties look desperate for finding alleged crimes committed by the current Prime Minister, ten years ago, when he was still Mayor of Jerusalem and later on Minister of Industry and Trade. Their sick desire in trying to get back in power reminds the story of the scorpion and the turtle, who made an agreement, in which the turtle would carry the scorpion to the other side of the river, provided the scorpion would not strike it with it poison, but when nearing the other side, the scorpion gave is poisonous strike, killing both through drowning. Reason for his deed and breaking his word, was that you can not change the natural behavior impulses.

But now we are going to happier times, the Olympic Games are due to begin in a fortnight, and there is nothing like Games to take temporary the mind of all current problems, such as water shortage, politics, our remaining hostage in Gaza by the Hamas, world economics, etc. Not important that our participants are hardly at Olympic level, irrelevant that they will never get to the required level, if we do not invest in their training, we keep on hoping for the impossible, who would have expected that our "Yiddischer boggers" (Jewish Boys) participate in International sport events, we really put Israel on the map.

In conclusion, and an answer to Uri Ourbach, who cares what the Lebanese think about Kuntar and his deeds, thank God, I am Israeli, and with all our "Tsores" (problems), we still have a wonderful country, and never a boring day. Think about it, the Arabs were already punished by birth, of being what they are, and suffering from their own kind and a cruel jealous religion, much more than those crimes they manage to commit against us. I too, as a Good Jew, every morning I thank God that he did not make me …. (an Arab).

scoop

Scoop – a new scandal on Olmert!

By David Verveer

Our special correspondent (dealing with scandals and gossip) just entered the news-room with a new news breaking scandal on our Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
She learned from one of the workers in the Knesset Restaurant, that Mr. Ehud Olmert when ordering a cup of coffee, he apparently steals several extra sugar bags, which he puts in his pocket, in order to sell on the black market, and the profit he adds to his continues growing private bank account.

The police has started investigation on this new crime committed by our leader, next week a large team of investigators will travel to the USA and France, in order to gather more information on the case. A spokesman of the opposition leader declared today in a hasty press conference, that Olmert should not continue as Prime Minister after this new accusation has been published. He added, and I quote "a Prime Minister who steals from the Knesset restaurant can not be trusted to run the nation".

Our police stumbled by accident on the disappearance of the sugar bags, when a security officer on duty, ordering coffee at the Restaurant and found the sugar bowl empty. He started to investigate who has been sitting at the same table before him. The Restaurant assistant tried to shush up this dirty affair, but our policeman suddenly realized that he had discovered an additional crime apparently committed by our Prime Minister. The police officer phoned directly to his superiors, including the Chief of Police himself, who after only 23 minutes, joined the investigation and conducted an interview with the Restaurant chief and some of the workers.

According to un-official information supplied by the Police, this embezzlement seems to continue for years, and might have reached a total sum of 2.423 N.I.S worth of sugar (especially now that the World price in foods such as sugar have risen on the World Market due to Global Warming and the production of Ethanol from Sugar containing products).

Member of the Knesset, representing the Settlers (the name is withheld by the Paper) stated that Olmert can not continue another day, as it is crystal clear that a person who steals sugar bags, can not be trusted with decisions on "land for peace" and settlement policies.

Members of the Prime Minister's party refused to comment on these new revelations with the sole exception of the Minister for Transport, who told our correspondent, that he personally did not sweeten his drinks.

The State Comptroller issued a detailed report on the overdose of sugar use by Government employees and Knesset members, accusing Olmert of doping and possession of illegal doses of sugar, and instructed the police to indict the Prime Minister. We expect that this case will precede the other scandals such as; ticket affair, Talanski, Kreminitky, Bank Leumi and helping his former buddy and partner.

A personal advice to our readers, please read this fast, as so far we know, this is still the latest scandal.

inan imaginary country

In an imaginary country lived a people known for their holiness.

By David Verveer

Let me tell you something about an imaginary small country that geographically is situated in Asia, consider itself European but tries to look like the USA. In this country, which we will indicate by the name "the holy land", the citizens are far from saints.

One of the many peculiarities (and there are many) of this country, is that the national police believe that their main task lays in finding reasons to put its prime minister in jail, not because he is such a bad leader or that his election to this high function was not democratic and fair, but because the democratic political game is based on throwing dirt on its leaders. When finally this dirt will stick (mostly because the accusations are some how based on truth) they bring back political leaders, who in the past, did precisely the same dirty crimes, but because being already for three years in the opposition, their deeds are forgiven, and even though, most if not all of the countries current problems were caused by those same leaders, now brought back to have another go in ruining the slow but sure progress made in the last 3 years, such as the fact that the country is running out of potable water, which can mainly be blamed on government budget cuts 5 years ago in establishing distillation plants (the holy land exports this technology to the entire world, and could have been self sufficient in potable water, if it would have invested in distillation plants, but no, the austerity program of the former regime, cut the expenditure of the government, or by such expenses as cutting more than 8 hours weekly of education, putting back the holy land kids in the 38th place of education ranking worldwide, with the highest poverty rate in the western world in the same time with the largest average of multimillionaires, combined with retired people, who lost their life savings and monthly allowance, but possessing the strongest currency worldwide.

