DAVID BEN-DAVID
IN HIS OWN WORDS

In my book Bridge over Abyss I described memories of my native home, my family, the passage from an ultra-orthodox life towards modern religious Zionism...the Nazi invasion into Czechoslovakia...illegal "alien" immigration into Czechoslovakia...[and how I] volunteered for army service in Jewish units inside the British Army from May 1941 until September 1944. At that date the Jewish Brigade was formed and part of our company was annexed by the Brigade.

Regarding love affairs in the Brigade, in my book on pages no. 158-159 I described a personal love drama:

On the 8th of May, 1945, when the war ended, a friend of mine and myself deserted the army and crossed the Russian border in Austria in order to find out what happened to relations in Karpato-Ruthemia during the Holocaust. We were captured by the Russians and arrested.

In Bratislava we escaped into the Jewish Quarter of the city. The street was almost empty of Jews, but the Zionist movements started to operate. At the "Bnai Akiba" club I met four girls, survivors of the disaster. One of them gave me shelter at her apartment.

After obtaining false documents I went in search of the rest of my family. With those papers I succeeded to travel through Hungary up to Karpato-Ruthemia at the village where I was born. The home was devastated and ruined.

Just when I came back to Budapest I met the only two of my sisters (out of twenty-four persons I left behind). The girl who gave me shelter is now my wife and mother of my children: Adinah.