RelatioNet DA AR 37 TR LI

     RelatioNet DA AR 37 TR LI

        David Arbib

Holocaust Project Katzanelson High-School

Kfar- Saba, ISRAEL


mail:  relationet2014@gmail.com
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First name: David
Last name: Arbib

Date of birth: 15th of July, 1937

City of birth: Tripoli

Country of birth: Libya

  

David's Story

David was born on 15th of July, 1937.

David lived in Tripoli, Libya and grew up in an Arabic neighborhood.
His family spoke two languages: Italian and Arabic.

The family lived with David's grandmother, nine brothers and sisters, and both parents.
The extended family lived nearby and they met one another frequently. 

As a child, David studied at a Jewish school. The language used at school was Italian, they studied religion, weekly Torah portion and in the evenings they learned Hebrew.

In addition, David used to spend his time inside the house because it was dangerous to go outside.  David's grandmother took care of him.
To pass his time he played with his brothers, and his Grandmother told the children many stories.

At that time, the Italians ruled over Libya and joined the Nazi's forces. When David turned four, Libya was attacked by the British forces and armed planes that bombarded factories, equipment storages and power stations which were close to the Jewish quarter.

Luckily, David's family did not suffer from the bombing, because they lived afar from the blast area, but they were frightened whenever a plane ran on since it caused a lot of noise. David's aunt always took him to a shelter every attack.

In 1942 after wars and fighting between the Italians and the British forces over Libya, the Jews in Benghazi were smuggled and brought to labor camps. When David was 5 years old, his father and his aunt's husband were brought to a labor camp.
Due to all of the tension around, David's family escaped and rented an apartment in a farm at an Arabic village nearby Tripoli. There was a German camp nearby the farm's location, but luckily for them, the war ended in 1943 and the British overcome the Nazis.

A month later David's family returned to Tripoli .Shortly after, a Hebrew school was established thanks to Israeli soldiers (under the British Mandate) who came by. Among those Israelis, some were educators that opened a teacher's seminary. David studied his first class there.

At that time, a lot of rumors were spread in Europe about mass destruction of the Jews. 
Hence, David's classroom and many others came to pray for their lives in the synagogues.


At that time, the Jews and the Arabs in Tripoli mostly did not live in fraternity. Some Arabs were affected by incitements and their treatment towards the Jews was hostile.
In 1945, the Arabs started a pogrom. During the pogrom 133 Jews were murdered, Synagogues and many Jewish businesses were burned to the ground. David's family feared the Arab attacks. They shut themselves at home, making sure no one could enter and come inside. Finally, they had to escape to the Jewish quarter. In the Jewish quarter, they stayed at friend's for a few days and when they returned home, everything had been stolen.
David's father was a tailor and he traded clothes to provide for the family. All of his stock was stolen when the family stayed in the quarter.

In the quarter, David joined youth movements like: Maccabi and the Battalion for the defense of the language. in the Battalion for the defense of the language they had a policy to speak only Hebrew. in those youth movements there were activities every Saturday afternoon, they sang songs in Hebrew together and performed shows in Hebrew based on stories from the bible.

In 1949, David and his family immigrated to Israel.

This is a temporary travel document that allows David to enter Israel
















They travelled in the independence ship from the port in 
Tripoli to Haifa, Israel. The independence ship was a cargo ship, and beds were installed inside. The entire trip took three days, and most of the time David liked to stay at the deck and observe the road and the sea. After the ship landed and they reached Israeli land, David leaned over in order to kiss the ground. At the time they arrived “ddt” was sprayed towards   them and they took is as an insult. At the beginning they stayed in Pardesiya at Beit Olim but a little while later, they were moved to a transit camp in Herzliya. David couldn’t continue his studying as a child in sixth grade at school because the class was full there was no room for him. Instead of studying he decided to work for his uncle until he finally managed to find a spot in seventh grade (he skipped sixth grade). A few years later David grew up and decided to postpone his enlistment in order to complete the education he wanted for himself. As a result, he studied Aircraft Mechanics in the Technion. Afterwards, he enlisted to the Israeli air force as a technical officer, where he was responsible for the airplanes in the squadron.

 During his military service he met Hannah, his wife and they had 3 children: Avichai, Ofira and Sigalit. Today, David has 6 grandkids.

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