This above mentioned former and now back coming politicians have been accused without acquittal of all financial crimes possible, including gathering illegal personal gains, but all this is now forgotten and forgiven, as now the current prime minister seems to have received envelopes filled with donation money (all this happened long before he became prime minister) from a peculiar American, whose motivations are still unknown, and if this is not sufficient, the same prime minister, now seems to have benefitted from murky deals concerning trips abroad, financed by more than one source, thus putting extra money in his pocket. When all this happened? More than ten years back, but now is the time to get rid of him, as he gets uncomfortably near reaching peace with the country's enemies, which would mean that the extreme right need to make sacrifices such as giving back occupied and stolen land, but as our holy land is in the grip of America, and financed by donations of good Christians, all in order to keep the settlers doing, what normal humans would call inhuman behavior, but who cares, holy land or not?

In this imaginary holy land country, the court of justice occupies itself with accusing one of its ministers, with the high crime of French kissing a girl on the mouth, but did not yet succeed in putting its former president in jail, as rapist and sexual miss behavior, compensating their failure by providing him with a generous pension and car with driver.
The police in this funny country have a difficult task of raking up political scandals, and have no time to deal with unholy crime families and new rich oligarchs, who made their money elsewhere, in dubious ways, and are under investigation by the Interpol, people who slowly but surely, take over the country, undisturbed by police or law.

This holy country (remember – imaginary) put up a huge feast celebrating 60 years of independence, while in the background, people starve from poverty, but the tourist trade benefited, something like the games the Roman despots offered the people, but an extreme stage was reached when inaugurating a multi million bridge serving a light train in the capitol from nowhere and back (a transport service which does not exist, and if everything goes like plan will not run in the coming 5 years),the celebration included the French president and his lovely wife and festivities that included a dance performance of children, clad in sacks covering their bodies and part of their faces, in order to preserve their (holy land) modesty. The above mentioned capitol celebrates every year their unification of uniting with nearly a million of people from another religion and nationality, that were forcefully annexed in to the municipality, but without giving them nationally, nor rights to live or built, but of course, when they show their disaffection with their new country and municipality, they are accused of being terrorists.

In this (imaginary) holy country, where people can not get married if they are born to different religions, claims to be the only democracy in the region and the torch of light to the gentiles, thank God, that this is only a imaginary fable, created by my sick phantasm, as such a hypocritical country can not exist, wake up, I am dreaming a night mare.

rebuilding the family

Rebuilding the family

By David Verveer

Introduction

This article is in actual fact not dealing directly with the Second World War in occupied Holland, but with the personal experience of my mother and our family, in the after match after liberation, about the desperate struggle of my mother, in order to regain her own children, the obstacles, and bureaucracy encountered by local and national officials, but also the unselfish help of kind people from unexpected sources, making the final reunification of our family possible.

I promised my wife, that when stopping with working (I just finished a project that took a full year to complete), I will go through my papers, and dispose of everything which does not have any value. I received 10 big bags which I filled with material gathered over the last 40 years. You realize that this is rather hard task, as every piece of paper represents a story, but promise is promise.

During my cleaning up, I found some copies of family papers that were photo-copied by my brother, after my mother passed away in 1987. He gave all four of us a set of papers, with the hope that at least one of us will have the time to study them and to evaluate their historical value. But all four of us where busy in making a living, and those papers were stowed away, for the last 21 years, without anybody studying their contents.

I discoverd a lot of family pictures and even letters written by my father to my mother during the war, when in hiding, A peculiar fact, worth mentioning, was that they were hiding in the same region of the country (more or less 30 kilometers apart, without knowing it, and in fact they never met again, since we fled on the 3^rd of September 1942. My father was shot dead by the SD in October 1944, very close to the place my mother was hiding).

But, as I said before, I don't want to talk again about the war, but about the after match, when the Germans were defeated, Holland was run by the Allies, with the help of the local government low ranking officials, many of them not totally free of anti-Semitic tendencies, based on the principle, if the Nazis hated and exterminated the Jews, most likely, they (the Jews) most likely earned this treatment.

The Liberation environment

In May 1945, Holland was finally liberated, the Germans were put in prison camps, and the Military command, run by American, Canadian and English officers, took the daily task of feeding and governing the impoverished Dutch population, who were milked dry by the German occupation.

