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http://www.palyam.org/Izkor/Hespedim/ujvRP

http://www.palyam.org/Volunteers/machal_stories

משום מה איני מצליח להעלות את התמונה של רב החובל
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Captain Rudolph Patzert (RIP)

Captain of the “Geula”

Sailed with her from the USA to Palestine

Deported with the Ma’apilim to Cyprus

Born 10 January 1911 – Died 1 December 2000

Written by his wife: Terry Patzert

This is the Way it Was

Rudy was a modest man, from a humble family. Our son described him as kind,

brave and full of fun, and like the rest of us, no saint. His parents raised him to

be a person of integrity, with the character to face life and the issues of his day.

He was one of the generation who answered the call to place service to country

and to humanity before personal gain. Rudy participated fully in his times and

throughout his life spoke out against the many injustices of society. Having the

opportunity to serve in the Aliya Bet was one of the high points of Rudy’s life,

something of an epiphany, an experience that moved him deeply and was to

stay with him.

Rudy was born in Queens, New York, in a neighborhood near the Steinway

piano factory. There, his father had a small ‘mom and pop’ general store. His

parents, whom I never had the good fortune to know, had married late in life

and he was an only child, the apple of their eyes. During our marriage, I

sometimes teased him about behaving like an ‘only child’. His mother always

made him feel that he could accomplish anything he wanted to, and he was

never afraid to try. When his mother’s health was affected by the influenza

epidemic, the family moved to Fruitland Park, Florida, near Leesburg for the

better climate. During the Depression, when work was scarce in Central Florida,

the family eked out a living with a small orange grove. Rudy worked for 50 cents

a day picking watermelon in the fields.

In Florida, Rudy joined the Boy Scouts where his scout leader, Orville Davis,

later to become Superintendent of Schools, was an important influence in his

life. Rudy loved the Scouts and was always of becoming an Eagle Scout. In

1928 Rudy was one of a group of Eagle Scouts nominated to accompany

Admiral Richard Byrd on his exploration of the South Pole. Admiral Byrd was his

first hero, although Admiral Byrd did not select him. Rudy hitch-hiked to New

York to meet the crew and to see the “City of New York”, Byrd’s ship. the

romance and adventure of the sea captivated Rudy and at the age of 17, he

started his career as a seaman. For him, going to sea was not just a job, he

truly loved and respected the power of the great oceans.

During those years Rudy joined and became active in the National Maritime

Union, and later the Masters, Mates and Pilots. As one of the early union

members he walked many a picket line. Aboard the SS Washington he sailed to

Germany in the 30’s where, as he wrote in his book, “Running the Palestine

Blockade,” “I saw the emerging face of Hitlerism. A young and inexperienced

sailor, I was shocked by what I witnessed but did not yet understand its

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significance”. However, at the request of German friends he managed to

smuggle ashore copies of the ‘Brown Book’ which carried news of

imprisonment, executions and resistance against Hitler. Like many sailors, Rudy

became an anti-fascist. When WW II broke out, he immediately answered the

government’s call to re-enlist in the Merchant Marine, where he served for the

whole war and beyond and earned his Captain’s commission. As he finally

learned about the Holocaust, his now confirmed anti-fascist views made him

feel that the rescue of the Jewish refugees and the establishment of the State of

Israel were among the unfinished tasks of WW II.

When Paul Shulman asked Rudy to become Captain of the “Paducah”, Rudy

was ready and excited. Originally he signed on to take the ship to Bayonne and

then return to the US. Not being Jewish, Rudy did not know much about the

Hagana or the Aliya Bet, but as he became more involved in the voyage and

learned of the issues, he felt committed to continue when the Hagana

representatives asked him to take the ship the rest of the way. As all of the

volunteers know, this became a voyage longer and more challenging than he

could have imagined. Through every step of the voyage British intelligence and

the British navy dogged the ship and made every attempt to cripple and stop the

“Paducah”. The determination of the crew and the Hagana finally overcame the

British attacks and the “Paducah” was able to pick up its passengers in Varna.

In Bayonne Rudy met and then had the opportunity to work with Moka Limon of

the Hagana, who became another of his heroes. Moka was later to become

Admiral of the Israeli Navy.

The most poignant moment of the “Paducah’”s voyage for Rudy was when the

passengers, children, came aboard. In his book he writes, “They were children,

small children, 5 and 6 and 7 year olds, squat figures dressed fantastically in

the cast-off clothing of adults, which made them look strangely old, an effect

heightened by their solemn little faces, at once child-like and not child-like at all,

but touched with fear and tiredness and sorrows usually known only by the old.

The first of the kids reached the gangway where one of the crew was stationed.

A tot, he bulged widely under the layers of rags and odds and ends of clothing

wrapped about him, and he wore an old cap so many sizes too large that it

almost covered his head and ears and neck. As he shuffled up the gangway

with childish difficulty, the sailor, with a sound that was half laugh and half sob,

scooped him up in his arms and clasped him fiercely to his breast.”

After the capture of the “Paducah”, Rudy was interned in Cyprus with the rest of

the crew and passengers. There, he got to know and visit with many of the

adults and children who were refugees. The rest of the story we all know. It was

a dream come true for Rudy, when the Naval Institute Press decided to publish

his account of the voyage of the “Paducah” in 1994. The reunion and meeting at

the U S Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC were exciting for all of us. Now

the story of the Aliya Bet is there for all to read. In 1997 Rudy was one of the

four men and women honored by the Simon Wiesenthal Institute in Los Angeles

for their efforts to rescue victims of the Holocaust.

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Rudy returned home to work as a printer. From 1969 until his retirement he

returned to sea and worked in the offshore oil industry as Captain of exploration

ships, a job he enjoyed and that took us to far-flung corners of the world. In

1978 he read in a local newspaper that the veterans of the Aliya Bet were

having a 40th reunion in Israel. We immediately decided to attend and there

Rudy was happily reunited with members of his crew, whom he had not seen in

40 years.

Rudy reformed friendship with many members of the “Paducah” crew,

especially those on the West Coast, Eli Bergman, Syd Abrams, Bailey Neider

and their families. Rudy was proud to know them and happy to count them as

his friends. We often think of those men who are no longer with us, including

Rudy. Shalom. They lived good, worthwhile lives and we are proud of them.

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