The Destiny of Meylakh Rapoport and His Odyssey to Palestine

Now let’s come back to 1941.

World War II came to Lithuania. The German armies had crossed the border and launched a powerful, full-scale offensive. Meylakh Rapoport, a young Jew from Ukmerge, fled Lithuania with the retreating Red Army. People fleeing the Nazis tried not to enter the cities and villages to avoid contact with the local Lithuanian nationalists, because they often robbed and killed the escaping Jews and the Red Army soldiers.

Meylakh made it deep into the Soviet Union with great difficulty. Soon, he was conscripted into the Red Army and served in the Sixteenth Lithuanian Infantry Division. Its military units were raised in the city of Balakhna in Gorky Province. The soldiers were mostly people from Lithuania who fled the Nazis. Most of the Lithuanian and Jewish conscripts of that division were taught the Russian language besides their military training.

The Sixteenth Lithuanian Infantry Division was completely formed in July 1942. The division contained 10,250 officers and enlisted men by that time. At that number, the Jews prevailed over the Lithuanians. Most of the soldiers spoke Yiddish and Lithuanian. Sometimes, during military training even certain military commands were given in mame-loshn and Lithuanian, so that the soldiers could understand more clearly.

All of that was told in the book "The Reverses of Fortune" by Wolf Vilensky. Wolf Vilensky was an officer of the Sixteenth Lithuanian Infantry Division. He was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (the highest award in the country) for his feats of arms and personal courage. Wolf Vilensky got permission to leave for Israel only in 1983, after many years of active participation in the struggle of "Refuseniks" for their rights to repatriate to Israel. He had to resign his position as head of the Department of Military Education at Vilnius University and was stripped of all of his state honors and awards. He passed away of old age in Israel in 1992.

The Sixteenth Lithuanian Infantry Division was sent to the frontline near the region of Orel in February 1943. The roads were covered with deep snow, severe snowstorms raged around them and sharp frosts plagued the troops. However despite the difficult conditions, the division marched quickly towards the battlefront. The division was thrown into the first line of the battlefront two days after arriving at the village of Alekseyevka (a village located on the Kursk Bulge), without the opportunity to rest and refresh themselves and without artillery support. Fierce battles raged for four days and four nights with heavy losses to the division’s units. Meylakh Rapoport as well as the other soldiers showed courage and persistence in that battle.

Then Meylakh took part in the liberation of Byelorussia, Lithuania, and fought in East Prussia and Courland. The Sixteenth Lithuanian Infantry Division liberated from the Nazis more than 600 cities, towns, and villages, exterminated thousands of enemy soldiers and officers, destroyed vast quantities of enemy weapons, ammunition, equipment, and supplies, and took more than 12,000 Nazis as the prisoners of war.

In combat, Meylakh acquired the skills required of a good warrior such as presence of mind, iron will, fearlessness, resourcefulness and vigilance. He was awarded many military decorations and medals for his courage and bravery under fire in World War II. Meylakh had been seriously wounded twice in the head and legs. His eyes were damaged also. However, every time he came back, he remained in the ranks.

During the liberation of Lithuania in 1944, Meylakh Rapoport and other Jewish soldiers learned about the mass execution of the Jews in the Republic. That knowledge only intensified their hatred towards the Nazis. They started fighting with more anger and courage avenging the death of their families and fellow countrymen. It should be mentioned that no instance of cowardice and desertion occurred in the Sixteenth Lithuanian Infantry Division among the Jews during all combat operations.

The war ended. When it came time for demobilization, Meylakh began to look for his relatives and friends, but could not find anybody alive. He learned that all of his family had been killed in the pine forest of Pivonija, father Khaim-Aaron, mother Rachel, brothers, sisters, other relatives. He also learned that the Lithuanians were the main murderers of the Lithuanian Jews. Meylakh met hostility from his former Lithuanian neighbors in his native city of Ukmerge. They were very surprised that some of the Jews did survive and were afraid that they needed to return all their loot to the rightful owners.

Meylakh could not stay in Lithuania any longer and decided to leave for Palestine (at that time, it was under British Mandatory Rule), his historical homeland.

He obtained forged documents which enabled him to pose as a Polish citizen. At the end of 1945, Meylakh found a Polish smuggler who agreed (for money, of course) to help him cross the border into Poland by bribing the boarder guards with vodka and cigarettes.

