THE JEWISH HOSPITAL IN ALEXANDRIA

From: Memoirs from Alexandria

A Biography of Thea Wolf

By Ada Aharoni

 

On one of those Saturdays when I was on duty, nurse Hilda, who was a good friend of mine came to tell me a secret.  She had heard that the Jewish community in Alexandria in Egypt, had sent a request to the Congregation of Jewish Nurses in Frankfurt for a Surgical Nurse who could also take charge for a certain period of the Nurses' School and be Head Nurse of the newly constructed Hospital of the Jewish Community there.  She whispered excitedly, "I just heard that Mother Superior will propose that you should take this job for two years!  What do you say, Thea?"

I was amazed and delighted on hearing the news.  The challenge fired my imagination, and the exotic setting of distant Alexandria, on the shores of the azure blue Mediterranean, added to the charm.  I had for some time played with the idea of studying something new, but this enchanting opportunity had never crossed my mind.   I had indeed considered asking the Mother Superior to give me a job outside the hospital, something where I could feel more responsible; some of our nurses were attached to stimulating social municipal posts; and I thought that with some luck, I could be nominated for one of them.  But this job in Alexandria was still more responsible and exciting than anything I had imagined!  So, when the Committee of the Congregation of Jewish Nurses in Frankfurt, after having consulted me, agreed together with the Mother Superior to "lend me out" for two years to the faraway community on the shores of the Mediterranean, I was very excited, happy and enthusiastic.  I again had to put before my parents a fait accompli knowing how hard it would be to convince them to let me go.  It was like a bombshell to them.

"What do you know of Egypt and their Jews?" my mother cried out in exasperation and despair.  "It's a backward and primitive land, and you will be very out of place and  unhappy there!"

"It's a very weighty decision you're making, Thea," my father said anxiously, with a heavy heart and a worried look in his eyes.  But they both knew me well by then.  Once I had made a decision which seemed to me to be the right one, there was no moving me.  I was exhilarated and felt I was another Dr. Livingstone or Alfred Schweitzer, on the brink of discovering a new continent, and bringing modern medicine to a new part of Africa.  My parents came to talk to me again at the hospital and to meet the future chief surgeon of the Jewish Hospital in Alexandria, our extremely capable Dr. Fritz Katz.  "Promise us to consider Thea like your own sister," my father begged him, "and not only your surgical nurse."  Dr. Katz measured them with an amused look in his eyes and nodded his head in agreement.  He kept his promise to the very end, he was a responsible big brother towards me whenever I needed him, and never abused my confidence in him.  But even after he had promised, my parents tried to convince me not to go.  They told me they were sure that the hospital in Alexandria was in reality just a tent, and that the few remaining Egyptian Jews, probably lived in dirty mudhouses or tents too, like the Bedouins, surrounded by sand and camels and dangerous sandstorms that would blow me away forever.  "There are probably no streets, trams or buses in Egypt!  How will you manage, dear little Thea?" my mother cried in despair.  "How will you get to the Hospital?" she asked.

"Probably by bus,  as everyone else," I answered her, smiling reassuringly, and kissed her cheek spontaneously.

"What bus?" she cried, "there are only camels over there, I tell you!" she wailed in despair.  "A camel will come to the door of your tent at dawn to bring you over the desert to the hospital caravan, poor, poor Thea...."

When she saw that I was not affected by the material calamities she described, she tried another line of argument:  "What is the great idea of going back to Egypt where in Biblical times the Jews were slaves in bondage?  Don't you remember we were liberated and taken out of Egypt by Moses?" she asked tearfully;  "which means," she continued , "that  God doesn't want us to be there!  It's a sin!" she added.  "Why do you want to go back there today, Thea?  The Jews there, if there are any real ones left, are surely like Arabs, and probably are still treated as slaves."  She had bitter tears in her eyes and it pained me to hurt her. 

My poor, bewildered father added,  "Your mother is right.  It's all a vast, uncivilized  desert out there, and the people are so backward and so poor!  How will you manage, my little Thea?  Please think of us and how we would worry about you, and reconsider your choice."

"My daughter wants to be a slave . . . " my mother sobbed.

In my parents' eyes, it was as if I was proposing to turn the wheel of time two thousand years back!  How wrong my mother and father were.  In Alexandria I found a modern, civilized, flourishing city, bustling with life and local color.  The Jewish community there was a cultivated, well-organized, advanced and wealthy one, and they received me like one of their own daughters.  How in the world could my parents guess then that I would stay alive, throughout the horrible Holocaust, just because I decided to go to Alexandria.

