At 14, he had mastered calculus and classical mechanics—teaching himself from a 19th-century Latin textbook. By 21, his doctoral examiners couldn't understand his thesis. At 41, he built the first nuclear reactor and changed the world forever.
In 1915, a fourteen-year-old boy walked into a Roman bookstall and found a dusty Latin textbook titled Elementorum physicae mathematicae, written in 1840 by a Jesuit priest named Andrea Caraffa.
Most teenagers would have walked past it. This boy bought it, took it home, and taught himself physics.
His name was Enrico Fermi, and he was about to become one of the most brilliant minds in human history.
Enrico wasn't born into wealth or academic privilege. His father worked for the Italian railroad. His mother was a schoolteacher. They were solidly middle-class, not elite.
But Enrico was different from the moment he could think.
By age ten, he was building electric motors for fun. By fourteen, he had mastered geometry, algebra, calculus, and classical mechanics—entirely on his own, using that Latin physics textbook and whatever math books he could find in used bookstores. He didn't have tutors. He didn't have special programs. He just had an insatiable need to understand how the universe worked.
His older brother Giulio recognized Enrico's genius and encouraged him. The two were inseparable—until Giulio died suddenly during a minor throat surgery when Enrico was just fourteen.
The loss devastated Enrico. He threw himself even deeper into physics, using science as both escape and purpose. The Latin textbook became his companion, his teacher, his way of keeping his mind occupied so grief couldn't consume him.
By seventeen, Enrico was ready for university. But not just any university—he applied to Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Italy's most elite and demanding institution.
The entrance exam lasted three days. Eight hours each day. Twenty-four hours of testing designed to break all but the most exceptional students.
Enrico's final essay topic: "Describe the characteristics of sound."
What he wrote wasn't an essay. It was a doctoral-level dissertation on acoustics, wave mechanics, and partial differential equations—written by a seventeen-year-old who'd never taken a formal physics course.
The examiners read it in stunned silence. One later admitted they'd never seen anything like it. This wasn't a talented student. This was something else entirely. Enrico was admitted with the highest marks in the institution's history.
And then—in perhaps the most Fermi moment ever—he was bored by his classes. University courses moved too slowly. Professors taught things he'd already mastered years ago. So Enrico did what any genius would do: he stopped attending most lectures and taught himself instead.
He joined a group of friends in what they jokingly called the Società Antiprossimo—the "Anti-Near Society"—a playful dig at conventional society. They debated physics, told jokes, and challenged each other intellectually. Fermi's humor was as sharp as his mind. He was known for making complex physics problems into jokes, for explaining impossible concepts through simple analogies, for being simultaneously the smartest person in the room and the most fun to be around.
One of his professors—Corbino, a respected physicist—once admitted to Fermi: "If you explain it to me, I understand it."
Think about that. A professor telling a twenty-year-old student that he needed the student to explain physics to him.
By age twenty, Fermi was publishing papers on quantum mechanics and statistical physics—topics so cutting-edge that most Italian physicists didn't even recognize them as legitimate science yet.
Italy's physics community was stuck in classical 19th-century thinking. Fermi was already living in the quantum future.
In 1922, at age twenty-one, Fermi defended his doctoral thesis on X-ray diffraction. Eleven examiners sat in the room. Fermi presented his work—complex, groundbreaking, mathematically sophisticated research that pushed the boundaries of what was known about atomic physics.
When he finished, silence.
The examiners looked at each other. They looked at their notes. They looked back at Fermi.
They awarded him magna cum laude—the highest honors.
But nobody clapped. Nobody celebrated. They simply didn't know how to measure what they'd just witnessed. It was like watching a student prove something so far beyond the curriculum that you can't even grade it properly.
One examiner later said they weren't sure if they were examining Fermi or if Fermi was examining them.
Fermi left Italy for Germany, studying with the greatest physicists in Europe—Max Born, Werner Heisenberg, Paul Dirac. But even among geniuses, Fermi stood out. He returned to Italy and, by age twenty-six, was a full professor at the University of Rome, building Italy's first serious modern physics program.
In the 1930s, Fermi pioneered work on neutron bombardment and nuclear reactions. He was unraveling the secrets of the atom—not theoretically, but experimentally, actually splitting atoms and measuring what happened.
In 1938, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
And then everything changed.
Mussolini's fascist government had passed anti-Jewish laws. Fermi's wife Laura was Jewish. Their children were in danger. Italy was no longer safe.
So when Fermi went to Stockholm to receive his Nobel Prize in December 1938, he didn't return to Italy. He took his family and fled to America instead.
The United States gained one of the world's greatest physicists. Italy lost him forever—a self-inflicted wound of fascism that crippled Italian science for generations. In America, Fermi went to the University of Chicago and was recruited for the Manhattan Project—the secret program to build the atomic bomb.
On December 2, 1942, in a squash court beneath the University of Chicago's football stadium, Enrico Fermi oversaw the activation of Chicago Pile-1—the world's first nuclear reactor.
It was a stack of graphite blocks and uranium, built by hand, controlled by cadmium rods. If something went wrong, it could kill everyone in the building and irradiate half of Chicago.
Fermi stood calmly, making calculations with his slide rule, calling out instructions. At 3:25 PM, the reactor went critical. For the first time in human history, a controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was achieved.
Fermi had split the atom and harnessed its power.
The atomic age had begun—for better and worse.
That moment changed everything. Nuclear power. Nuclear weapons. The Cold War. Modern physics. Energy policy. Global politics. All of it traces back to that squash court in Chicago and the boy from Rome who taught himself physics from a dusty Latin textbook.
Fermi never sought fame. He never promoted himself. He never played politics or chased headlines.
He just wanted to understand. And he wanted to build things that worked. His colleagues called him "The Pope" because when Fermi spoke on physics, it was infallible. If Fermi said something was correct, it was correct. If Fermi said your calculation was wrong, you redid your calculation.
He died in 1954, at just fifty-three, from stomach cancer—likely caused by radiation exposure from his years of experimental work.
Element 100 on the periodic table is named Fermium in his honor. The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory bears his name. His contributions to quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, nuclear physics, and particle physics shaped the entire foundation of modern physics.
But here's what makes Fermi's story so powerful:
He wasn't born a genius in some magical way. He was born curious. He found a Latin textbook in a bookstall and decided to teach himself. He kept learning. He kept questioning. He kept building.
The boy who outgrew every teacher became the man who taught the world how to harness the atom.
At 14, he taught himself physics. At 21, his professors couldn't understand him. At 41, he changed the world forever.
Strategically, I do not think it was wise for Mark Carney to have acknowledged that he approved Doug Ford's tariff ad before it was aired in the USA. This decision provided Carney no exit strategy in the event of a political fallout, and there was one. While Canadian media downplays Trump's concerns of the ad impacting both U.S. elections and a U.S. Supreme Court decision on tariffs, I do not believe they are correct in their assumptions. Trump is all about political posture, ego and strategic governance. He does not appreciate someone taking a jab at him. In my view, the ad truly was political interference and a direct attack on Trump's Republican Party. Media influence in the USA is consequential for the average voter, and Trump knows it. We should be asking - did Ford and Carney collude with the Democrats to air the ad. That would be extremely un-beneficial for Canada, especially if Trump determines that that was the case. Never rule out the fact that Carney may be implementing a stealth takeover of Canada for the USA. Folks, this is a Hollywood production.
No one knows how the US-Canada trade negotiations are proceeding and that is not necessarily a good thing for Canadians. With Leblanc and Jolie heading Canada's "trade team" I'm convinced they are sacrificing Canada's future for Quebec's interests, especially when it comes to Supply Management and Language Rights. All this while Alberta's separatist movement grows.
Conservatism WINS in Argentina. Mr. Carney, I hope you understand this very simple approach to governing a country. Canada once was a Conservative Christian nation and the world admired us for our successes and positions on personal freedoms. What happened? Conservatism is not solely a Christian ideology. You may have more luck with Donald Trump by acquiring a spiritual backbone. Danielle Smith appears to have great success with Trump - what an impressive and smart firecracker.
You want to hear a great story? For almost a decade Russia was politically overseen by Boris Yeltsin (jew) and "The Family". In fact, since the Russian Revolution (1917) the USSR and then Russia were both controlled by jews. Under their brutal controls Christianity virtually disappeared. History is a bitch when you learn the TRUTH.