Then his wandering began through Europe with no means of support. Meylakh was joined by other Jewish survivors of the Holocaust who, like him, were also headed for Palestine. They walked long distances, only rarely getting rides from people who took pity on them by giving them a lift for a short part of the way. The Jews had to spend nights in the peasant’s haylofts and haystacks; and when it became warmer they slept on the bare ground around small fires or in the forests under the trees.

Their group was growing. The Jewish organizations of Palestine (the underground Zionist military organization "Haganah," the youth movement "Betar," and the Jewish charitable organization "Joint") and the soldiers of the Palestinian Jewish Brigade began to help the refugees to break through the British blockade of Palestine. The Palestinian Jewish Brigade was a fighting unit in the British Army composed of volunteers from the British Mandate of Palestine that fought under the Zionist flag in World War II in North Africa and Italy. The Palestinian Jewish Brigade was stationed along the Italian border with Austria and Yugoslavia, and later in Belgium and the Netherlands, while it waited to go home after the German surrender. The repatriation to Palestine of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust became much easier with help from the Palestinian Jews.

The "Joint" organization provided food, medicine, and other essential humanitarian supplies to the Jewish survivors of the Nazi regime and other Jews who were going to Palestine from various European countries and hoped to find safe refuge there. Nevertheless, sometimes food delivery was late, and people were walking while hungry and thirsty. The British government played their "colonial games" by putting obstacles in the way of the Jews entering Palestine.

The group of Jews with whom Meylakh Rapoport went on foot to the Promised Land called themselves the Greeks going home to Greece from the Nazi concentration camps. They hoped they would not meet anyone who could speak and understand Greek along the way. That group illegally crossed the borders of Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Italy. Crossing the border over the mountains into Italy from Austria was especially difficult. It was hard for them to walk, but their great desire to begin their life anew in their historical homeland and the instinct of self-preservation gave them strength. At long last, they reached Italy.

The Jewish refugees were ready to board the old wooden cargo ships the "Dov Hos" and the "Eliahu Golomb" in the Italian port of La Spezia. However, the long anticipated arrival of those ships has been delayed. The local Italian population supported the Jews, bringing them food and water. Finally, when the "Dov Hos" and the "Eliahu Golomb" arrived 1,014 Jewish refugees embarked the aboard ships, which set sail illegally for Palestine in the dark of night. The Italian police found out and told the British, who then convinced the Italians to keep the ships from leaving the harbor or turn them around toward the port of Genoa which was in the British zone. The Jews who were on the ships declared a hunger strike and threatened to set the ships afire and commit mass suicide if the British government refused to allow them to sail for Palestine. The Jewish refugees were hoping to get the sympathy of the rest of the world. They were supported by Golda Meir and 14 other Zionist leaders who also decided to stage a hunger strike. The entire civilized world sympathized and protested with them. The pressure of world opinion forced the British to provide the olim (the Jews repatriating to Eretz Yizrael) aboard the "Dov Hos" and the "Eliahu Golomb" with government permits (known as "certificates") to sail for Palestine. The "Dov Hos," on which Meylakh Rapoport sailed, left the port of La Spezia on May 8, 1946, and set sail for the seaport of Tel Aviv. However, the captain of the "Dov Hos" detected an anchored British military naval vessel near the port of Tel Aviv and changed course to avoid problems. The "Dov Hos" safely moored at the port of Haifa on May 13, 1946. The people who disembarked were met with solemn ceremony. They were smiling and waving despite their fatigue. They were no longer homeless refugees, but proud new olim in the Land of Israel.

Meylakh Rapoport settled in Tel Aviv where he married. Meylakh worked as a photographer and became an outstanding professional in his chosen career. Some of his photo collages are in the collections of several museums.

However, tragedy struck him 35 years after his arrival in the historical homeland. The old war wounds caught up with Meylakh and he became paralyzed, and cannot move his legs and hand. Meylakh has to get around in a wheelchair, and it is difficult for him to sit or lie down. Meylakh has already undergone nine complicated surgeries. You can shudder at the thought of what he experienced and suffered. New surgeries are in the offing, and all wish him well. However, he did not let his disability get him down or lose interest in life. This brave man with an extreme willpower made history. A modest, generous, and honest person, Meylakh also has a very good memory. Although his health conditions make it difficult for him to talk on the phone, Meylakh relayed to me the very interesting episodes of his life. His friends and daughter Rachel filled in many details about him, as well.

Meylakh Rapoport has a devoted and caring wife, and he is constantly given support and encouragement by his wonderful daughter and her family.

I want to wish this heroic man with such extraordinary life experiences all the kindest wishes, best of luck in his recovery, and great joy with the success of his family.