"Thea, please promise us that you will always wear your nurse's uniform," my mother pleaded tearfully, as if the uniform were a talisman which could save me from all harm.  But I saw how important it was to her to hold on to something even as trivial as that, and I promised my parents that for at least one year I would always wear my nurse's uniform, even on private outings.  I assured them that I would always be grateful to them for the gift of life which they had given me, and that I would always use it for honorable purposes.  They were still not assured, but with tears in their eyes and in their hearts, they finally let me go.

"Yes, yes, I will not accept any invitation from people I do not know well," I promised just before I left, "and will likewise promptly return to Frankfurt and Essen, after the two years of my coveted, willing 'exile in the Land of Egypt.'"

Destiny decided otherwise.  I stayed there for fifteen years, and it saved my life.  I wish I could have taken them with me, it would have saved their lives too.  How strange but true, that one of the best places for a Jew during the Nazi period was in an Arab country.  My dear parents' memory, as well as that of my beloved sister, cruelly murdered by the Nazi killers and bigots, never leaves me. I feel their presence in me the instant I shut my eyes, to this very day.  It is their initial abundant care and love which they bestowed upon me in my youth, which has given me a power larger than myself.  In later years, this initial inner strength and human values instilled in me by my parents, allowed me to venture into the unknown and to accomplish things that were beyond me.

                                                                                                          

In 1932 after I had been a nurse for five years at the Hospital of the Jewish Community in Frankfurt on Main, I was sent on assignment as head nurse and surgical nurse to the newly opened Jewish Hospital in Alexandria, founded by a wealthy Egyptian Jew by the name of Baron Behor de Menasce.  The Jewish Community in Alexandria was estimated at 40,000 people at the time they founded the hospital. In all, there were about 100,000 Jews in Egypt then. The official numbers registered by the Jewish Community, I was told, showed less as not all Jews were keen to be registered and paid members.  The new hospital was up-to-date and well equipped, and it was designed by a famous Italian architect in the grand "palazzo" style.  It contained one hundred and seventy beds and was staffed by Jews, Moslems, Christians and Copts, who had studied either in England, Germany, France, America, Egypt, or Lebanon. 

The hospital was open to people from all creeds and cultures.  Those people who were unable to pay were treated free.  Patients even came there from abroad, as it acquired the reputation of being the best hospital in the whole of the Middle East.  During the Second World War, it served the Allied troops based in the region, and was highly commended for its services. 

On my arrival in Alexandria, I was warmly received by Mr. Josef Aghion, the president of the Jewish community then.  The German consul, too, was at the port of Alexandria to greet Dr. Katz and me; at that time there was a small but active German colony.  Members were either big cotton dealers or bank managers and head clerks at the branch of the Dresden Bank.  They used to send their patients to our hospital, until that sad day when all the German Jews had to get a "J" (Jew) stamped on their passports, according to the newly issued anti-Semitic Nazi regulations.  Even during the official visit of the German destroyer Emden to the Port of Alexandria, in 1937, we still operated on two of the sailors for acute appendicitis and they thanked us profusely for our dedicated and expert treatment.  After the stamping of the J's, we decided their racism was unacceptable and they were not worth being cared for.  We turned them away without any qualms, and they were forced to go to the state hospitals which did not have the same high standard which we had.

My first impression of Alexandria was very favorable.  I was surrounded by warm, generous, understanding, bright, and helpful people.  I strangely felt as if I had known them for a long time, and as if many of them were my own aunts and uncles.  Their doors were opened for me from the first moment we met; and not only the Jews, but also Egyptians, Americans, Greeks, Italians, French, English, and Armenians.  Several of these kind people whom I met, told me that they were ready to help us for whatever we needed for the hospital.   From the very beginning they  made me feel as if I had never left home, both at the hospital and in the town.  They were familiar, but not intrusive, exciting and stimulating yet affable, and they tried to help me fulfill my new duties in the best possible way.  Naturally, this friendly atmosphere helped me enormously in attaining my aim, which was to make the hospital in Alexandria a model of the Jewish Hospital in Frankfurt, in all ways:  the organization of the general medical staff, of the nurses, the aides to the nurses, the cleaning workers, the kitchen staff, the linen department, and the laundry.  I asked first of all for the construction of a home for the nurses.  My request was presented to the board of the Jewish community of Alexandria  that sponsored the hospital, and happily  it was immediately accepted.  The nurses' home was built on the hospital compound.  It was a modern, spacious, elegant and comfortable building which we were all proud of.