Boris Yeltsin was controlled by an organized Bolshevik jew crime group led by Boris Berezovsky and his fellow jews. The criminal cartel was known as "The Family". Virtually all the Russian Oligarchs at that time were jews, and the situation remains status quo today. When Yeltsin was ready to be evicted by The Family, The Family approached and recruited Vladimir Putin. They believed Putin would listen to them and betray Russia as Yeltsin once did. Putin's mother was a jew, even though Putin professes to be Christian. Once Putin was elected, Putin disbanded The Family - their fate is well known. Putin put country and its people first, not foreign and internal interests or personal greed. Those objectives eventually catch up with you, if not in this reality, then in the eternal reality.
"The Family" was comprised of Boris Berezovsky (jewish), oligarch and political operator, key strategist in Yeltsin’s 1996 campaign, and kingmaker in the late 1990s. Anatoly Chubais (jewish), reform economist and powerful political figure; architect of privatization, and influential in bringing technocrats and oligarchs together. Alexander Voloshin (unknown), senior Kremlin official and later head of the Presidential Administration under Yeltsin and early Putin. Roman Abramovich (jewish), businessman and Berezovsky’s close associate; later governor of Chukotka and owner of Chelsea FC.
Canadians need not be subservient to the WEF or the WHO. Dr. Tardis' phone booth proved there is immensity in small things, especially if you look inside. Canada is small in population, but our potential is enormous if you harness the potential and not the people.
Argentine bonds and currency surge after victory for Javier Milei’s party. Investors bet that electoral endorsement will keep president’s market-friendly reforms on track.
The Cathars were a medieval Christian sect that flourished in Southern France and northern Italy from the 12th to 14th centuries. The Cathars were a dualistic Christian group who believed the material world was created by an evil god (Satan) and the spiritual world by a good God. They viewed human souls as spirits trapped in evil bodies and sought salvation through strict asceticism and a sacred rite called the consolamentum, which they believed would free the soul to return to heaven. The Cathars rejected the Catholic Church and did not accept the Trinity. Their faith was fundamentally dualistic, rejecting the Catholic dogma of one God in favor of two opposing divine principles: a good, spiritual God and an evil, material god who created the physical world.
Interrogatio Johannis (John's Questions)
The Secret Supper - The Book of John the Evangelist
Interrogatio Iohannis (Titled in translation: The Secret Supper)
Based on: Walter L. Wakefield and Austin P. Evans Heresies of the High Middle Ages (Columbia Univ. Press, 1991) p. 458ff.
In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
The questions of John, the apostle and evangelist, at a secret supper in the kingdom of heaven, about the governance of this world, about its ruler, and about Adam:
I, John, partner in tribulation so that I might be a partner in the kingdom of God, leaning on the breast of Jesus Christ our Lord at the supper, said to Him; "Lord, who shall betray Thee?" And the Lord said unto me: "He that shall have dipped his hand in the dish, into him shall Satan enter. He shall betray me."
I said, "Lord, before Satan fell, in what splendor did he attend the Father?" He said: "Among the virtues of heaven and at the throne of the Father invisible; he was regulator of all things and sat with my Father.' He [Satan] it was who presided over the virtues of the heavens and those who attended on the Father. His power descended from the heavens even unto hell, and arose even unto the throne of the Father invisible. He had wardship of those splendors which were above all the heavens. And he pondered, wishing to place his throne upon the clouds and to 'be like the Most High.'" When he had come down to lower air, he descried an angel seated upon the air, to whom he said, 'Open to me the portals of the air'; these the angels opened for him. And passing down, he descried an angel who guarded the waters, to whom he said, `Open to me the portals of the waters'; the angel opened them to him. And descending further, he found the whole earth covered with water; walking beneath this, he came upon two fish, lying upon the waters. These, indeed, were yoked together, and they bore up the whole earth at the bidding of the Father invisible. And passing down further still, he found great clouds holding the massed waters of the sea. And descending lower, he found his hell, which is the Gehenna of fire; but thereafter he was unable to go further down, because of the flame of the fire which was raging.
"Then Satan retraced his path, filling himself with evil plots. He ascended to the angel who was over the air and to the angel who was over the waters, and unto them said: 'All things are mine. If you hearken to me, I will place my throne over the clouds and I will be like the Most High." I will bear the waters up above this firmament and I will gather the other waters into wide seas." After that there shall not be water upon the face of the whole earth, and I shall reign with you forever and ever.' Thus he spoke to the angels. He ascended to the very heavens, even unto the third heaven, subverting the angels of the Father invisible, and saying to each of them, 'How much dost thou owe thy lord?' The first answered, 'A hundred barrels of oil.' He said to him, 'Take the bill and sit down and write fifty.' And he said to another, Now you, how much dost thou owe thy lord?' Who said, 'A hundred quarters of wheat.' To him he said, 'Take thy bill and sit down quickly and write eighty.' To the other heavens he ascended with like speech; he ascended even unto the fifth heaven, seducing the angels of the Father invisible.
"And a voice came from the throne of the Father, saying: 'What dost thou, O thou devoid of hope, subverting the angels of the Father? Contriver of sin, do quickly what thou hast planned.' Then the Father bade his angels, 'Take from all the angels who hearkened to him the garments, the thrones, and the crowns';" and these angels took the vestments, the thrones, and the crowns from all the angels who hearkened to him."
And once again I, John, questioned the Lord, saying, "When Satan fell, in what place did he dwell?" In answer He said to me: "Because of his self-exaltation, my Father decreed his transformation," withdrawing from him the light of His glory. The face of Satan was like an iron glowing from the fire, and the whole aspect of his countenance was like that of a man. . . . And he had seven tails with which he drew away the third part of the angels of God." He was cast out from before the throne of God and from the stewardship of heaven. Falling down from heaven, Satan could find no peace in this firmament, nor could those who were with him. And he besought the Father, saying: 'I have sinned. Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.' The Lord was moved with pity for him and gave him peace to do what he would until the seventh day."
"Then Satan took his seat above the firmament and gave command to the angel who was over the air and the angel who was over the waters, so that they raised two thirds of the waters high into the air. Of the remaining third they formed wide seas. The division of the waters was by command of the Father invisible. Again Satan bade the angel who was over the waters, 'Take a stand upon the two fish.'
The “two fish” symbolize two aeons or powers that emerged from the waters of chaos, often interpreted in Gnostic fashion as representing the twin principles or emanations that participate in creation. In some manuscripts and commentaries on the text, these are described as Eros and Anteros (Love and Reciprocal Love), or Two divine powers emanating from the supreme God, through whom the world is structured, or Christ and the Holy Spirit, represented symbolically as two fish in the “sea of life.” However, the text itself (in its Latin and Coptic fragments) presents the two fish as beings placed in the waters to sustain life, one for the righteous and one for the sinners, reflecting a dualistic cosmology, a common Gnostic theme.
And the angel raised the earth upward with his head, and dry land appeared and was. . . . When he took a crown from the angel who was over the air, from half of it he made himself a throne; and when he took a crown from the angel who was over the waters, from half he made the light of the moon and from half the light of day. From precious stones he made fire, and from fire he made all the host of heaven and the stars, and from them he made angels, his ministering spirits, according to the plan of the Governor Most High. He also made thunder, rain, hail, and snow, and over these he set his ministering angels.
"He commanded the earth to bring forth all living things —animals, trees, and herbs. The sea he commanded to bring forth fish; and the air, birds of the heavens. And he pondered on making man to serve him; he took clay of the earth and made man like unto himself. And he then bade an angel of the second heaven to enter the body of clay. Of this body he took a part and made another body in the form of a woman" and bade an angel of the first heaven to enter into it. And the angels grieved deeply that they thus had a mortal form imposed upon them and that they now existed in different forms. And Satan bade them to perform the works of the flesh in their bodies of clay, but they did not know how to commit sin. The originator of sin accomplished his purpose by his seduction, in this way: He planted a paradise and set men therein and bade them not to eat of its fruits. The devil entered Paradise and planted a bed of reeds in the midst of Paradise; of his spittle he made a serpent and bade him remain in the reeds. Thus the devil concealed the knowledge of his deceit so that they would not perceive his treachery. He went in to them saying, 'Eat of all the fruit in Paradise, but of the fruit of good and evi1 eat not.' Thereafter the wicked devil, entering into the evil serpent, deceived the angel who was in the form of a woman and poured out upon her head a longing for sin," and Eve's desire was like a glowing oven. Forthwith, the devil in the form of the serpent came out of the reeds and sated his lust on her with the serpent's tail. That is why [the offspring] are called not sons of God but sons of the devil and sons of the serpent, fulfilling the diabolic desires of their father even unto the end of the world. After this, the devil poured out his longing upon the head of the angel who was in Adam; and [both angels] were affected by a lust for debauchery, together begetting children of the devil and of the serpent, until the consummation of the world."
