by Boris Senior
We shall always have to face the dilemma of two claimants for one small piece of land. Without attempting to put into any equation of suffering the dispossessing of the former Arab residents of Israel with the horrors of the Holocaust for the Jews, however, it must be understood why we cannot seek to act only in accordance with hypothetical points of justice. Anyone who has any doubt about either the need, or the justice, of the struggle for a national home for Jews in Israel should be exposed to scenes of the Holocaust before passing judgment.
It is obligatory for all of us to remember how an advanced civilization went mad, believing that the mass murder of 6 million could provide the basis for the establishment of a New Order in the world. We must also recall how the world stood by and witnessed this greatest tragedy of human history without using every resource on earth to stop it.
With the passage of time, the maturing of Israel, and its final and complete acceptance by its neighbors, I believe that a shining future lies ahead for this old-new land, and there will be a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah:
For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever that which I create: for, behold, I create Yerushalayim a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And the voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. Isaiah, chapter 65 verses 17 and 18
Index
aircraft
Aerovan, 156–158
Auster AOP, 92, 95, 125, 134
Beechcraft Bonanza, 140, 143–146, 153–154, 167, 176, 187, 192–193
Boeing B-17, 190–191
Consolidated Cataline (PBY/OA-10), 4, 20–21
Curtiss Kittyhawk (P-40), 1–2, 8, 11–12, 56, 138
de Havilland Tiger Moth, 52–54
Douglas DC-4 Skymaster, 219
Hawker Hart, 49
Martin Marauder (B-26), 4, 10
Messerschmitt 109 (Avia 199), 185–186, 205–208
Norduyn Norseman, 154
North American Harvard, 54
RWD 13, 119, 121, 129
Supermarine Spitfire, 18–19, 62, 209–210, 214, 226, 227
Alon, Moddie, 234
Alon, Yigael, 99, 219–220, 229
Altalena, 199–204
Augarten, Rudy, 236
Barak, Flt. Lt., EAF, 179
Begin, Menachem, 102–103, 202–203
Ben Gurion, David, 150, 169, 177, 199, 247
Bernadotte, Count Folke, 198
Cohen, Eddie, 109, 228–229
Cohen, Sid, 237
Degania, Kibbutz, 174
Dunn, Jackson S., 23
Feliksa, Sgt. Al, 23, 248
Fredkins, Freddie, 242
Golani Brigade, 172
Katz, Sam, 86–87
Lagodimus, Lt. George, Greek AF, 50
Lamed Heh, 128
Lithuania
during WWII, 29–30
village of Naumiestis, 28–30
Meridor, Jacob, 104–105
Palmach, 99
Peake, Wayne, 231–232
Pomerantz, Sam, 214
Rabin, Yitzhak, 99, 153, 230
Remez, Aharon, 182
Sadeh, Yitzhak, 99, 119–120
Senior, Boris
childhood in South Africa, 33–35
family heritage, 28–30
Senior Leon, 25–27, 35, 49, 56
Sherut Avir (Air Service), 101, 106–107
squadrons
101 Squadron, IAF, 24, 227, 231, 246
250 Squadron, RAF, 1, 3
Velveta, Operation, 213–220
Weizman, Ezer, 79, 82, 91, 100, 108, 131–132
Weizmann, Chaim, 36, 82, 86
Yadin, Yigael, 168, 176–177
Zeibel, Zvi, 160
The Author
Born in 1924 in South Africa into a prosperous Jewish family, Boris Senior volunteered for service in the South African Air Force (SAAF) in 1943. In forty-five missions he flew fighters with a British fighter squadron in the Mediterranean theater. In March 1945 he was shot down off Vienna and after parachuting into the Adriatic almost died in the frigid water. Rescued by an American Catalina crew, he returned to his squadron and continued to fly until war’s end.
Senior left the SAAF, and while attending college in London in 1947, he learned of the Holocaust. News of this atrocity, in which some six million Jews died, convinced him to join one of several underground organizations fighting for the establishment of a Jewish state.
He used his training and family connections to buy aircraft for an air force that would help the new country defend itself against its enemies, who were already massing to invade. One of the first nine Israeli pilots, he flew missions in such diverse aircraft as Messerschmitt 109 fighters purchased from Czechoslovakia and Bonanza light aircraft, which he bought with his own money from the American manufacturer Beechcraft.
He retired in 1952 as a colonel and deputy chief of the Israel Air Force. He continued to serve when needed, however, and returned to active duty during the conflicts in 1956 and 1967.
In retirement Senior was involved with private industry and flew his own aircraft, having ferried it from the United States across the Atlantic via Greenland and Iceland. He also managed his farm and orchard in the settlement of Kfar Shmaryahu. The Seniors had four children, all of whom live in Israel. Boris Senior passed away in Israel in April 2004.