The legal Dutch Government returned from England, but they did not have any backing, or power, their functions were merely symbolic, backed by the love of the Dutch for their popular Monarch, Queen Wilhelmina. But the Allies dealt with the big picture, and were incapable in going down to restoring the living conditions of the individual citizen. The continuance of the local government remained by the same people, who served the Germans so well, during the occupation.

The Allies, in order to prevent total chaos, ordered a restrain on travelling outside the perimeters of the local government, and travelling was permitted only by permit of the Military Authorities, and obtained with the help of the local Government

Official letter reporting the death of my father

Due to the travel restrictions, my mother remained at her hiding address in a village Dalen (de Krim) in Northern Province of Drenthe and tried to find by mail the where about of her husband, and 3 of her children, as my second brother was with her, during the time of liberation. One of the many letters she wrote was to the municipality Maarn (Maarsbergen) from where we fled 3 years earlier.

On the 9^th of June 1945 (or in other words, one month after the liberation), my mother received the following letter (freely translated from Dutch).

"With pleasure I noted from your writing, that you have survived the prosecution, in which many people of your religion were killed, thankfully, you were spared. I am pleased to congratulate you on your survival.

Because of this, I am especially sad to be obliged to answer your query with the information that will surely cause you sadness.

The Municipal administration here received the notification last year that your husband Emanuel Verveer, on the 13^th of October 1944, was executed at Steenwijker-world. We did not receive more information here in Maarn, but this you most likely could obtain at the administration in the above mentioned municipality.

Concerning your two sons Isaac and David, I am sorry, but have no information. On my request, Mr. Dr. J.J. van Heuven Goedhart* reverted this question directly to the person who at the time, took the children in to hiding, with the urgent request, as soon as possible to locate them, and as soon I receive more information, I will let you know.

Your request for the Dutch identity card is enclosed in this writing

Mayor of Maarn"

* Dr. van Heuven Goedhart was a neighbor and acquaintance of my father before our escape. He fled to England, and was appointed there as Minister in the exiled Dutch Government and in the seventies was appointed as UN Secretary for the fugitives. As far as I can judge, he was the person who organized our escape as member of the skeleton resistance organization.

Allow me a foot note: We never discussed this with my mother; as such subjects were general evaded.

Concerning the Identity certificate (letter from the Municipality of Maarn

This letter followed the above letter 3 days later, and is signed by the clerk responsible for the ID certificates. The letter goes as follows:

Concerning your writing, requesting to obtain a Dutch I.D, a responsibility that is in the scope of my function, I am sorry to inform you that I am not able to give you such paper, as you and your family are not any more registered in our municipality, due to your disappearance to unknown address.

You can of course, resettle in our municipality and after that you are able to request the I.D, pending on the inspection by (I persume) the Interior Ministry.

You can most probably obtain a temporary I.D. certificate in the Municipality you reside currently. In any case such certificate should have your photo.

Foot Note: to receive a permit to travel needed of course an I.D., and this official was not very helpful.

I understand that my mother than traveled to Oudehorne Friesland, where my father had been in hiding, and stayed with the family de Jong, who run the local food store. They remained our friends and vacation address for the next 10 years.

The Police chief of Heereveen (Friesland) the municipality of Oudehorne, were my father was hidden was much more helpful, he issued a declaration on the 16^th of June 1945, in which is written:

The undersigned declares that:

Henriette Alter, born 25^th June 1907 (note: precisely 101 years ago today) in The Hague, living in Maarsbergen, provinciale weg B24, temporary residing in Oudehorne, as for so far as known to the police here can be trusted politically and is good behaved.

We plead to assist her in all possible ways.

Chief of Police- Heereveen.

This is followed by a signed request for travel permit (municipality of Heereveen)

Date of planned departure: 27 June 1845

Last day of permit: 9 July 1945

Target city: Einhoven

To and Return

Type of transportation: Auto

The reason why this permit is requested:

Mrs. Alter (Jewish) her youngest child was taken by the Germans and transported to Theresianstad. She received from there a notification that her child was in good health. In the mean time the child arrived in Eindhoven. She want the child, now 3 years old back in her custody, in order to bring her back to Friesland, where one offered her and family a house. In addition, she tries to verify more information on her husband

Travel Permit

I now have to add some guess work, and according the address of my mother on the permit, I understand that this was the house of my friends, Jo Levy in Zwolle, a family who had been hiding at the same address, and befriended my mother, and were lucky to get their own home back in Zwolle. He, Jo Levy, was a person with strong ties both with the resistance, and a good standing with the Allied forces now running Holland.

Later on, he was also responsible to arranging for my mother (and me) a temporary housing for the coming winter, in our old / new municipality of Maarn, and rescuing us 4 months later, by a proposal for my mother to take over the management of the Jewish Parents Home in The Hague, but that is another story.