[4] After that I, John, questioned the Lord, saying, "Why do men say that Adam and Eve were made by God and placed in Paradise to keep His commandments, and that for transgression of the Father's commandment they were delivered up unto death?" The Lord said unto me: "Hear, John, most beloved. Men are foolish who speak thus, for my Father did not, in transgression (in praevaricatione) of His own law, shape bodies of clay, but by the Holy Spirit made [only] all the virtues of heaven. These, however, for their sins and by their fall are found possessing bodies of clay and are delivered up to death."
[5] And still I, John, questioned the Lord, saying, "Lord, how did man have spiritual origin in a carnal body?" And the Lord said to me: "By their fall spirits of heaven entered the female body of clay and took on flesh from the lusts of the flesh and took on [spirit at the same time]. . . . Spirit is born of spirit and flesh of flesh; and thus the reign of Satan ceases not in this world."
[6 ] And I questioned the Lord, saying, "For how long will Satan have dominion in this world over the essences of men?" And the Lord replied, "My Father will permit him to reign seven days, that is, seven ages."
The Seven Ages of the World are:
First Age — From Adam to the Flood
The creation of Adam and Eve.
The fall through Satanael’s temptation.
The corruption of the first world and its destruction by the Flood.
Second Age — From Noah to Abraham
The renewal of the earth after the Flood.
The reappearance of demonic influence through idolatry and the building of Babel.
Third Age — From Abraham to David
The calling of Abraham and the formation of God’s chosen people.
The beginning of divine law and covenant.
Fourth Age — From David to the Babylonian Captivity
The height and fall of Israel’s kingdom.
Prophets warn of corruption; Satanael spreads false worship.
Fifth Age — From the Captivity to the Coming of Christ
The expectation of the Savior.
Satanael loses some of his former power as the Incarnation approaches.
Sixth Age — The Present Age (the Age of the Church)
Begins with Christ’s coming and continues until the Antichrist.
The struggle between Christ and Satanael for souls.
This is often called the “time of repentance” or “the time of the two fish”, when both good and evil coexist in the same “sea” (the world).
Seventh Age — The End and Judgment
The appearance of the Antichrist.
The final defeat of Satanael.
The resurrection of the dead and renewal of creation.
The time of each age is undefined.
[7] Again I, John, questioned the Lord in this wise, "What will be the nature of this period [of seven ages]?" And He said to me: "From the time when the devil fell from the glory of the Father and desired his own glory, he took his seat among the clouds and sent forth his ministers, a searing fire, and ... in the land from Adam to Enoch. And he sent his minister to Enoch and translated him above the firmament and displayed to him his divine nature. He then commanded that he be given quill and ink. Seating himself, Enoch wrote seventy-six" books; these the devil bade him to take to earth. Enoch took the books and turned them over to his sons, and he taught them how to observe the form and place of sacrificial rites. This they did in such wise as to 'shut the kingdom of heaven against men.' ° And he [the devil] said to them, 'See you that I am god and there is no other god beside me.' Wherefore my Father sent me to this world to make manifest His name to men, that they might recognize the devil and his wickedness. But when Satan learned that I had come down to this world, he. sent his . gel to take Three pieces of wood. These he gave to the prophet Moses for my crucifixion. This wood they have kept for me until the present. And he revealed to Moses his divinity and bade him give laws to the children of Israel and lead them, on dry ground through the midst of the sea.
"When my Father thought to send me to this earth, He sent before me His angel, she who is called Mary, my mother, that she might receive me through the Holy Spirit. And when I descended, I entered and came forth through her ear. Now Satan, the prince of this world, knew that I was come to seek and 'to save that which was lost'; and he sent his angel, the prophet Elijah, who baptized in water and was called John the Baptist." Now, Elijah asked the prince of this world how he might recognize me. And the devil said to him, 'Upon Whom thou shalt see the Holy Spirit descending as a dove, and remaining upon Him, He it is that baptizeth in the Holy Spirit and with fire.' John asked this because he did not know me, but the one who sent him to baptize in water, he revealed me. John himself gave testimony: 'I baptize in water unto penance, but He baptizes you with the Holy Spirit unto the remission of sins. He it is who is able to destroy and to save.' "
[8] And again I, John, questioned the Lord, "Can man be saved through the baptism [of John?" He replied:] "Without my baptism, with which I baptize unto the remission of sins, I affirm that no one can receive salvation in God. For I am the bread of life that came down from the seventh heaven, wherefore whoso eats my flesh and drinks my blood, these shall be called the children of God."
[9] I inquired of the Lord, "What is the meaning of your 'flesh' and your 'blood'?" To me the Lord answered: "Before the devil had fallen with all the angelic host of the Father, the angels in their prayers glorified my Father by repeating this prayer, 'Our Father who art in heaven.' This chant ascended to the throne of the Father; but the angels from the time of their fall could no longer glorify God in this prayer.".................See translation below.
[10] And again I asked the Lord, "How is it that the whole world received the baptism of John, but Thine is not accepted by all?" The Lord replied to me: "That is because their works are evil and they come not to the light. The followers of John marry and are given in marriage, whereas my disciples marry not at all but remain as the angels of God in the heavenly kingdom."
This explains why priests and servants of Jesus can never marry.
[11] Then I said to Him, "If it is a sin to have knowledge of women, is it then unwise to marry?" And the Lord replied: "All men take not this word, but they to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who were born so from their mother's womb; and there are eunuchs who were made so by men; and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven."
[12] Afterward, I questioned the Lord about the Day of Judgment, "What shall be the sign of Thy coming?" In reply He said: "When the number of the just shall equal the number of those crowned [angels] who fell. Then shall Satan, raging mightily, be 'loosed out of his prison.' He shall war upon. the just, who shall cry out to the Lord their God; forthwith the Lord God shall command the archangel to sound his trumpet, and the voice of the archangel shall go forth from the heavens and be heard even unto the nether regions. Then 'the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from' heaven.' And there shall be loosed from their foundations the four great winds; the earth, the sea, the mountains, and the hills shall tremble together. Then shall be revealed the sign of the Son, and all tribes of earth shall mourn. Immediately the heaven shall tremble and be darkened, the sun shall shine until the ninth hour. Then shall the Son of man be shown forth in his glory, and all the saints and angels with Him; they shall place their seats above the clouds. And He shall sit upon the seat of His glory, with the twelve apostles upon their twelve seats of glory. The books shall be opened, and all the peoples of the earth shall be judged." 'Then shall the faith be proclaimed. Then shall the Son of man send forth His angels. They shall gather His elect from the heights even to the uttermost limits of the heavens and shall bring them, gathered into their fold, to me above the clouds, into the air." Then shall the Son of God send forth the evil demons and expel them in His wrath, together with all peoples (linguas) who believed in him [Satan] . . . who said, 'Let us eat, drink, and lay hold on the things of this world'; and let us see what manner of aid they shall have from those things. Forthwith all peoples shall stand in fear before the judgment [throne]. The two books shall be opened and they shall lay bare all peoples with their teaching; they shall glorify the just for their sufferings joined with good works. Glory and boundless honor shall be the reward of those who have cherished the angelic life; while the portion of the servants of iniquity shall be wrath, fury, distress, and displeasure. And the Son of man shall separate His just from the company of sinners and shall say to them, 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world'; while to the sinful He shall say, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels.' Others shall witness the final division and 'the wicked shall be turned into hell.' By the indulgence of my Father the unbelieving spirits shall at length withdraw from prison; 'they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.'
