history – gobriantravel

Israel 12

July 14, 2026,

Hi Everyone,

I have many patients of Greek origin. On hearing that I was going to Israel, one elderly Greek gentleman told me the following story. I will forward the story to Vad Vashem and try to nominate him as a “Righteous Among the Nations.” This is an award given to non Jews who did a heroic deed to save Jews during the Holocaust. Here is his story:

As requested, I am writing to you to relate my husband’s experience while he was a very young boy living in the village of Prines on the island of Crete. He told me this in Greek and I am translating it into English exactly as expressed:

I, E. M., son of G. M. and E. A., was four years old when I had the following experience which has stayed in my mind all these years. I am now 88 years old and have lived in Canada since 1962 in Montreal. I have been married to A. C. for 62 years. I have two children, four grandchildren and one great grandson. I am now older and retired but I remember very clearly what transpired during that time.

I was born in the village of Prines, which is very close to the city of Rethymno. I was at the tender age of four years old when this took place. Greece, including the island of Crete was occupied by the Germans. The German army was all over the country. In our village, the Germans were occupying a big building across the street from my father’s general store, using it as one of their headquarters. We were afraid of them, as they executed everyone who resisted in any way. We were very careful not to offend them.

During this time, my parents were told by a Greek man in the village, who was part of a group, that was helping all the displaced Jewish people in Greece. My parents and every other villager had to take under their protection, two Jewish people each, to hide them out of the village in a safe place.

My mother and I took the two Jewish men assigned to us, who were exhausted, afraid, and felt lost, to a field we owned outside of the village. There was a large old olive tree in this field, approximately 200 hundred years old, with its large trunk hollowed out. The two men were hiding inside it all day. At night they came out of it for a while for fresh air. The Germans were afraid to go out at night, as they could not anticipate who would attack them, so it was safe for the two Jewish men to come out of the tree trunk.

My mother gave me a pot of food, folded in a large napkin, every night, and sent me to the field. The way was very dark and scary, so I was afraid. The trees looked huge and frightening. The cats on the branches of the trees had shiny piercing eyes. My mother had told me that the people would be hungry. She also told me to be extra careful, to not speak to anyone I saw on the path. I knew later that it was safer for me to go than a grown up. No one would suspect a young child. I would leave the food in another spot, never in front of the tree. As soon as I left, the Jewish men would come out and take the food.

This lasted for five to six nights. Then the Greek man who was with the group came and told my mother that they had to move the Jewish men to another location. My mother sent me with him to the hiding place. He spoke to the Jewish people in Hebrew. They understood that they had to leave with him. They went with him, and later heard they had walked all night to another hiding place near a port on the other side of the island, where the sea and ships were, and where arrangements could be made for them to leave the island.

We later found out that they had left, but we never found out where they were taken. My mother lit a candle and prayed every night for their safety and reunion with their loved ones.

This is a true story. I know that a lot of our villagers hid many displaced Jews. Hopefully, they all survived and joined their families elsewhere. Both I and the others did what we believed was right.

This is the truth.

E.M.

This is a wonderful story that I wanted to share with you.

Love,

Brian

Spain 14,

Oct. 26, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

Today, I was lucky with my tourism. Rising early, and after a hearty breakfast, I was able to secure same day tickets for the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba. This was my third visit, the 1st one being in 1970 and the 2nd 15 years ago with Dominique. The M-C is magnificent, much as I remembered it to be from my recollection of my last visits. The only thing that changed is the price and the crowds. It is impossible to escape the tourist crowds although probably everyone is thinking the same about me. Everyone is taking the same 100s of pictures that they may look at once and then leave on their i-phones for eternity or worse still, try to impress their friends and family who have the same 100 photos.

The ceiling of the mosque is held up by a least 100 columns which gives a different perspective each time that you take a step. You will see this in my pictures. The mosque is at least 1000 years old and has easily stood the test of time. The Moors invaded and stayed in Spain for 700 years. Their influence can be seen in the architecture all over southern Spain. Their conquest was eventually stopped at the Bataille de Tours, by Charles le Marteau if I remember correctly from my grade 8 history. Had Charles lost the battle, the history of Europe would have changed completely and Europe may have become Muslim. And now a mere 1000 years later…… Finally, after pushing the Moors out of the Iberian Peninsula, the good Christians, not to be out done, built their own Catholic cathedral right smack dab in the middle of the mosque. This was obviously done to show once and for all their domination. The more things change, the more we arrive at where we began. I guess that we should be glad that they didn’t destroy the mosque altogether. The cathedral built in the middle of the mosque is actually quite cute.

In Israel, British Mandate Palestine, Ottoman Province, Crusader conquest, Arabian Southern Syria, Mamaluk land, Roman Palestinia, Greek conquest, Israel, Judea, Canaan, Philistine land, (forgive me if I have forgotten a few) the Israelites built a Temple, the size of which rivalled the Alhambra or the Vatican. It was destroyed by the Babylonians (modern day Iraq) who carried them off as slaves. The Jews, as they became known, were then liberated by the Persians (modern day Iran) who allowed them to return to Judea where they rebuilt their 2nd Temple. The Romans, (modern day Italians) conquered the land and after 2 revolts, destroyed the Temple and dispersed the Jews……1800 years later, my great grandparents fled Russia due to the pogroms, which is why I find myself in Canada. The Arabs-Muslims arrived and built their golden mosque exactly on the same site as the Temple, leaving in tact the Western Wall, the Wailing Wall. Had they built their mosque 6 inches to the left (I exaggerate) the modern day Middle East conflict may not have occurred. And so we have the definition of a hurricane, ‘what goes around, comes around’. In 2024, I, as a Zionist, an atheist and a Jew felt compelled to to return to Israel to defend what I feel is the right of the Jewish nation to claim a sliver of a piece of land, 15k wide that we call Israel. You may read all about this in my blog on Israel.

All over Spain, at 7:00 everyone finishes work and goes out for a drink, tapas and later a dinner. This evening is no different. The streets were packed with people. I came across the cathedral, and was entertained by a short concert by a 60 piece orchestra outside in the courtyard. I am now seated in a Spanish taverna, sipping rose and eating tapas. I ordered 3 tapas, which probably is too much as the proportions are more than generous. 1 of my choices was ‘dog fish’. I am not sure what that is, but I hope that is more of the latter than the former. It was fried and came with a sauce. which was delicious. I will look up what I ate when I get home.

Today I changed pace as well as my route. Instead of taking my usual very very windy and very very hilly tertiary route, I opted for a secondary route avoiding of course the autoroute. The road was 2 lanes wide, well paved with just the right amount of curves to make the route interesting. I bombed along at 80k which is a great speed for a motorcycle. I could observe the scenery and not be overly concentrated on each turn as I was on my last 3 days. I rode through the country side where I saw miles and miles of olive trees. I one point I came across a group of 6 bicyclists riding along in a pack, taking up the entire width of the lane. They were travelling along, downhill at 70-80 k. I could not overtake them so I followed them along until we arrived at a hill where they were forced to slow down and I could pass them.

The weather has changed from 25C in Torremolinos to 12C today. It was chilly on the bike so I will add another layer when I ride to Malaga tomorrow. I am staying in a 3* hotel tonight in the Old City. One of the differences between a 3* and a 4* is the size and power of the hair dryer and the thickness of the bath towel.

Love,

Brian