- A very dirty war: British soldiers shot dead by enemy troops waving the white flag and Argentinian prisoners bayoneted in cold blood. An ex-Para tells of the horrors of the FalklandsFrom Daily Mail Online excerpt from “Storming the Falklands” by former British Paratrooper Tony Banks about the horrors of Falklands war including POWs experience
- How Changi PoW couple kept apart in brutal WWII prison for three years kept up spirits by thinking of their dream cottageA terrible experience for civilians as POWs in infamous Changi Jail during the WWII
Category: Books
New Book About Egyptian POWs
There is a new book that was published in Cairo from days ago about the Egyptian POWs , the name of the book “The crime of murdering the Egyptian POWs”
The book’s author is researcher Abdel Razek Said Soliman and its introduction is written by Dr. Ibrahim El-Bahrawy who mentions in his introduction the “Fortunes of a fool” novel . The book which is an actually a study depends on the Israeli literature and how it showed incidents of war crimes against out Egyptian POWs.
The book also show examples of the Israeli literature that covered the 6th of October war.
The book is currently available in bookstore.
Via Youm 7
The Crimes Against Egyptian POWs in Crimes of War Project
The Crimes of War project is a very promising respectable international project for documenting war crimes all over the world despite how this mission seems hard and difficult. The project issued a book about the war crimes in the world “Crimes of War 2.0” which is a guide to educate the people more about the war crimes using documented examples from around the globe and it is available in different languages among which an Arabic version from the book.
The project is an independent body that has no Arabic or Islamic relation what so ever , of course I have to say so just in case because there is an extensive section of course in this project and its book about the Arabic-Israeli conflict since 1948 war.
I found this part from the “Arab-Israeli Wars” Chapter related to the war crimes against our Egyptian POWs in 1956 and 1967 wars
In October–November 1956, the IDF overran the Gaza Strip, where it remained in control until March 1957. During the battle for this heavily populated zone and during the first weeks of occupation, the IDF killed some five hundred civilians, either in actual combat or in a subsequent series of massacres. Elsewhere during the Sinai-Suez War, IDF troops reportedly killed fleeing, and often unarmed, Egyptian troops by the hundreds and, occasionally, Egyptian prisoners of war. For example, at the end of October 1956, the IDF Paratroop Brigade killed some three dozen POWs near the Mitle Pass. Revelation of this affair in 1995 prompted Egyptian protests to Jerusalem and a demand for an investigation (whose results were never made public).
During the 1967 Six-Day and October 1973 wars, there were cases of IDF troops killing fleeing, and often unarmed, Arab troops and murdering POWs. Again, the victorious Israelis had greater opportunity to commit atrocities than their Arab foes, but there is evidence also that Arab troops, when given the chance, killed off surrendering Israelis and POWs. Such incidents occurred in the 1973 war’s first days, when the Syrians overran part of the Golan Heights and the Egyptians overran the IDF’s Bar-Lev Line along the east bank of the Suez Canal. Arab civilians and security forces also killed downed Israeli pilots on both fronts.
Again the researchers in the project are not Arabs nor antisemitic and you can see they are unbiased in the last part which I accuse the Arabs of murdering Israeli POWs , I do no know about the Syrian front but I will speak about the Egyptian side , the documents we have prove otherwise.
I can’t deny that the people in Delta killed the Israeli pilots who were downed but you must bear in mind the farmers in Delta were extremely angry because for years they have been targeted by the raids of the IAF through those 6 years.
You must know that up till now the Egyptian government is cooperating with the Israeli counterpart considering its missing pilots
Search For the 1956 POWs Massacre in Israeli literature
Literature is known to be the mirror of the society and its share from its social and political defeats and triumphs especially when it is inspired by real events like wars.
In 1960 one of Israel’s finest authors and playwrights Aharon Megged wrote a novel called “The fortunes of a fool” which
was published in 1960 , the novel is about the Suez war and its reflection on the hero of the novel , the fool who suffers in his social life to the degree that he wishes to kill himself finding a final resort in a terrible war.
In the 310 pages novel there is a whole chapter dedicated to the military tribunal of that fool hero who refused to follow his commanders’ orders and kill the Egyptian POWs he was guarding where there is that interesting dialogue between the judge and the fool hero showing how the Israeli military establishment supported and approved ((still does)) the murder of unarmed Arab POWs.