"Then, by permission of my Father, gloomy darkness shall spread over the lower regions of the earth and a hell of fire shall burn all the land from its lowest depths even unto the air of the firmament." And the Lord shall be [supreme] in the firmament even unto the nether regions of the earth. Should a man of thirty years pick up a stone and let it drop, it would scarcely strike the bottom within the space of three years, so great is the depth of the pool of fire wherein dwell the sinners. Then Satan shall be bound and all his host, and he shall be cast into the pool of fire. The Son of God, with his elect, shall walk above the firmament; and He shall shut up the devil, binding him with unbreakable bonds, with sinners weeping, wailing, and crying out 'Swallow us up, land, hide us within thyself.' Then shall the just shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. And Jesus shall lead them before the throne of the Father invisible and shall say to the Father, 'Behold, I and my children, whom God hath given me. Just Father, the world hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee in truth because Thou hast sent me.' And then the Father will reply to His Son, saying, 'My beloved Son, sit on my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool -- thy enemies, who have denied me and said, "We are gods, and there is no other god beside us"; who killed your prophets and persecuted your just. You shall persecute them in the exterior darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
"And then the Son of God shall sit on the right hand of his Father, and the Father shall command His angels that they minister unto them [the just]; and He shall place them in the choir of angels and clothe them in imperishable raiment; and He shall give them crowns never fading and seats unmoving. And God shall be in their midst. 'They shall no more hunger nor thirst; neither shall the sun fall on them, nor any heat. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.' And [the Son] shall reign with his Holy Father, and his reign shall endure forevermore."
[Endnote added to manuscript:]
This is the Secret of the heretics of Concorrezzo, brought from Bulgaria by Nazarials, their bishop. It is full of errors.
The speaker asks Christ what is meant by His “flesh” and “blood.” Christ replies: Before Satan and the rebellious angels fell from heaven, the angels used to praise God by praying “Our Father who art in heaven.” Their prayer rose up to God’s throne as perfect worship. But once they rebelled and fell, they lost the ability to glorify God in this way, they could no longer sincerely call Him “Father.”
In the mystical or symbolic sense “Flesh” and “Blood” may represent divine life and spiritual communion, participation in God’s true worship and love. The contrast between the loyal angels and the fallen ones illustrates how separation from God (through pride or rebellion) means losing the capacity to worship in truth. Thus, to share in Christ’s “flesh and blood” is to be restored to that original, pure communion with the Father that the fallen spirits lost.
In the Gospels, Christ says:
“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” (John 6:53)
Traditionally, this refers to Flesh as the Incarnation. Christ taking on human nature, the Word made tangible. Blood, the life force, the sacrifice of love poured out for humanity (especially on the Cross). Together they represent communion with Christ, taking His life into oneself so that divine life transforms human life.
Christ’s answer does not refer directly to physical bread and wine. Instead, He connects His “flesh and blood” to angelic worship and the loss of divine communion after the Fall. His “flesh” symbolizes the substance or embodiment of divine worship, the spiritual body through which the soul glorifies God. His “blood” represents the vital current or energy of divine praise, the living stream that unites creation with the Creator.
Before the fall, the angels’ prayer “Our Father who art in heaven” flowed upward as pure worship, that was their participation in the divine blood, the living circulation of love between creature and Creator. When they fell, that “circulation” was cut off; they could no longer call God “Father.”
Thus, Christ, the incarnate Word, offers His flesh and blood to restore this broken communion, not only for humanity but symbolically for all creation.
In the Mystical interpretation, Flesh is the form of divine wisdom, the visible manifestation of the invisible Word. Blood is the essence of divine love, the living motion of spirit within form.
To partake of Christ’s flesh and blood, then, is to enter again into the current of divine praise, to let the Father’s love and the Son’s wisdom flow through you as they once flowed through the pure angels. It is the restoration of the lost “Our Father”, the reawakening of true sonship.
In summary, to eat His flesh is to take Truth into your being; to drink His blood is to let Love circulate through your soul; and to pray “Our Father” is to live once more as a child of Heaven.
There was a time when buying a donut at Tim Horton's meant you got more dough and less hole. Have you noticed that Tim Horton's donuts are getting smaller and smaller and the hole is getting bigger and bigger. I occasionally used to buy a dozen donuts for my kids for $5-6 dollars, now the dozen is about $15.00 - with bigger holes. Breakfast just isn't breakfast anymore either.
Do you remember Steve and Bill? They were the two Greek guys running corner diners all over this City. They came in different heights, varying amounts of hair and they always wore white pants, t-shirts and aprons. They're likely all dead now - dancing circles up in Heaven. A little Opa to go along with it. They used serve up real BLTs, Reubens, Bacon & Eggs and a great Club Sandwich - shitty coffee and great milk shakes. The eggs always sizzled atop the grill. Sometimes you got an extra hair but who cared. Breakfast was always great. Then there was the three jewish broads at Haymishe Bakery. What a team. It's like having a blizzard hit you. You went in for 1/2 dozen poppy seed bagels and came out with half the bakery. They never stopped asking if I wanted to date a nice jewish girl too. They were ball busters. Gryfe's is all we have left.
The world won the lottery with fast food franchises. You get to drive-thru for your breakfast. The $1.00 coffee at MacDonald's and the soon to be $20.00 coffee at Tim Horton's is all the rage. It's crazy, but Canadians still think Tim Horton's is Canadian. The breakfast selection consists of an English muffin topped with an egg, cheese and something that looks like bacon or ham. The picture always looks better than the real thing. The coffee is a double-double - weight watchers attributes about 12 points to that medium coffee. Have you gained weight? It wasn't just the Big Mac or Quarter Pounder, it was that fucking coffee too.
You really gotta sit down for breakfast. It's the only way you can plan and enjoy the rest of your day. Bacon ain't bacon in a drive through and the English muffin looks like it got run over by a Mack truck. I gotta hand it to my wife, she always took meals seriously - breakfast and dinner were the most important meals and events of our day. But I'm the real cook and she'll agree.
Work and school should be prohibited unless the family eats breakfast together. The implications are enormous. When I was a kid we all woke up at 5:30AM to say good-bye to my dad - off he went to work. At the age of 4-5 I'd have the red yolk of an egg hand beaten with a little cocoa and a teaspoon of Sambuca. Yummy, and i wasn't drunk either. That was over 65 years ago when i was 4-5. All I know is the Fast Food industry is polluting our environment, creating massive waste and harming our bodies. Have you ever lined up in a drive through and waited for the one guy whose ordered enough food to feed an army - fuck is the first word that comes to mind.
Our young kids should really get to meet Steve and Bill. We really need more diners and less holes. We need a lot of things, but we really need family, especially at this time in human history. Who the fuck needs holes with so many pot holes in our streets. Don't say anything to Olivia Chow, she might discover the hole in her head. Age is a killer, but the more shit I see, the more I wanna scream and say, what the fuck happened?
Sergeants affair was a terrorist attack that took place in July 1947 during Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine, in which the Zionistparamilitary organization Irgun abducted two British ArmyIntelligence CorpsNCOs, Sergeant Clifford Martin and Sergeant Mervyn Paice, and threatened to hang them if the death sentences passed on three Irgun militants—Avshalom Haviv, Meir Nakar, and Yaakov Weiss—were carried out. The three had been captured by the British during the Acre Prison break, tried, and convicted on charges of illegal possession of arms, and with "intent to kill or cause other harm to a large number of people". When the three men were executed by hanging, the Irgun killed the two sergeants and hung their booby-trapped bodies in a eucalyptus grove near Netanya. When the bodies were found, the booby trap injured a British officer as they were cut down.
The crime was widely condemned in both Palestine and the United Kingdom. After news of the deaths became widely known, enraged British security forces rampaged in Tel Aviv, in which five Jews were killed and another 15 were wounded. Instances of anti-Jewish rioting and looting broke out in several British cities.
There is general consensus that the incident heavily contributed to Prime Minister Attlee's decision to permanently evacuate all British Forces until the end of the Jewish insurgency and the civil war between Jews and Arabs. The permanent evacuation of all British Forces in Palestine, along with the Palestine Police Force, created a power vacuum in the area, from which the 1948 Arab–Israeli War ensued after David Ben-Gurion declared Israeli independence the same day on which the British abandoned the area. Menachem Begin, the commander of Irgun, was barred from entry to the United Kingdom and rejected for a visa to the United States for many years afterwards.
