“Christ, I haven’t got the heart to tell Kitty she won’t
take the packages for herself. That girl is sick. Did you see the circles under her eyes? You’re going to have real trouble on this ship in another few days.”
“We were speaking of maintaining public interest. Get one thing straight, Parker. We don’t go back to Caraolos. There are a quarter of a million Jews in Europe waiting for an answer and we are the only ones who can answer1 them. Starting tomorrow we will declare a hunger strike. Anyope who passes out will be placed on deck for the British to look at”
“You ghoul … you stinking ghoul,” Mark snarled.
“Call me what you want, Parker. Do you think I like starving a bunch of orphans? Give me something else to fight with. Give me something to shoot at those tanks and those destroyers! All we’ve got is our guts and what we believe in. We’ve had the hell knocked out of us for two thousand years. This is one fight we’re going to win.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
HUNGER STRIKE CALLED ON EXODUS!
Children vow starvation rather than return to Caraolos.
After allowing the story to build up over a two-week period, Ari Ben Canaan fooled everyone by launching an offensive. It was no game of “wait and see” now; the children were forcing a decision.
A huge sign was tied to the sides of the Exodus with lettering in English, French, and Hebrew. The sign read:
Hunger Strike/Hour #1
Hunger Strike/ Hour #15
Two boys and a girl, aged ten, twelve, and fifteen, were brought on the forward deck of the Exodus and laid out, unconscious.
Hunger Strike/Hour #20
Ten children were stretched out on the forward deck.
“For Christ’s sake, Kitty, stop pacing and sit down!”
“It’s over twenty hours now. How much longer is he going to let this go on? I just haven’t had the courage to go to the quay and look. Is Karen one of those children unconscious on deck?”
“I told you ten times she wasn’t.”
“They aren’t strong children to begin with and they’ve been cooped up on that ship for two weeks. They have no stamina
left.” Kitty pulled nervously at a cigarette and tugged at her hair. “That man is a beast. An inhuman beast.”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Mark said. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I wonder if we really understand what is driving those people so hard. Have you ever seen Palestine? It’s worthless desert in the south end and eroded in the middle and swamp up north. It’s stinking, it’s sunbaked, and it’s in the middle of a sea of fifty million sworn enemies. Yet they break their necks to get there. They call it the Land of Milk and Honey … they sing about water sprinklers and irrigation ditches. Two weeks ago I told Ari Ben Canaan that the Jews don’t have a patent on suffering but I’m beginning to wonder. I swear I wonder. I wonder how something can hurt so badly that can drive them so hard.”
“Don’t defend them, Mark, and don’t defend those people.”
“Try to remember one thing. Ben Canaan couldn’t do this without the support of those kids. They’re behind him one hundred per cent.”
“That’s what hurts,” Kitty said, “this loyalty. This fantastic loyalty they have for each other.”
The phone rang. Mark answered, listened, and hung up.
“What is it? I said what is it, Mark!”
“They’ve brought some more kids up on the deck unconscious. A half dozen of them.”
“Is … is … Karen… ?”
“I don’t know. I’m going to find out.”
“Mark.”
“What?”
“I want to go on the Exodus.”
“That’s impossible.”
“I can’t take it any more,” she said.
“If you do this you’re finished.”
“No, Mark … it’s different. If I knew she were alive and well I could bear it. I swear I could. I made myself know that. But I can’t just sit idly and know she’s dying. I can’t do that.”
“Even if I can get Ben Canaan to let you on the Exodus the British won’t let you.”
“You must,” she said fiercely, “you must.”
She stood with her back to the door and blocked his exit Her face determined. Mark lowered his eyes. “I’ll do what I can,” he said.
Hunger Strike/Hour #35
Angry crowds in Paris and Rome demonstrated before the British embassies. Fierce oratory and placards demanded the release of the Exodus. Police clubs and tear gas were used in Paris to disperse the mob. In Copenhagen and in Stockholm
and in Brussels and in The Hague there were other demonstrations. These were more orderly.
Hunger Strike/Hour #38
A spontaneous general strike swept over the island of Cyprus in protest against the British. Transportation stopped, businesses shut down, and ports closed, theaters and restaurants locked their doors. Famagusta, Nicosia, Larnaca, and Limassol looked like morgues.
Hunger Strike!Hour #40
Ari Ben Canaan stared at his lieutenants. He looked into the somber faces of Joab, David, Zev, and Hank Schlosberg.
Zev, the Galilee farmer, spoke up first. “I am a soldier. I cannot stand by and watch children starve to death.”
“In Palestine,” Ari snapped, “youngsters this same age are already fighters in Gadna.”
“It is one thing to fight and it is another to starve to death.”
“This is only another way of fighting,” Ari said.
Joab Yarkoni had worked with Ari for many years and had served with him in World War II. “I have never gone against you, Ari. The minute one of these children dies this whole thing is liable to boomerang on us.”
Ari looked over to Hank Schlosberg, the American captain. Hank shrugged. “You’re the boss, Ari, but the crew is getting jittery. They didn’t bargain for this.”
“In other words,” Ari said, “you want to surrender.”
Their silence confirmed it.
“David, what about you? I haven’t heard from you.”
David, a scholar, was steeped in the Torah and in the holy books. He had a closeness to God that none of the rest of them had and they respected it.
“Six million Jews died in gas chambers not knowing why they died,” he said. “If three hundred of us on the Exodus die we will certainly know why. The world will know too. When we were a nation two thousand years ago and when we rebelled against Roman and Greek rule we Jews established the tradition of fighting to the last man. We did this at Arbela and Jerusalem. We did this at Beitar and Herodium and Machaerus. At Masada we held out against the Romans for four years and when they entered the fort they found us all dead. No people, anywhere, have fought for their freedom as have our people. We drove the Romans and the Greeks from our land until we were dispersed to the four corners of the world. We have not had much opportunity to fight as a nation for two thousand years. When we had that opportunity at the Warsaw ghetto we did honor to our tradition. I say if we leave this boat and willingly return to barbed-wire prisons then we will have broken faith with God.”
“Are there any further questions?” Ari said.
Hunger Strike/Hour #42
In the United States, South Africa, and England mass prayer meetings were being held in synagogues, and in many churches there were prayers for the safety of the children on the Exodus.
Hunger Strike/Hour #45
The Jews in Argentina began to fast in sympathy with the children aboard the Exodus.
Hunger Strike/Hour #47
It was getting dark as Kitty boarded the Exodus. The stench was overpowering. All over the deck, in the lifeboats, on the superstructure she saw the crush of humanity. Everyone was lying down and absolutely motionless to conserve energy.
“I want to see those children who have passed out,” she said.
David led her to the bow of the ship where there were three rows of unconscious children, sixty in number. David knelt and held his lantern close to the bodies as Kitty moved from one to the other, feeling their pulses and looking into the pupils of their eyes. Half a dozen times she thought she would faint as her heart pounded and she rolled over a child who looked like Karen.