Egyptian writer Fouad Hegazy is known to be the first one to write about his experience as an Egyptian POW in Atlit prison. His book “The POWs build barricades” was from first novels to speak about that sad and terrible experience. Mr. Hegazy had a political activity before the six days war and he is considered from the most active writers and novelists from outside
The POWs build barricades
Cairo and Alexandria. He is originally from Mansoura and God knows that this man is behind the reason of having this website, he was the one who introduced me through his interview with Mona El-Shazely two years as far as I remember to the forgotten suffering of our POWs.His description to how our Egyptian POWs died while being transferred by train to Atlit reminded me with Schindler’s list film train scene.
Recently this year Dar-Shorouk published a new edition from his novel “The POWs build barricades” which was first published in Cairo in 1976. He had written this novel and finished in 1968 right after his return from Atlit. Read more...(304 words, 1 image, estimated 1:13 mins reading time)
Nobody saw this coming nor expected something similar like this to happen , as a son of a late Israeli paratrooper decided to return back the ID and letters his dad collected from the dead Egyptian soldiers and officers in the six days war to the families of those soldiers and officers. He decided to give them back to Yedoit Ahronot to help him in locating the relatives and relatives of these soldiers and officers “where is our embassy??” Theses families and relatives have been awaiting for 42 years to know anything about their men who went to that war and never came back.These souvenirs were telling the story from the other side according to the newspaper which gave me the impression that they do not consider us as humans who have a life too !!!?
The souvenirs include IDs,photos,permissions, letters and diaries of soldiers and officers on the front you can see them below here
Here are the names of these late officers and soldiers God bless their souls mentioned in the report :
Ali Hassan Ali , a solider from Cairo who was born in 1905 and used to work as a conductor
Read more...(699 words, estimated 2:48 mins reading time)
Many people in the world think that our soldiers and officers had been murdered in action during the six days war just like an army during a war , especially a defeated army , there is no argue in this but unfortunately many of our soldiers and officers had not be murdered in action but rather murdered in capture in the six days war.
First of all you must know that in 1967 the Egyptian army had just come out from the Yemen war exhausted , there was new recruitment process in the army , many young men from all around the country were dispatched to the front even without training or even receiving their uniforms.When the war broke and we seemed on the verge on a terrible defeat , Read more...(734 words, estimated 2:56 mins reading time)
Yesterday the world celebrated the Armistices day aka the remembrance day in several countries around the world like the UK and the States. Also in the Middle East Lebanese party and militia Hezbollah celebrated and remembered its men who were killed in action in the wars against the Israeli occupation to South Lebanon.
On this day I remember all the Egyptians who were killed and were captured during the 1956 Suez War especially in Port Said ; the great city which was nearly destroyed in the Anglo-French attack.
In 1973 Egyptian POWs were captured by the IDF , of course their numbers were too small comparing to those who were captured in 1967 not to mention all the spot lights were highlighted on the Israeli POWs captured by the Egyptian side.
As expected the Egyptian POWs in 1973 like their brothers in 1967 and 1956 did not receive the same treatment which the Israeli POWs received in Egypt.
It is enough that the Egyptian POWs of 1973 are accusing the IDF of injecting them by HCV and of using them in medical experiments in Atlit prison camp. Already this would not be the first time it happens, it happened before in 1967.
Most of the Egyptian POWs of 1973 have passed away by liver cancer and hepatitis diseases which they brought with them from their capture. The only remaining Egyptian POW from them is Abdel Rahman Mohamed Kadous ,who is currently suffering from liver cancer and also the neglect of the regime. kadous once tried to sue the Israeli government but the court for some reason refused the lawsuit. Read more...(218 words, estimated 52 secs reading time)
POW No.36715 is Mohamed Hussein Yunis who was captured by the IDF during the six days war 1967 and he has published a new edition from his memories about this tough experience. The book is called “Steps on jailed land” and it was published by “Dar Al-Shorouk” in Cairo in 2008 after its first print in 1982. The memories are like a novel , conversations between a POW who just had returned back home and his psychiatrist
Yunis describes the feelings of humiliation the Egyptian soldiers and officers whether in the six days war itself or their capture in Atlit prison. He describes in details both the physical and psychological warfare the Israeli army practiced against the Egyptian POWs.