Background
In the late 1940s, as the third decade of British Mandate over Palestine was ending, many within and outside of Britain were calling to end the Mandate. They were led by opposition leader Winston Churchill, who denounced Britain's costly occupation of Palestine for no economic benefit.
Trying to maintain control and civil order (a Mandate requirement if nothing else), the British enacted the Defence Emergency Regulations in September 1945. These regulations suspended Habeas Corpus and established military courts. They prescribed the death penalty for various offences, including carrying weapons or ammunition illegally and membership in an organisation whose members commit these offences.[7] As World War II ended, a Jewish insurgency began, with the Zionist groups Irgun and Lehi attacking British targets in order to compel the British to leave Palestine. The insurgency was a response to Britain's implementation of the White Paper of 1939, which greatly restricted Jewish immigration and land purchases.
The British authorities began applying the death penalty against captured Jewish militants. The first member of a Jewish underground group, Shlomo Ben-Yosef, was executed in 1938 for his part in an unsuccessful shooting attack on Arab civilians who were travelling on a bus.
During an Irgun attack on a British military base, Irgun fighters Michael Ashbel and Yosef Simchon were arrested. They were sentenced to death on 13 June 1946. There were many pleas and petitions for clemency by various institutes and Jewish leaders, which were not effective. Irgun decided to threaten to carry out its own "gallows regime", declaring a policy of reprisal killings. Five days later, Irgun kidnapped five British officers in Tel Aviv, and another one the following day in Jerusalem. The Irgun then threatened to hang its hostages if Ashbel and Simchoni were executed. Two weeks later, following intense and secret negotiations, Ashbel and Simchon's sentences were commuted to life imprisonment. The officers were released the next day.
In January 1947 another Irgun militant, Dov Gruner, was sentenced to death for shooting and placing explosives with intent to kill during an Irgun raid on a Palestine Police Force station in Ramat Gan in April 1946. On 26 January, two days before Gruner's scheduled execution, Irgun kidnapped a British intelligence officer in Jerusalem. The next day, on 27 January, Irgun men also kidnapped a British judge, Ralph Windham, who was president of the Tel Aviv District Court. 16 hours before the scheduled execution, the British forces commander announced an "indefinite delay" of the sentence, and Irgun released its hostages.
Meanwhile in Britain, Churchill, now the leader of the Opposition, demanded a special meeting on the subject, and on 31 January 1947, a four-hour discussion in the British Parliament took place, with Churchill demanding the suppression of the "terrorists in Palestine".
On 16 April 1947, Gruner and three other Irgun militants, Yehiel Dresner, Mordechai Alkahi and Eliezer Kashani, who were caught during the Night of the Beatings, were executed. Five days later two other prisoners, Meir Feinstein of Irgun and Moshe Barazani of Lehi, were scheduled to be hanged for, respectively, the bombing of a Jerusalem railway station in which a policeman was killed and the attempted assassination of a senior British officer. However, a few hours before they were due to be executed they committed suicide using an improvised grenade smuggled to them by their colleagues. Irgun commander Menachem Begin was enraged by the executions, and ordered his men to abduct and hang British soldiers in retaliation. However, the British Army, well aware of possible retaliation, took precautions. As Begin would later recall, "our units went out on the roads, on to the streets in the towns. But the military were literally not to be found."
4 May 1947 saw the Acre Prison break: the Irgun engineered a mass escape from Acre Prison, with the aim of freeing 41 Irgun and Lehi prisoners. Some 28 Jews and almost 200 Arabs managed to escape. However, nine Jewish fighters (both escapees and perpetrators of the prison break) were killed. Among the attacking party, three were killed and five were captured. While two of those arrested, Amnon Michaelov and Nachman Zitterbaum, were minors, and thus too young to be executed under British law, the other three, Avshalom Haviv, Yaakov Weiss and Meir Nakar, were not. The Irgun High Command had no doubt that they would be tried and convicted of capital offences, and the Irgun immediately set out to find British hostages. All of the arrested Irgun militants refused to accept British judicial authority. However they were tried by a military court and Haviv, Weiss, and Nakar were sentenced to death.
In an attempt to forestall the likely death sentences, the Irgun kidnapped two British military policemen, a sergeant and a private, at a swimming pool in Ramat Gan on 9 June. However, the attempt to use them as hostages failed, as 19 hours later British troops found the hiding place and rescued them. Two days later the three Irgun militants were sentenced to death. All that was needed for the sentences to be carried out was approval from the Commander in Chief. Irgun resumed, with increased urgency, its kidnapping attempts, which proved difficult due to British precautions against abductions: British soldiers were largely confined to heavily-guarded security zones that had been established throughout Palestine, and standing orders required troops to move around in groups of at least four. Matters were further complicated by Lehi's actions in retaliation to the killing of one of their members, Alexander Rubowitz, who was allegedly murdered in captivity by Major Roy Farran. Lehi decided to carry out revenge attacks and the Irgun was concerned over the fact that it would be even more difficult to find hostages if Lehi began gun battles in the streets. Lehi agreed to hold off its attacks for a week, and Irgun carried out two unsuccessful abduction attempts. The first, on 22 June, saw Assistant Superintendent of Police C.J.C. Pound escape from his would-be captors in Jerusalem. On 25 June, an abduction squad in Jerusalem attempted to seize administrative officer Alan Major and hit him on the head with a hammer, but Major managed to struggle free. After the week passed, Lehi carried out two attacks in Tel Aviv and Haifa which killed two British soldiers and wounded five. These attacks resulted in even tighter security precautions.
UNSCOP (the United Nations committee which was asked to recommend the future government of Palestine) visited the region and an appeal was made to the committee to intervene on the convicted men's behalf. On 2 July, an appeal by UNSCOP on behalf of the condemned men was rejected, and on 8 July, three weeks after the sentences were passed, they were confirmed by the commander. Due to the concurrent visit of UNSCOP the executions were postponed.
Kidnapping
The site of the abduction
Several weeks earlier, Irgun had learned about a Jewish refugee from Vienna named Aaron Weinberg, who had fled to Palestine and was working as a clerk at a British military resort camp in north Netanya. This information was already known to the local SHAI (the intelligence arm of the Haganah) commander, Yehoshua Bar-Ziv. Weinberg, who was a SHAI agent, was entrusted by Bar-Ziv with striking up a relationship with two sergeants from the British Army Intelligence Corps, Clifford Martin and Mervyn Paice, who used to spend a lot of time in the camp.
The sergeants were of interest to SHAI since they belonged to the field security unit and worked with the Tulkarm police, which was in charge of the Sharon district. Their mission was to circulate within the local population and pick up information on the Irgun and Lehi and their supporters. They often operated in civilian clothes and were not subject to standing orders intended to prevent abduction attempts. Notably, they did not have to leave camp in groups of four, and sometimes went unarmed.Weinberg was very successful in his task, and occasionally got the sergeants to go out to the Netanya beach.
On 11 July 1947, a group of Irgun men retrieved weapons, chloroform, cloths and ropes from a hidden cache. After the recent failures, the Irgun militants in Netanya were sceptical regarding the chances of this kidnapping attempt. Because of this they did not go to any great lengths to cover their tracks, considering the complicated operation they were planning: they did not steal or borrow a vehicle or bring in non-local members who were less likely to be recognised. Furthermore, Yosef Meller, a longtime Netanya resident and newly recruited Irgun member, volunteered to use his black taxi cab, which was well known around town, for the kidnapping. The abduction operation was led by Benjamin Kaplan, who had been freed in the Acre Prison break. At nightfall one basic precaution was taken; the taxi's licence plates were changed in an attempt to prevent it being recognised in the course of the abduction.
The hostages were taken to the inactive "Feldman" diamond polishing plant in the industrial area on the south side of Netanya, and were held in a specially-built underground chamber that had been built in the plant's cellar. It was sealed with an aluminium-ringed airtight hatch that was hidden by a thick layer of sand, and there were sandbags under the hatch to prevent any hollow sound if it were tapped. Inside was a canvas bucket, a week's supply of food and two cylinders of oxygen which the sergeants were instructed to use to refresh the air in their cell. Every few days while they were there, the bucket was emptied and the food restocked.