At the beginning we had six fully graduated nurses, who all came from Germany; but four of them later left for Palestine.  All the other nursing staff were mostly Alexandrian Jews; but we also had some Arab, Greek, Italian, and French nurses.  Some of them had no previous experience, and I and the doctors had to instruct them in practical nursing and also in theoretical knowledge.  I explained to them that my main concern was for them to be always helpful, and attentive to the wishes or the complaints of the patients, and asked them to report to me if anything was amiss.  I also trained them to be on time for duty, to dress neatly, to prepare the meal trays with attention and love, and also how to feel the pulse, to take temperatures, to prepare the patient for treatment or for an operation, and to prepare the beds accordingly.  That is, I had to instruct them in all the basic rudiments of what makes a good nurse.  I do not remember that I ever met with indifference or contradictions.  The nurses loved and respected me, and it was wonderful to feel that I was creating an entirely new and efficient staff.  Something living and vibrant which did not exist before and which was born and growing under my touch.  I felt the weight of the responsibilities heaping upon my frail shoulders, but the sense of wonder and extraordinary fulfillment strengthened me.  I shared my burdens with others and they became as vigilant and enthusiastic as I was.  A few of the foreign nurses  inter- married with Egyptian Jews, but they usually continued to work at the hospital, as we all felt deeply involved and attached to our work.  Most of the nurses stayed with us from the opening of the hospital until its sad enforced closing by the Nasser regime in 1960.

The climate of goodwill and comradeship was the general atmosphere in all the wards; as for instance in the wards for internal medicine, where Lotte Fleck, a nurse from Germany, who was a good friend of mine, was in charge.  The same atmosphere reigned likewise in the gynecology department which was run by Dr. Dorra, an excellent Egyptian Jewish doctor.  It included a busy delivery ward, where Marie, the midwife, was in charge.  She was a Jew from the town of Kerson, who had left Russia at the beginning of the revolution in 1917.  She was an extremely experienced midwife, highly regarded, liked by all, and very devoted to her profession.  She was also the midwife for the aristocratic upper class and the Royal Court of King Farouk, and delivered his children, including Princess Ferial, daughter of his beautiful first wife Farida, whom he later divorced.  The reason he gave was that she only bore girls!  King Farouk was not aware that it was the male who determined the sex of the child, and not the woman.  Unfortunately, many people in the Middle East and elsewhere, are still not aware of this medical fact to this very day.   Dr. Katz tried to explain this in his special humorous manner to the unhappy peasants who became Abul Banat, the "Father of Girls," which was a derogatory appellation for fathers who did not have sons, and who often wanted to leave their newly-born daughters at the Hospital.

"When you plant potatoes what do you get?"  Dr. Katz asked Ahmed, a farmer and an unhappy new Abul-Banat. 

"Potatoes," Ahmed answered.

"So, you planted a girl, how do you expect to get a son?" he asked, with a twinkle in his eye.  Ahmed quickly took his baby daughter and wife and returned to his village.

A rabbi was assigned to the hospital, and he often sat at the bedside of a dying patient all through the night, recited prayers, and presided over the religious washing and purifying  rites of the deceased, and he did his best to comfort and offer solace to the bereaved.  He also celebrated the religious services on holy days in our outpatients' reception hall, which was furnished appropriately for every special purpose.  Any patient belonging to a non-Jewish faith could also call his sheikh, minister or priest whenever he wished to have him visit.  The Brith-Milah (circumcision) hall was situated in the gynecology ward.  It contained as a center piece, a wonderfully carved Brith-Milah chair that had been presented as a gift by Baron Felix de Menasce.  Every Brith-Milah was a happening not only for the family concerned, but for the entire hospital staff as well.  Whoever could find the necessary spare time to attend the ceremony took part.  All the participants were presented with a small, artistic porcelain box filled with delicious almond sweets called dragיes.  I kept them as precious souvenirs of the events.

Wedding ceremonies usually took place at the grand synagogue; and there  too each of the guests attending the wedding was presented with one of these beautiful ornate containers full of delicious almond sweets.  On the back of these plates or boxes the names of the bride and the bridegroom were artistically carved, as well as the date of the wedding celebration.  Thus they became beautiful souvenirs of memorable wedding days.  King Farouk himself was sometimes invited, and he attended many Jewish wedding ceremonies.  He also sometimes attended morning services at the grand synagogue, the "Gates of Heaven" in Cairo, or in Alexandria on feasts and on Yom Kippur, because it was a government-recognized holy day.  Most of the schools, shops, and businesses in the whole of Egypt  were closed then, as well as the government offices.

I learned to understand, admire, emulate and respect the mentality of the different ethnic groups, their various cultures, their warm responsibility toward their kin, and their close family ties.  This was typical of both the Egyptian Jews and the Gentiles.  Alexandria then, was a cosmopolitan center in the best sense of the word, and the Jewish hospital was in many ways a microcosm of this rich mosaic of a multi-cultural world, which functioned as a harmonious symphony.  Many  of the patients came back from time to time to thank us for our good services, and it always made me happy to see them again.