The following travel permit was obtained by my mother dated 18^th of June 1945:

Netherlands Military Authorities

Name: H. Verveer Alter

Address: Melkmarket 18

Municipality: Zwolle

Holder of Identity card: Temporary

Has a permit to travel from: Zwolle

To: Leiden, Eindhoven and Northern provinces

Reason: Searching for her children

Signed by the Military Commissioner of Zwolle

Locating us

Now again based on hear say, memory and reading it somewhere, my sister Chaja, after surviving the concentration camps as baby, arrived in Eindhoven, in care of the Red Cross, she was 3 and a half years old, ill (TB) and underfed, and after my mother managed to see her, she was send (by a Jewish Organization) for rehabilitation to Switzerland, and was geared back to strength by a well-off Jewish family Bloch (textile manufacturers in Zurich and Basel). Of course, this solution, even though, relatively cruel at the time for my mother by having to part again, was a wise solution, as my mother did not have a house to live in.

My oldest brother Isaak (Jacky) and I were located, after the good people who hide us, answered advertisements in the papers, placed in order to locate the hidden Jewish children and our description somehow fitted the picture. Both my brothers, Bob (who remained in Zwolle by the family Levy) and Jack were send by the Red Cross for rehabilitation to Denmark, however, I could not go as well, due to my health condition, specially because my skin (psoriasis) .

The Jewish Brigade

The next paper, I found was a memorandum (dated 12 September 1945, to the Military Police Check in the Utrecht region, written and signed by O.C Major D..Coy Cahan from the Jewish (Palestinian) 3rd Brigade on which is written:

This is to certify that Mrs. Verveer Alter is hereby authorized to travel to Utrecht and return for the purpose of collecting a stove. She will be travelling in a 15 cub. Truck of this unit.

I assume that this was the visit she went to see me in Oegstgeest, a dramatic meeting, both my mother and me crying, I, because I thought they would not keep their promise to take me for my first time ever, swimming outing, and my mother, of course, a stranger for me, to have found me again. I, however cried for no reason, as my mother could not take me with her, as she had nowhere to go, and the arrangement of a house (mentioned before) had not yet taken place. By the way, I went for my first swim that day, after my mother had left.

The stove mentioned in the letter, never existed.

JEWISH BRIGADE GROUP

Beginning in 1920, Great Britain ruled Palestine under a mandate created by the League of Nations. The British were to facilitate the establishment of a modern Jewish homeland. Due to Arab opposition to the proposed Jewish homeland in Palestine, the British initially refused to establish a separate fighting unit of Jewish volunteers from Palestine. However, wartime manpower requirements and the strategic need to defend the Middle East induced the British to permit the formation of 15 Palestinian Jewish battalions. These units were incorporated into the British army in September 1940. Jewish units fought with the Allies in Greece in 1941; 100 Palestinian Jews were killed there and 1,700 captured by the Germans. On August 6, 1942, the British army formed a Palestine Regiment out of three Jewish and one Palestinian Arab battalion. The regiment fought in Egypt and in the battles of North Africa.

The Jewish Brigade Group of the British army, which fought under the Zionist flag, was formally established in September 1944. It included more than 5,000 Jewish volunteers from Palestine organized into three infantry battalions and several supporting units. Under the command of Brigadier Ernest Benjamin, the Jewish Brigade fought against the Germans in Italy from March 1945 until the end of the war in May 1945. After the German surrender, the Jewish Brigade was stationed along the Italian border with Austria and Yugoslavia, and later in Belgium and the Netherlands. Some soldiers from the Brigade helped create displaced persons camps for Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. Brigade members also became involved in organizing the flight of Jewish refugees from eastern Europe and their clandestine entry into Palestine. Individual soldiers acquired arms for the Hagana, the major Jewish underground defense Organization in Palestine. The end of the story As I related before, around end October 1945, my mother received a letter from the Maarn municipality, in which they agreed to rent her a temporary living facility, which was a leaking summer house in the midst of the woods, a wooden hut without running water. Our before war furniture that remained until then, in our former residence, was donated by the municipality to the Red Cross, and we received some old furniture in return. Why, nobody knows, but certainly not out of love for the Jews. We (my mother and I) remained in this cold and leaking summerhouse until the end of the year, when Jo Levy saved us with suggesting my mother for the function of heading the Jewish Parent home in The Hague (which served that period also as collecting center for the Jews returning from the Concentration camps), but this is another story. The place was beautiful, and even though, a real mad house, the family was reunited. P.S. My mother was only 39 years old, when she took over the management of the above mentioned parents home, with 4 children, between 4 and 11 years old, and without a husband.