The search for Paice and Martin
Weinberg remained in the orchard until daybreak, and was found by a watchman at 5:30 AM. He reported the kidnapping to the British Army. Shortly afterwards he was interviewed by the Palestine Police Force, and gave them the details of what had happened. Reports of the kidnapping also reached the Haganah in Netanya. Oved Ben-Ami, the mayor of Netanya, called an emergency council meeting. He did not invite the Revisionist party members, who were identified with the Irgun. The decision was made in accordance with the Yishuv's position, which was published the next day, calling the kidnapping a provocation that might jeopardise what hope was left for clemency for the Irgun members condemned to death. It pleaded for every decent civilian to assist in the search for the hostages.
Meanwhile, Haganah set out to find and release the kidnapped men, by force if necessary. Until that time period, the Haganah had avoided collaboration with the British authorities since the end of the Saison, and on occasion, it had mounted anti-British operations and collaborated with the Irgun and Lehi. However, in the summer of 1947, it began trying to sabotage Irgun and Lehi operations as part of the "Little Saison" due to the fact that UNSCOP was present in Palestine at the time. As a result, it assisted in the search. The SHAI commander in the region arrived in order to personally oversee the search. Unlike the British, the Haganah was familiar with the area, and knew every potential hideout within a ten-mile radius. Despite this, it found no trace of the hostages. Searches by the Jewish Settlement Police and the Palestine Police's Criminal Investigations Department were also fruitless.
Yehoshua Bar-Ziv, who had resigned as SHAI commander in Netanya in the meantime, provided his successor with information about a recently built underground bunker under the house of Irgun member Haim Banai in Ramat Tiomkin. They were convinced that this was where the hostages were kept, and passed that information to Haganah.
All the while, Ben-Ami was desperately trying to pacify the British authorities and promise them that Yishuv would do anything to find the hostages. However, after his conversation with Netanya council members of the Revisionist party, he published an announcement in a newspaper saying that he had been told by Irgun that the hostages would not be returned until the condemned Irgun members' fate was made clear. Subsequently, the British Army placed a cordon around Netanya and the surrounding area of Emek Hefer, which had 20 outlying settlements, a total area of 15,000 people, and on 13 July, began an extensive search effort, codenamed Operation Tiger, to find the sergeants. The area was placed under martial law as 5,000 British troops conducted searches and questioned residents. A total of 1,427 people were interrogated during the operation. Local residents were kept under curfew, and Netanya became a virtual ghost town; its streets were empty save for patrolling British soldiers and armoured vehicles.
At this point Haganah believed that they had accurate information on the location of the hostages. The information made it all the way up to the Haganah chief of staff, Yisrael Galili who passed it on to the Haganah high commander and chairman of the Jewish Agency, David Ben-Gurion. Although the Haganah, acting under the Jewish Agency's direction, had at times cooperated with the Irgun and Lehi and carried out anti-British operations, it was at the time conducting the "Little Saison" against the two groups, attempting to suppress their activities by foiling some of their operations. Galili, who opposed any collaboration with the British, had ordered preparations for a forced release by the Haganah. Ben-Gurion thought that a forced release, no matter by whom, would lead to the hanging of the condemned in Acre, and Irgun's finger would be pointed at the Agency, Haganah and SHAI. He therefore made two decisions: First, the hostages were to be released by force; but not by Haganah, as Galili suggested, but by the British. Second, the information regarding the location of the hostages was to be passed anonymously not only to the British, but to Ben-Ami as well. By doing this he hoped to give the impression that Ben Ami had passed the information to the British. Ben-Gurion was relying on this, plus Ben Ami's call to the Netanya residents "to leave no stone unturned" to attract reprisals from Irgun if the hostages were rescued.
On 17 July, British MPsRichard Crossman and Maurice Edelman appealed for the release of the sergeants, as did other public figures and private citizens in Britain. The father of Mervyn Paice wrote a letter to Menachem Begin asking him to spare his son's life. The letter was sent to Palestine addressed to the commander of the Irgun. In Palestine, a postal worker who was a member of the Irgun ensured it found its way to Begin, who in an open radio broadcast on Kol Tsion HaLokhemet (the Irgun's radio station) responded "You must appeal to your government that thirsts for oil and blood."
Leak of information to Irgun
Ben-Gurion's plan did not work. In the course of a meeting with Revisionist party member Yaakov Chinsky, Ben Ami told him that Haganah knew the kidnapped soldiers were being imprisoned under Banai's house. Chinsky, who knew the information was wrong, passed it to Avraham Assaf, the Irgun's district commander in the Netanya area. Assaf knew the hostages were not in Banai's cellar, but it did contain the equipment used in the kidnapping, and he thought its discovery might assist the British in finding the kidnappers or their hostages. He therefore arranged to have the evidence removed.
The next day, during the extension given by the British to the Yishuv for the Haganah to conduct its own search, the residents of Netanya were placed under curfew. The British, acting on the information from Haganah, decided to search Banai's house. In the late afternoon the neighbourhood was surrounded by military vehicles, including tanks and armoured cars. Banai and his neighbours were arrested as searches began. However, as the equipment had already been removed, nothing was found.
All the while the hostages were kept in the polishing plant. They had been drugged with chloroform during their abduction and when they came to, Kaplan told them they had been taken hostage. On the advice of Amichai Paglin, the Irgun's Chief of Operations, who arrived from Tel Aviv on the day of the kidnapping, a decoy was arranged: a pick-up truck was loaded with kidnapping equipment and sent to Herzliya, where it was left at the beach, leaving clear traces. Paglin also arranged for oxygen tanks to be brought to the bunker, before returning to Tel Aviv.
Near discovery of hostages by police
The diamond polishing plant where the hostages were being held was searched twice by the British, but both searches failed to turn up the hostages.
A few hours after Paglin's departure, an incident took place that could have led to the discovery of the hostages: the two lookouts at the plant noticed a police car patrolling the area. Fearing it was heading towards the plant, they hid themselves. The police car was on routine patrol and went on its way, but the guard in the nearby plant noticed them slipping through the window, assumed they were burglars, and called the police.
On an ordinary day the police might not have taken his report seriously, but this time a strong force was sent to investigate, accompanied by a plainclothes officer. They conducted a search of the plant. However, one of the plant's owners, who did not know about Irgun's unauthorised use of his property, naively convinced them there was nothing in there to concern them. Having found nothing, the policemen left the scene.
The plant was later searched a second time by a British patrol. As the soldiers pushed open the doors, an Irgun guard inside heard them and escaped through a back window. The soldiers heard him and conducted a painstaking search of the plant, but failed to find the hatch.
Hangings
Execution of Haviv, Weiss and Nakar
On 16 July, after three days, the curfew around Netanya was lifted, although the town itself remained isolated.The search continued unsuccessfully, but the cordon was lifted after two weeks, on 26 July. Ben Ami assessed that the British had resolved to hang the condemned men despite the risk to the hostages.
Ben Ami's assessment was correct. On 27 July an official radio announcement said the High Commissioner, Alan Cunningham had given the order to carry out the executions, which were scheduled for 29 July. The superintendent of Acre Prison, Major G.E.G. Charlton, refused to preside over the executions due to the fact that they were to be carried out in secret, rather than in the traditional way, with the execution date announced well in advance and the families of the condemned allowed to visit them prior to the event. He was subsequently relieved of his position. The Inspector of Prisons, Mr. Hackett, was appointed superintendent in his place, and he along with Andrew Clow, the superintendent of Nablus jail, would serve as the chief hangman. On 28 July, it was announced that the three would die the following day. The announcement cast a pall over the Yishuv. The Jewish Agency and Palestine's Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Herzog made last-ditch appeals for the lives of the men to be spared, but to no avail. The Irgun immediately reiterated its warning that the hostages would also die in response. British forces carried out unsuccessful, last-ditch searches in Jerusalem, Kfar Saba, and Ness Ziona for the two sergeants.