Most of the maintenance staff and orderlies came from the same family clan in the Sudan, by the name of Khalil.  They were admirable in many ways.  They were docile, friendly, and felt responsible for each other and helped one another whenever they could.  Most of the women working in the laundry were Egyptian Moslems, and their manager, Aisha, a Moslem, too, who was respected and loved by all.  I can't remember any theft from servants, patients, or staff in the hospital during the whole of my stay there.  Honesty, devotion and dedication were everybody's key values.  Some of our workers got special nicknames, and they were proud of them, as for example, "Aisha Pasha" in charge of the laundry, and "Abdel-Rahman Bey" the boab (gatekeeper); and "Regina Maria," the head cook who reigned supreme in her kitchen.  Her staff included mostly Arabs, though Maria herself was Italian.  She had a beautiful daughter, named Bella, whom she dearly cherished, and woe to us if we forgot to ask her for news about her daughter!  I don't remember ever having seen her out of the kitchen.  She was always there from early morning until late afternoons, and she loved being there, wearing a spotless white bonnet, presiding over her delicious cooking, tasting it over and over again, and breathing in the wonderful odors.

We had up-to-date surgical wards, as well as several modern and fully equipped internal wards; a large, very well-equipped laboratory, in which intensive research was conducted; a large pharmacy; a modern X-Ray Institute; and a polyclinic for outpatients.  The hospital had third, second, and first-class rooms, but all the patients got the same minute care and attention.

The Hospital was cosmopolitan indeed, and a model of harmonious relations among people who came from various backgrounds.  The head surgeon, Dr. Fritz Katz, the head physician, his first assistant, and the head of the laboratory were German Jews and they had Egyptian, Jewish and Moslem assistants.   The head of the X-Ray Institute was a Greek from Rhodes who had studied in Germany, while his assistants were Egyptian Jews who had studied in England, France and Italy.  The head gynecologist, as I mentioned before, was also an Egyptian Jew, as well as all his expert assistants.  The midwife's aide was an Egyptian.  Most of the staff began their work at the hospital between 1933 and 1935 and stayed to the end.  The administrative offices were run by Egyptian Jews, and all the salaries and the funding of the hospital came from the Jewish community of Alexandria.  The larger Jewish Hospital in Cairo which was built on a similar model, was funded by the Cairo Jewish Community. 

The head of the Department of Internal Medicine was Professor Mainzer, who was previously attached to the University of Rostock, in Germany.  Before coming to Alexandria, he had already made some remarkable research concerning bilharzia, a widely spread endemic disease among the poorer population.  He continued his research at the hospital laboratory, with revolutionary results in the field.  Many patients suffering from bilharzia came to the Hospital be treated by him, not only from Egypt but also from the neighboring countries, with excellent results.  His scientific work made an impact in the field.

The prevalent serious diseases we treated at the hospital then were mostly typhoid fever, typhus (contracted from hair lice or clothes lice), malaria, diabetes, diphtheria,  yellow fever, trachoma, bilharzia, and even some cholera cases, though we were not supposed to take them in.  All infectious diseases had to be sent to the Government Hospital, the "Afna," for treatment; but many people were afraid to go there and preferred to die at home in their own beds.  It was said that whoever entered the "Afna" got out of it only as a corpse.  Unfortunately, this sorrowful fact was often true.

Dr. Arbib, who  was in charge of blood transfusions in our hospital, presented me with a revolutionary project--the building of  a blood bank.  This was a very innovative and unusual enterprise for the times, and a forerunner of modern blood banks.  I immediately realized its great potentialities, but it took all of the power of my rhetoric to convince the Board to approve the project.  I explained to them that because of the hot climate, we were confronted by the necessity to have a constant supply of tested and labelled blood kept on ice.  The idea for the blood bank was finally approved and it saved many lives.  It also greatly helped us during the battle of El Alamein, when Rommel's Nazi army was just half an hour away from Alexandria.  Many of the wounded Allied Forces' soldiers from the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, England, South Africa, and the Jewish Brigade from Palestine--were treated at our hospital where we worked very hard day and night to save their lives.  It saved our lives too, for many of these recovered brave soldiers returned to the front, and they helped to win the battle against Rommel.  After his defeat, they found that Rommel and his staff had long lists of every Jewish inhabitant in Egypt and minute orders to exterminate all of them.

The medical staff did its utmost in order to keep up-to-date with scientific progress in various medical fields.  Medical scientists from all over the world visited our hospital, and they were impressed by the research and the effective and innovative blood bank which saved so many lives.