There is no doubt that Megged did not imagine that tribunal and that support to POWs murder from nothing , there is no smoke without fire, already in 1956 Israeli military correspondent then Amir Oren wrote about the Metla massacre then in Israeli newspaper “Davar“. There is no doubt that Megged was inspired by Oren’s reports where he wrote that whole chapter in that novel to represent his hero as a fool in the eyes of a military establishment.
“The fortunes of a fool” was translated in to English in 1962 in the United States. I do not know if it has been translated
in to Arabic or not despite the fact that other Megged’s have been translated in the Arab world as an example to the contemporary Israeli literature. This novel shows the importance of reading and translating the Israeli literature which is another window to understand the Israeli and Zionist mindsets. I knew about this novel from a 2009 op-ed by Dr. Ibrahim El-Bahrawy ((professor of Hebrew in Ain Shams university)) who was among the first to introduce examples from Israeli literature to the Egyptian and Arabic readers since early 1970s.
The English translation is available in Amazon.com if you are interested in reading it.
A Testimony of an Ex-POW Called Fouad Hegazy
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
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.
The name of the novel itself is inspired by the famous events that took place on the night of 27th of Ramadan I believe where there was huge mutiny in the prison that put Atlit, the city itself in high alert status.
This novel was translated in to English and Russian and I am currently searching for these foreign translations. It was also used in PHD thesis in Sweden.
Now I have added Mr.Hegazy’s testimony to our Egyptian testimonies.I recommend please to read it and spread it because it is very important.He was captured by the Israelis on the very first day of the war, and remained a prisoner for eight months. This testimony will give a little hint about the Israeli death camp aka Atlit
POW No.36715 Speaks
a jailed landPOW 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.
Unfortunately the book is currently available in Arabic and in Egypt only for the time being , you can find it in book stores in Egypt especially Al-Shorouk Bookstores
The 1973 October War: The Egyptian Perspective
For all those who are skeptical about our victory please read this wonderful study by the American Major J.C. Moulton of United States Air Force from the Marine Corps University Command and Staff College published in year 1997
The 1973 October War: The Egyptian Perspective
Just read it carefully it is a wonder excellent analysis to the war of 1973 based upon the Egyptian perspective , again the one who presented this research is an American Major in the United States Air Forces
Please read it
And if you finish reading and you still have nothing to do , I will recommend that you read another study also from the Marine Corps University Command and Staff College ,this time the study was made by Major Ibrahim Al-Jowder from the Bahrain Armed Forces in year 1997
The 1973 October War : The Operational level
And more and more reading will not harm you at all , so I advice to buy these books and read it carefully then may be you will have a better idea of who really won the war back then
I mean if Israel had won the war , why such a book like “In the eve of Destruction” was published !!??
 Amazon.com: The Eve of Destruction: The Untold Story of the Yom Kippur War: Books: Howard Blum
ISBN: 0060014008 |
This book by the way is referring to the Ashraf Marwan “The In-law” , it is by Howard Blum by the way 
Also I recommend you to read the book of General Saad El-Din Shazely “The crossing of the Suez”, the former chief of staff ,who has a very interesting official website
General El-Shazaaly was the smiling man on President Sadaat left hand
 Amazon.com: The Crossing of the Suez, Revised Edition: Books: Saad El Shazly
ISBN: 0960456228 |
Last things here are the confidential documents released by the NSA of the United States , the National Security Archive after 30 years in 2003
Happy anniversary 🙂
Important lecture and book discussion alert
Next Thursday the 20th of September in Cairo ,there will be very important lecture and a book discussion related to the case of the Egyptian POWs
The book is “The People and the war” which was written by 1967 and 1973
veteran Colonel Osama El-Sadek whose testimony about what had happened from crimes against the Egyptian army by the IDF is considered one of the most important testimonies from what it contained from details and incidents
Here are the details of the lecture from time and place :
- Start Time:Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 8:30pm
- End Time:Saturday, October 20, 2007 at 11:00pm
- Location:Cairo Library, next to the Safir Hotel
- Street:Hassan Sabry, Zamalek
- City/Town:Cairo, Egypt
Col. Osama testimony is available in the website here whether in the Egyptian Testimonies section or in the video section