On 29 July, at the break of dawn, Haviv, Weiss and Nakar were executed. At 2:00 AM, they were visited by Rabbi Nissim Ohana, the Chief Rabbi of Haifa, who administered final prayers to them and carried out a message to their family and friends: "Do not grieve too much, what we have done we did out of conviction." Shortly before 4:00 AM, the prison superintendent, accompanied by high military and police officials, arrived at the death cell. Between 4:00 and 5:00, each man was escorted to the gallows and hanged. As they approached the gallows, they sang Hatikvah and were joined by other Jewish prisoners. The bodies were left hanging from the gallows for twenty minutes before being cut down and carried away. Haviv, Weiss, and Nakar thereby became the last of the group known as the Olei Hagardom. In a letter to Menachem Begin, an Irgun prisoner named Chaim Wasserman described the executions:
"Toward evening a party of hangmen arrived. The officers went in and informed the condemned men they were to be executed between four and five in the morning. Their reply was to sing "Hatikvah" and other songs in powerful voices. They then shouted to us that the hangings would begin at four o'clock, in this order: Avshalom Haviv, Meir Nakar, Yaakov Weiss. They added: 'Avenge our blood! Avenge our blood!' We shouted back, 'Be strong! We are with you, and thousands of Jewish youth are with you in spirit.' They replied, 'Thanks,' and went on singing. At two a Sephardi rabbi whom we could not recognize from afar [Rabbi Nissim Ohana] was brought and stayed in the cell 15 minutes. At four in the morning Avshalom began singing "Hatikva," and we joined in loudly, pressing against the bars. At once armed police came up to the visitors' fence near our cell. At 4:03 Avshalom was hanged. At 4:25 we were shaken by the powerful singing of Meir. Hardly able to breathe, we nevertheless joined in. He was hanged at 4:28. At five o'clock the voice of Yaakov, this time alone, penetrated our cell, singing "Hatikva." Again we joined in. Two minutes later he was hanged.... At dawn we informed the prison officers through an Arab warder that we would not be responsible for the life of any Englishman who dared enter the jail yard. We declared a fast and prayed. Later in the morning we found the following inscription on the wall of the cell of the condemned: 'They will not frighten the Hebrew youth in the Homeland with their hangings. Thousands will follow in our footsteps.' Next to it was the Irgun insignia and their three names in the order they were executed."
On 30 July, the three men were buried in Safed. Their funeral cortege was led by a military vehicle. The entire Jewish population of Safed attended the funeral.
Killing of Paice and Martin
When news began leaking that the three men were to be executed and a country-wide curfew would be imposed at 11:00 PM, Paglin was at a movie. After being called out and told the news, he hurried to Begin's safe house, where he was meeting with members of his high command, where doubts were being raised over the feasibility of hanging the sergeants with the British and Haganah on high alert. Paglin, who had not been allowed to venture into British-controlled areas by the high command for the previous six months, asked to take personal charge of the operation. He was convinced that the sergeants could be hanged inside the plant, and the bodies could be moved to an orange grove and hung there, since attempting to move the two alive would be too great a risk. Since the hangings were meant as a 'lesson for all to see', Irgun wanted the bodies hung up in public. That was so clear that the mayor of Tel Aviv, Yisrael Rokah, feared Irgun would hang them in the city's main square, while in Netanya it was feared that they would be hanged on local lamp posts. Begin approved Paglin's plan. Paglin then slipped out of the house and drove to Netanya in his car, where he collected four Irgun men; Benjamin Kaplan, Yoel Kimchi, Avraham Rubin, and Yosef Meller. They arrived at the diamond plant in the afternoon.
In Netanya, they had observed that the streets were filled with British military vehicles patrolling the town, and as a result, they were in a rush to carry out the hangings quickly, lest they get caught in the act. Starting at around 6:00 PM, Paice and Martin were individually taken out of the hatch, hustled into the next room, hooded, tied by the wrists and ankles, stood on a chair, had a noose placed around their necks and then, by the kicking away of the chair, hanged. The first man to be pulled out asked if he could write a message, but was told that there was no time. After twenty minutes, the bodies were taken down.
Movement of the bodies
The grove where the sergeants' bodies were hanged
The next day, early in the morning of 30 July, a taxi brought from Tel Aviv, so as not to be recognised, arrived at the plant. Meanwhile Meller was looking for a route to move the bodies without risking arrest. After several hours such a route was found, and at 9:00 the order was given to move the bodies into the cab. The Irgun group concealed the bodies in bags and moved them out of the plant in broad daylight. They were seen doing this by workers at the neighbouring plants.
Many of those were Haganah members, and several of them asked what was in the bags. The Irgun members lied, saying that the bags contained guns, at which point some of the workers suggested that they should be confiscated. One of the Irgun men, David Dahari, took out his pistol and threatened to fire if any of them touched the bags, so they backed off.
From that point time was critical for the Irgun group; it was clearly a matter of time before SHAI—and the British—were informed that Irgun were moving possible bodies. They drove east to a eucalyptus grove near the village of Even Yehuda, about four km from Netanya. They hung the bodies from two adjacent trees and pinned notes to them which read:
Two British spies held in underground captivity since July 12 have been tried after the completion of the investigations of their "criminal anti-Hebrew activities" on the following charges: Illegal entry into the Hebrew homeland. Membership of a British criminal terrorist organisation known as the Army of Occupation which was responsible for the torture, murder, deportation, and denying the Hebrew people the right to live. Illegal possession of arms. Anti-Jewish spying in civilian clothes. Premeditated hostile designs against the underground. Found guilty of these charges they have been sentenced to hang and their appeal for clemency dismissed. This is not a reprisal for the execution of three Jews but a "routine judicial fact."[3]
An anti-personnel mine was then set. Most accounts say that this was buried below the bodies, where it would have targeted anyone cutting them down.
Reactions in Palestine
At 11:00 on 30 July the Irgun publicly announced the hangings with an announcement on its clandestine radio station and on posters pasted on walls throughout Palestine. The British security forces and Haganah searched intensively for the bodies, but had not found them by the end of the day. Fearing that the mine they had planted might injure a Haganah patrol, the Irgun telephoned the Netanya town council, giving the location of the bodies and a warning about the mine.
At 07:00 on the morning of 31 July, the bodies were located by a Jewish Settlement Police patrol, who, because of the warning, stayed clear. Soon British soldiers, Yishuv representatives and reporters arrived at the scene. They observed that the bodies had been partly stripped, their shirts wrapped around their heads and that the bodies appeared "blackened, bloodied."
Having thoroughly checked the surrounding area, the officer in command, Captain D.H. Galatti, began cutting down the body of Clifford Martin using a knife fastened to a pole. When it fell, the mine went off, blowing Martin's body to pieces and knocking sideways the tree from which Paice's body was hung. Despite jumping back, the captain received wounds to his face and a shoulder.
According to a Palestine Police report:
They were hanging from two eucalyptus trees five yards apart. Their faces were heavily bandaged so it was impossible to distinguish their features... Their bodies were a dull black colour and blood had run down their chests which made it appear at first that they had been shot.... The press were allowed to take photographs of the spectacle. When this had been done, it was decided to cut down the bodies. The RE [Royal Engineers] captain and CSM [company sergeant major] lopped branches off the tree which held the right hand body, and started to cut the hang rope with a saw. As the body fell there was a large explosion... The two trees had been completely blown up and their [sic] were large craters where the roots had been. One body was found horribly mangled about twenty yards away... The other body had disintegrated, and small pieces were picked up as much as 200 yards away.
As news regarding the bodies became known throughout Netanya, the residents, fearing reprisals, began stocking food and some even left the city. The council called upon the residents not to believe false rumours.
Shmuel Katz delivered a statement to the Irgun press:
We recognize no one-sided laws of war. If the British are determined that their way out of the country should be lined by an avenue of gallows and of weeping fathers, mothers, wives, and sweethearts, we shall see to it that in this there is no racial discrimination. The gallows will not be all of one color.... Their price will be paid in full.[20]
The first response came from Ben-Ami, who said that "of all the crimes committed to this day in this country this is the most despicable one, defiling our war of liberation.... I testify that most of our population made desperate efforts to free the kidnapped and prevent this disgrace."
The Yishuv's official institutions gave similar responses, condemning the perpetrators as murderers of two innocent persons, who took upon themselves the authority to decide in life and death issues.
Reprisals by British security forces
On the evening of 31 July, groups of British policemen and soldiers went on the rampage in Tel Aviv, breaking the windows of shops and buses, overturning cars, stealing a taxi and assaulting members of the Jewish community. Groups of young Jews then took to the streets and started stoning police foot patrols, which were then withdrawn from the city.