According to critics the book is a documentary written by the feelings of a poet and the spirit of artist , an artist with No.36715.
I would like you to read for few minutes this post from Global Post website about Japan’s POWs black history in WWII. Australian POWs have not forgotten what happened to them during their captivity year and strangely they are demanding the same demands the Egyptians POWs and their
Coombs and his follow Australian POWs
families are demanding from the Israeli government and official : An Official apology and a monetary compensation from the Current Prime Minister of Japan Taro Aso whose father Takakichi Aso used to own mines where more than hundred Australian and British POWs used to work on a daily basis in WWII in conditions less described as inhuman.
I read this and I wonder why the Australian government did not stop Joe Coombs , that POW veteran from the quest of his life now !!?? I think the Japanese-Australian relations despite the hard times of WWII are much normal than the Egyptian-Israeli relations.
We have many Joe Coombs in Egypt and I wish that the day will come and the world will recognize their rights just like Mr.Coombs.
What I like in Mr.Coombs is that he did not give up his or his Co-Pows rights despite his old age.
Moshe Dayan and the IDF left a very ugly memorial dedicated to 11 IAF pilots who were killed in 1967 in Al Arish at Sheikh Zowaid area. It is a rock scribed on its faces the names of those Israeli pilots who shut down by two Egyptian pilots in the six days war.
It is very provoking to all of us especially the people in Sinai.This is a memorial of an ugly invasion that should be removed , I do not think that in France there is a monument for the Nazis !! ??
What makes it worse is that in that particular area not less than 200 Egyptian POWs were killed in a cold blood by the IDF deliberately.
Dayan´s rock in Al Arish
The land where that memorial is located,is owned by Shaikh “Ismail El-Khataby” . Shaikh “Ismail” wants this memorial to be removed from his land that buried many Egyptian POWs and drunk from their blood in 1967. Shaikh “Ismail” is suing the Egyptian government and is not giving up till it removes this ugly provoking piece of rock from his land.He does not want any more Israelis to come and to pay respect to their pilots over the dead bodies of our men Read more...(459 words, 1 image, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)
During the times of wars it is a normal thing that the news and the photos coming from the war zone is filtered , media is very powerful double edged weapon in time of war that can affect the people’s spirit whether positively or negatively , if you search in our modern history you will find out that during the times of war even the biggest democracies in the world had to censor and filter the news and photos coming from the war zone especially those issued by the enemy.
For that particular reason I am not surprised or shocked that the Nasser regime did not publish the photos the Israelis released to the wire services from humiliating shots to our Egyptian POWs during the captivity.There are many photos in this website Egyptians have not seen for decades , they only heard about their details and circumstance from the 1967 veterans who survived that shocking defeat , for sure the veterans accounts were even much horrible than those photos. Read more...(629 words, 6 images, estimated 2:31 mins reading time)
These are two photos I found while my search for Egyptian POWs photos ,these photos were for Syrian POWs heading back to Damascus after spending some time in infamous Atlit prison. The Syrian POWs were too few compared to the Egyptian POWs. They also left the POWs camp before the Egyptian POWs. The Syrian POWs were few because Golan was technically empty from the Syrian army by the 6th of June 1067 thanks to the withdrawal announcement issued by Hafiz Al-Assad and what preceded it from strange decision taken by Al-Assad and his men in Golan. Already the losses of the Syrian army official in 1967 war were 120 officers and soldiers !!!!!!!!
Can please someone tell me what that “W” written on their back meant or referred to ??
Heading back from Atilt camp
Syrian POWs Marked With "W"
To read more about the Golan invasion circumstance ,please read the following posts :
a jailed land
