Auction 41 Jewish and Israeli History and Culture, Israeli and International Art
Oct 29, 2014 (your local time)
Israel
 8 Ramban St, Jerusalem.
The auction has ended

LOT 54:

Collection of Letters sent to an Etzel Member in Internment Camps in Kenya

Sold for: $700
Start price:
$ 300
Auction house commission: 23%
VAT: 17% On commission only
tags:

Collection of Letters sent to an Etzel Member in Internment Camps in Kenya
About 80 letters sent to Hagai Lev, Etzel member, who was imprisoned in Internment Camps in Sembel, next to Asmara (capital city of Eritrea), and in Gilgil, Kenya, 1946-1948.
Personal letters, mainly from his father and other family members. The family members tell about what happens in Eretz Israel and ask to learn more about the internment camp. Amongst the letters – postcard from the "Committee of Students Association of the Hebrew University" wherein it is written "Shana Tovah to all of you, a year during which you will return to the university and to your homeland".
Hagai Lev – Etzel member, reached the internment camp with the first transport in October 1944; participated in the first fleeing attempt from Sembel in January 1945 and the sixth attempt to escape in June 1946. Took part in preparing fake passports for the six Etzel and Lehi members who attempted to escape from Gilgil in March of 1948 (ninth fleeing).
Most of the letters – with no envelopes; the existing envelopes bear no stamps. Sizes and conditions vary.
See: “Etzel and Lehi Exiles - British Detention Camps in Africa 1944-1948”, Shulamit Eliash (Bar Ilan University, 1996), p. 125,178,272-273.