My life in Iraq
by Yeheskel Kojaman
My life in Iraq
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After what is called the Farhood in June 1941 most of the Jewish youth started to search for a way of saving the Jewish community of similar happenings. There were only two possible ways at that time. Either to join the Zionist underground movement or to join the Communist underground movement. Most of the youth preferred to join the last one. I was one of them. I joined this movement in 1945 as a simple member. In 1949 I with many members of my family were arrested. I was then a third year student if the Royal College of Pharmacy. I was sentenced for life. During my stay in prison I passed all the political prisons which existed those days. Being a communist I believed in the theory and felt that I have the duty of learning it perfectly which I tried my best to do. I therefore became the best theorist in prison in spite of the fact that I never was one of the executive cadres of the prison organization. Being a theorist I had many different duties including being the representative of the organization in Nuqtat Salman prison to help the Zionist prisoners. I had therefore good relations with these prisoners and especially professor Yehuda Hagar, the only Israeli in prison. We became intimate friends in spite of the difference in our political vies. He taught me Hebrew and I helped him to learn Arabic. In 1958 I was released from prison after the revolution and allowed to stay in Iraq. The Communist Party did not accept me for I refused to convert to Islam. I therefore had a very difficult life in Iraq. I lived by translation of political books which was a desirable profession at that time. In October 1959 I was again arrested and sent to prison without trial where I remained in the prison of Imara until December 1961 when I was released. I could not stay in Iraq in this condition so after five or six days my mother in law accompanied me to a family in Basra who arranged for my travel to Iran. I was taken by car from Basra to a small island where I stayed for two days. At two o'clock in the morning I was taken to a small tin boat where I was dragged by a rope on the other side of a very small river and I became in Iran. The next morning I was taken to the city and left there. I remained two days in a Synagogue and then traveled to Tehran where I was sent to Israel on the 12th of January 1962. My life in Israel is another story but I am proud that I was the first to compile a Hebrew Arabic dictionary which is famous all over the world. An enlarged dictionary was published in 2000 by the Ministry of Defense Publishers. I also wrote two books on the Iraqi music which describes the role of Jewish musicians who played a most important part in this music. I also wrote some political mainly critical books and pamphlets during my stay here in England. I recently wrote an Arabic pamphlet about my life in prison which I think is the most realistic discussion of our prison life. This pamphlet is called "My Memoirs in Iraqi Political Prisons". |
