AVRAM AKAVIA
IN HIS OWN WORDS
Abraham Akavia was born in
Poland on December 15, 1916, in a Kolno, a small town near the then border of Eastern
Germany.
My father, Eliahu-Mendel, was
mainly an exporter of timber to Germany. Later he became ill with cancer, and purchased a
sweets factory in Lomza (famous for its Yeshiva), leaving the two former owners (both
Catholic) as managers. Towards the end of his life he was taken to the hospital in Warsaw
where he was treated with radium (as it was then termed), but died in 1924. Incidentally,
there were at the time only two places where "radium" was employed: Paris (Mme. Curie) and
Warsaw (Poland was Mme. Curie's birthplace).
My family was always Zionist.
One of my mother's uncles was among the founders of Petah-Tiqva. In Lomza we went to a
"Tarbuth" school, where we were taught Hebrew.
In 1925, my widowed mother
with her five children immigrated to Israel (Haifa). One of my brothers died in Haifa of
dysentery.
I received my education at
the Reali School, then considered the finest secondary school in Israel. In October 1934,
just short of my 18th birthday, I was admitted to the Technion (Israel's Institute of
Technology) and graduated with a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering in 1938 (after the usual four
years).
I joined the Haganah in 1933
and eventually became second in command of the Signals Company of Haifa District Haganah.
While I was still a student I got involved with the work of the newly-formed Training
Division of the Haganah,created by Ya'aquov Dostrovsky (Dori), Haganah District Commander,
later first Chief of Staff of the Haganah and Israel Defense Forces. My job was translating
British military pamphlets into Hebrew and editing original material prepared by the chief
instructors of the Haganah. Of course, we had to create Military Terminology in Hebrew.
Much later (1951) I compiled and published the first Military Dictionary in Hebrew. I
disregard the Hebrew Glossary which must have been prepared for King David's mercenaries
(the Kerethites and Pelethites).
In September 1938 I went to
Ein Harod to help in the "Big Course" organized by Orde Wingate with the view of enlarging
his Special Nights Squads. I used to go every afternoon to his hut to obtain the precis for
his next lecture. This I translated into Hebrew, mimeographed and distributed among the
trainees.
After the Technion, I
continued my work with the Haganah. At the end of 1940, I was invited to join Orde Wingate
in the Sudan. I became Wingate's Personal Assistant and Secretary throughout the Ethiopian
Campaign and was "Mentioned in Despatches". Wingate helped restore Haile Selassie I to his
throne and I had the honor of walking behind Wingate (he was mounted) in the first Victory
Parade of World War II (May 5, 1941).
>After Ethiopia, when Wingate
was shipped to England, I was posted to a Training Center, where we trained Greek and later
Yugoslav "agents" for their countries. Later I joined the British Army proper and was sent
to an Officeršs training cadre at Sarafand.
I was first posted to 8
Company of the so-called "Palestinian Buffs" and later to 22 Company. When the Jewish
Brigade Group was formed and we went to Fuiggi in Italy for training, I was posted to 2
Company (A Company, 1st Battalion) as second in command. Later I became Commander of this
Company with the rank of Major (there was only one Lieutenant Colonel of our people in the
infantry). I was demobilized in September 1946.
In 1943, before Orde
Wingatešs tragic death in an air accident, I sent to the publishers my book, With Wingate
in Abyssinia. It was published after Wingate's death and became a best-seller. I wrote
a number of books, including a full-length biography of Orde Wingate and one on the
development of Hebrew Military Terminology.
After World War II and a
short stint as an engineer, I was appointed by the British to the prestigious post of
"District Officer," i.e., the liaison between the British and the Jewish bodies (January 1,
1947). In the War of Liberation I was made "Operations Officer", Israel Defense Forces,
Haifa District. Later I served in the Treasury Department as Property Tax Commissioner and
in other Government posts.
In 1955 I took a full C.P.A.
Correspondence course at LaSalle University, Chicago, Illinois, and passed the Israeli
C.P.A. examinations. After work as Secretary of the Israel Electric Company and
Controller-Treasurer of the American-Israeli Paper Mills, I opened my own office as a
C.P.A.
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