Investigators tried to find who was responsible for the killings, examining each armoured car's guns and ammunition, but the guns had been cleaned and ammunition replenished. Members of the regular mobile patrols who must have known the truth were interrogated, but refused to divulge any information. In the end, a few policemen were disciplined and the Lydda mobile police units reformed, but no criminal charges were brought.
On 1 August, Paice and Martin were buried in the Ramleh Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery, while at the funeral for some of the Jews killed in the police reprisals, mourners and police clashed again; one Jew was killed and 33 more Jews were injured.
Government reactions
On 5 August, the British arrested 35 Jewish political leaders in Palestine, all of whom were members of the Revisionist party or the right-wing branch of the General Zionists' party. The mayors of Netanya, Tel Aviv, and Ramat Gan were among those arrested due to them being "known to be able to contact the terrorists." They were held without trial in the Latrun detention camp. The British authorities also announced that henceforth, all Palestinian Jews were forbidden to leave the country until further notice. A long-standing plan to outlaw the Revisionist youth movement Betar as a fertile recruiting ground for the Irgun and Lehi was implemented.Betar's headquarters were occupied, and Revisionist newspapers were shut down.
Cunningham authorised the British Army to begin demolishing Jewish homes, a tactic it had previously failed to use during the Jewish insurgency. A Jewish home where an arms cache had been discovered in a routine search was demolished in Jerusalem on 5 August.
Reactions in Britain
Public and media reaction
Condemnations of the Irgun came from all sections of British society and media. Under the headline 'Murder in Palestine' The Times commented that: 'it is difficult to estimate the damage that will be done to the Jewish cause not only in this country but throughout the world by the cold-blooded murder of the two British soldiers.... The Manchester Guardian, while urging the government that it was 'time to go' from Palestine, similarly noted that the hangings were 'a greater blow to the Jewish nation than to the British government.'
Condemnation of the Irgun by British Jews
The Jewish Chronicle reported on the issue. In one passage, the JC expressed Anglo-Jewry's shame at the act: 'Although the general public in Britain recognise that Jewry in this country are powerless to prevent the outrages, British Jewry cannot but feel a deep sense of shame that these murders have been committed.' Harold Soref, the editor of the Jewish Monthly, complained that "the victims of Hitler are being replaced in the popular imagination and sentiment by the victims of the Irgun Zvai Leumi."
JC editor John Shaftesley's words, while articulating Anglo-Jewry's abhorrence, can also be interpreted as a plea to British society not to blame Anglo-Jewry for the 'cold-blooded murder of the two British sergeants,' or to seek revenge against the community. Shaftesley's plea was ignored by some, and during the bank holiday weekend, which began on 1 August 1947, and throughout the following week, British Jews across the country felt the powerful impact of the incident, facing a sharp rise in hatred, abuse and ultimately rioting.
Riots
Headstone of Sergeant Clifford Martin (INT CORPS) in Ramla British Military Cemetery, IsraelHeadstone of Sergeant Mervyn Paice (INT CORPS) in Ramla British Military Cemetery, Israel
On a summer bank holiday weekend, Friday, 1 August 1947, anti-Jewish violence and rioting began. The tabloid press reported the "Irgun murders" in graphic detail. The Daily Express carried a large picture on the front page, showing the victims as they were found with hands tied behind their backs, shirts wrapped around their heads and hung from eucalyptus trees under the headline: "Hanged Britons: picture that will shock the world". The violence began in Liverpool and subsequently spread across Britain's urban centres from London to Glasgow.
Synagogues and easily recognisable Jewish properties and symbols throughout Britain were targeted by attackers. In Hendon, London, windows of the Raleigh Close synagogue were smashed and a piece of paper was found with the words "Jews are sin". Blackpool and St John's Wood synagogues received telephone calls threatening that they would be blown up, and the walls of Plymouth Synagogue were attacked and marked with anti-semitic signs and slogans: "Hang all Jews" and "Destroy Judah". In other attacks on Jewish targets, gravestones in a Jewish cemetery were uprooted in Birmingham, "Hitler was right" was daubed on properties in North Wales, and Jewish property in Halifax, Pendleton, Lancashire, Bolton, Holyhead and Southend were also attacked. In a further incident, the back door of the JC representative's home in Cardiff was marked "Jews—good old Hitler". On 5 August 1947, The Times and Jewish Chronicle reported that in Eccles near Manchester, a crowd of 700 people "cheered each hit" as missiles pelted Jewish properties smashing their windows.
Liverpool
Incidents were reported in West Derby (Liverpool, England), where a synagogue was burnt down; in Glasgow, Scotland where "bricks were thrown through the windows of Jewish shops"; and in Liverpool City Centre, where "over a hundred windows belonging to Jewish owners were shattered". The rioting was most intensive and longest lasting in Liverpool: For over five days the city saw violence and looting, and the Lord Mayor issued an appeal to the city "to assist the police in the prevention of attacks on property and shops supposedly owned by Jews". In total over 300 Jewish properties were affected by the rioting in Liverpool, and the police made 88 arrests. As he sentenced a rioter, Jack Piggott, to six months in prison for leading a mob and smashing the window of a Jewish-owned shop, one judge warned that there was "no excuse for these anti-Jewish demonstrations—they are both un-British and unpatriotic."
Denunciations of anti-semitic violence
Denunciation of the rioting was expressed from within and without Anglo-Jewry. In a clear indicator of the severity of the disturbances, Home SecretaryJames Chuter Ede gave a written statement to Parliament regarding the matter.
The Manchester Guardian (the former name of The Guardian before it moved its head office to London) called the violence "a disgrace".
The Jewish Chronicle, which since Shaftesley's appointment as editor had assiduously followed a restrained and sensitive editorial line regarding Anglo-Jewry's position in society, was provoked by the rioting to explicitly express its anger and disillusionment with Anglo-Jewry's treatment by its compatriots.
The Association of Jewish ex-Servicemen placed a wreath at the plinth of the Cenotaph with the inscription: "In memory of Sergeant Martin and Sergeant Paice, who died doing their duty in Palestine. From the Jewish ex-Service comrades of the British forces."
Aftermath
The UNSCOP committee, which operated in Palestine at that time, could not have ignored the act. However, it was soon overshadowed by a new crisis over the Exodus, a Haganah-operated ship laden with 4,500 Jewish displaced persons, which set sail from France and was refused entry to Palestine, instead being sent back to Port-de-Bouc.
The hanging of the British sergeants has been described as a major factor in the British decision to evacuate Palestine. J. Bowyer Bell referred to the affair as the "straw that broke the Mandate's back", and wrote that it was a major factor that resulted in a consensus to evacuate Palestine. In 1961, Arthur Creech Jones, who had been British Colonial Secretary in 1947, wrote that the "deadly blow against British patience and pride" caused by the hangings was one of four major factors that pushed the British cabinet to the decision to evacuate Palestine in September 1947, the other three being the inflexible and irreconcilable political demands of the Arabs and Jews, the unrelenting pressure that stationing a large garrison in Palestine to deal with the Jewish insurgency as well as threats of greater Zionist resistance and an Arab uprising put on an already strained British economy, and the mounting criticism over the government's failure to replace the White Paper of 1939 with a new policy.Colonel Archer Cust, who had been Chief Assistant to the Chief Secretary of Palestine, said that "The hanging of the two British sergeants did more than anything to get us out" in a 1949 lecture to the Royal Empire Society.
Menachem Begin claimed in his book The Revolt that the "cruel act" was one of the events which tipped the balance in the British withdrawal from Palestine. During the last interview of his life in 1991, Begin said that the decision to hang the sergeants was the most difficult decision he made as Irgun commander, but said that "after the brutal act there were no more hangings of Jews in Palestine."Former Irgun high command member Shmuel Katz later said that "The British understood that after the Olei Hagardom went to the noose with their heads held high and after the sergeants were hanged, there was no more scope for escalation. The game was over."
In a November 1948 letter regarding an entrance visa to the United States for Menachem Begin, Robert A. Lovett wrote that it might spark a conflict with Britain, due to Begin's association with Irgun acts including the hangings of Paice and Martin.
Bernice Rubens depicted a fictionalized version of the event in her novel The Sergeants' Tale.
A memorial grove to the sergeants was established in Netanya and still exists.
