JEWISH WORLD

By MATT LEBOVIC W ithin days of becoming the first Allied Medical Officer to enter the so- called “horror camp” of Bergen- Belsen, Brigadier H. L. Glyn Hughes set about creating the largest hospital in Europe. In the course of fighting typhus and starvation at Bergen-Belsen, the British officer began using an unusual set of parameters in making his plans: death rates, alongside numbers of mass graves and typhus-infected barracks. A highly decorated officer fromWorld War I, Hughes was forced to make deci- sions about life and death on a daily basis. In her new book All the Horrors of War: A Jewish Girl, a British Doctor, and the Liberation of Bergen-Belsen , author Bernice Lerner juxtaposes the feats orches- trated by Hughes with the plight of her own mother, one of the inmates liberated by the officer. When 15-year old Rachel Genuth — Lerner’s mother — was sent to Bergen-Belsen from Auschwitz, Belsen was entering its most lethal phase. A concentration camp built for 4,000 prisoners was swelling to 60,000 victims, most of them Jews. By the start of spring 1945, thou- sands of corpses were piled up around the camp. Anne and Margot Frank were among the 35,000 vic- tims who perished during the camp’s last winter, when typhus fin- ished what the camp’s appalling hygienic conditions started. “Rachel would learn that when kapos turned up with cans of dish- water-like soup, only those inmates strong enough to fetch it had some,” wrote Lerner. “Many would push and step on the weak and sick; those who rushed the line could be beaten to death.” E arly in 1945, a transport of pris- oners introduced typhus into the camp. Characterized by purple rashes, headaches and delirium, typhus is most lethal during famines and wartime. Inmates at Bergen- Belsen were easy prey for so-called By JOSHUA MITNICK Y asmin Diab shuttles daily between self-quarantine at her home in the Arab vil- lage of Tamra and 24-hour shifts at Rambam Hospital in Haifa — the largest in northern Israel — where she was the first doctor on the coro- navirus ward when it opened in March. Because of her work with coron- avirus patients, Dr. Diab cannot have physical contact with her fam- ily — her birthday recently came and went without a hug from her parents. The stresses of work make it harder to sleep. Still, the internal medicine resi- dent doesn’t regret the decision to volunteer for a job that puts her and her family at risk. “I believe this is a mission,” she says. “We are on the front line of this war.” With a stethoscope draped around her neck, Dr. Diab delivered a round of poised interviews to sev- eral Israeli news shows in the early weeks of the crisis. But she is just one of the tens of thousands of Arab health care professionals putting themselves on the line in Israel’s battle against COVID-19. Though Arab doctors, nurses, and pharmacists have over the past decade become a familiar presence at Israeli hospitals and state-sup- ported HMO clinics, the pandemic has shone Arab-Israeli citizens in a new light: as essential foot soldiers and field commanders in the coun- try’s struggle against the virus. A new television commercial sponsored by Arab health care workers features a montage of por- traits of Arab doctors and nurses. “It’s about time to acknowledge: Arabs are also partners in the coun- try. Partners in destiny, partners in governance,” the commercial con- cludes. Jewish Israeli attitudes may be evolving. Increasingly, there are calls in Israel to shift budgets from military interests to the public health battle. And there are calls to recognize the Arab Israeli contribu- tion. “This is the first time that Israel is conducting a war and [that] the Arab citizens have been recruited,” says Eran Singer, Arab affairs continued on page 28 COVID War Allies Arabs join Israel’s coronavirus battle CANDLE LIGHTING continued on page 25 115 Middle Neck Rd. Great Neck, NY 11021 516-594-4000 The award-winning independent Jewish newspaper of Long Island Publisher & editor-in-chief Jerome Wm. Lippman Assistant Editor Jeff Helmreich Features Editor Barbara Weinblatt Travel Editor Tania Grossinger Editorial Assistant Megan Batt Contributors Douglas M. Bloomfield, Shira Dicker, Lawrence J. Epstein, Marcelle Sussman Fischler, Ezra Goldstein, William B. Helmreich, Sandy Portnoy, Joseph R. Rackman, Erica Rauzin, Walter Ruby, Lawrence H. Schiffman, Barbara Schultz, Jacob Stein, Carol Steinberg, Harold S. 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Local Offices: 1441 President Street Brooklyn, N.Y. 11213 311 W. 37th Street New York, N.Y. 10018 A British Hero At Belsen The doctor who saved many lives at the camp after the war Dr. Yasmin Diab (second from right) and other members of the coronavirus team at Israel’s Rambam Hospital. PERSPECTIVE In All the Horrors of War , a survivor’s daughter describes the heroics of General H. L. Glyn Hughes, the first Allied Medical Officer to enter Bergen-Belsen. General Hughes, the “British Oskar Schindler” who methodically and with great purpose saved as many of the terribly ill survivors of Belsen as he could. As societies confront a coronavirus enemy that doesn’t discriminate, the prominent role of Arab health care professionals in Israel is gaining praise. ANALYSIS 4 JEWISH WORLD • APRIL 24-30, 2020 Friday, April 24 Candles 7:27 pm Shabbat ends 8:36 pm Friday, May 1 Candles 7:35 pm Shabbat ends 8:44 pm