(Reviewer: Suzanne Belling, Vol. 70, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2015)
Dr Harold Serebro has distinguished himself in many walks of life – initially as a compassionate gastroenterologist, who went on to apply his knowledge and the Hippocratic Oath not only when administering treatment, but implementing its principles to all facets of his personal life and career. This career incorporated his being senior executive director of the giant international Allied Electronics Corporation (the Altron Group), and a distinguished author, specializing in the Holocaust, Nazi hunter and campaigner for human rights. Dr Serebro has an honorary doctorate in economics and business science management from the University of the Free State and has served as a trustee of the State President’s Empowerment Award Programme of South Africa and of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Trust for many years.
he author’s empathy with suffering on every level is depicted on each page of his latest book, The Canopy: Warriors for justice, facing the ticking time bomb. In this riveting and disturbing magnum opus, fact is incorporated with fiction, lending credence to the utterance of Dori, one of the characters, “Hatred has always been the curse of the Jews…” This time-proved dynamic, experienced by the Jews of Persia, the cruelty of the Amalekites, the genocide perpetrated by the barbaric Nazis under Adolf Hitler – countless historic atrocities over the ages all coming full circle to the leader of Iran (formerly Persia) Ahmed Ahmadinejad, are woven into a terrifying tapestry illustrating the victimization of the Jewish people, with their salvation in the State of Israel.
The book begins with a tribute to Rosa Robota Gates who, with three other women, Ella Gertner, Regina Sapirstein and Estera Weisblum, slave labourers in a German explosives factory during World War II, hid explosives in their clothing and smuggled out enough to blow off the roof of one of the crematoria in Auschwitz-Birkenau while the Soviet Army was advancing towards the death camp. Their actions provided the catalyst for the Nazis to destroy the four other crematoria in an attempt to cover up their crimes, resulting in countless lives being saved. Rosa was caught and tortured, but refused to give information about her accomplices. However, the Nazis found out and Rosa and the three other women were hanged only eleven days before the Soviet Army liberated the camp. The book is dedicated to the memory of these heroines.
Rosa’s final words were “Be strong and brave”, a credo adopted by Holocaust survivors, led by Lazar from Kiev, who made his way to the Holy Land after the victory of the Allies. Lazar (renamed Yadin) – not his real name – was determined to hunt down Nazi perpetrators of the despicable acts against humanity. He became a highly professional soldier in the Israel Defense Force and trained other survivors in a crack team to travel the globe in efforts to mete out justice to wartime criminals. His team included Remona, a beautiful young woman saved by a female camp guard who took a fancy to her, gave her a new identity and brought her to Berlin before herself being killed in the bombing of the German capital. Remona joined a group of Jewish refugees and survivors, made her way via southern Italy to Palestine and joined the Israel Defense Force. Her bravery in the face of torment and her faith in G-d molded her into a vital force in the retribution of the war criminals.
Then there was Hans, from Amsterdam, who was victimized by his former school friends when they became part of the Hitler Youth. After a series of spine-chilling episodes and his eventual escape to Palestine, clutching his treasured mezuzah, he became a skilled helicopter pilot and was recruited to Yadin’s team. In Israel, he became known as Dori.
Awraham Gurt, who became Avi, was skilled in explosives and in operating behind enemy lines. He, too, was a survivor from Holland and an asset to Israel and the team.
Gidi, who witnessed the murder of his father and older brother, was sent to Auschwitz and found himself cared for by Russian doctors. When he saw the truck with the Magen David of the Jewish Brigade and heard the shouts of “Am Yisrael Chai” and the sounds of the shofar, he joined other young Holocaust survivors in Italy at a training base used by the Irgun. He and his group eventually boarded an old ship to Israel. The passengers were described as “a boatload of human skeletons”. A linguist proficient in Russian, Polish, German, Yiddish, English and Hebrew, he was enlisted in Yadin’s group.
Meantime, Serebro tells of his friendship through school and university with another doctor, identified only as Brett, from whom he was separated through distance and circumstance.
While Serebro changed his career to that of a businessman, mainly for family reasons Brett, in the secret part of his life, both in United States and as part of the Israeli crack team, narrated to his friend the experiences of the team and their successful hunting down of Nazi war criminals. This provided much of the material for the book, although related in the form of a novel. The characters were larger than life, but the author keeps them unidentifiable.
Serebro in turn shared with his friend the transition in South Africa, the release of Nelson Mandela, the 1992 referendum, the assassination of Chris Hani and Codesa until, finally, “On the tip of Africa, without bloodshed, on election day, Mandela became President of South Africa in a Government of National Unity.”
Back in the Middle East, the team’s intelligence helped locate an Iranian-managed nuclear laboratory in Syria attempting to produce an atomic bomb. They tracked down a key scientist and organized his defection to the United States in the final stages of manufacturing the bomb.
The modern Amalek responsible for this was former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his 21st Century allies. They were thwarted by the brilliantly planned and executed bombing of the nuclear facility.To appreciate this expertly conceived and written work, one has to concentrate and understand how the various pieces fit together. It is by no means leisure reading, but is both thought-provoking and disturbing, bringing about a new understanding of both the historical and 21st Century obstacles and dangers faced by Jews everywhere. It would make a brilliant and enlightening movie, and the author is to be congratulated on this contribution to Jewish literature and on documenting the ongoing plight of the Jewish people.
The Canopy: Warriors for Justice, Facing the Ticking Time Bomb by Harold Serebro, Bilbury Lane, Bath, UK, 2015.
Suzanne Belling is an author, journalist and member of the editorial board of Jewish Affairs
