4/5/98
Me?
A
Spy?
Many people are alive today because Ruth did not love Teddy.
Ruth
Zucker,
now
84
and
living
in
Haifa,
could
not
have
known
the
eerie
fates
that
would
fill
her
eventful
life,
when
she
was
still
a
young
woman,
when
she
broke
the
heart
of
the
dashing
Swiss
Army
officer.
She
was
engaged,
she
told
him,
and
leaving
for
Palestine.
It
was
the
early
1930s.
The
incredible
tale
is
being
made
into
a
2ֲ½-hour
documentary
in
Germany,
following
the
success
of
the
German-language
edition
of
her
book
ג€Me?
A
Spy?ג€
(It
is
also
available
here
in
Hebrew).
The
daughter
of
ג€the
richest
man
in
Bonn,ג€
Ruth
was
educated
in
Geneva
and
California,
and
became
a
hand-picked
disciple
of
Mahatma
Gandhi.
ג€I
was
devoted
to
India,
not
Israel,
but
then
I
fell
in
love
with
a
crazy
Zionist.ג€
The
high-society
girl
came
here
to
live
in
ג€terrible
conditions,ג€
and
in
1937,
thanks
to
her
gift
for
languages,
found
her
calling
--
as
a
Hagana
spy.
She
got
a
job,
but
was
the
last
to
realize
what
she
had
become.
ג€I
came
back
to
my
husband,
and
he
said,
'Where
did
they
put
you?'
I
told
him
I
got
a
fantastic
job:
I
only
have
to
know
languages
and
translate.
My
husband
became
pale.
He
said:
'They
made
a
Mata
Hari
out
of
you!
It's
spying!'
I
said,
'Me?
A
spy?!'
ג€
Her
cover:
ג€I
became
an
anti-Jew,
an
intellectual
snob.
I
had
to
lick
the
ass
of
the
British.
We
were
introduced
in
British
high
circles,
and
I
was
supposed
to
be
an
immigrant
forced
to
come
here
from
Germany.
I
was
considered
a
traitor
by
the
Jews
--
that
was
the
worst
of
it.
We
were
very
lonely.ג€
Her
mission
was
to
get
a
job
at
the
British
censorship
office,
which
did
not
employ
Jews.
But
Zucker
won
the
confidence
of
the
chief
censor
as
ג€one
of
us.ג€
ג€I
had
to
sign
something
every
week
that
if
I
leaked
anything,
I
was
subject
to
punishment
--
death
by
hanging.
Lots
of
our
friends
were
hanged
in
Acre.ג€
In
1942,
she
passed
on
vital
information
that
enabled
the
Jewish
Agency
to
forge
immigration
certificates
that
rescued
Jews
from
concentration
camps.
But
eventually,
more
sophisticated
means
were
required.
ג€Then
the
Hagana
called
me
and
said,
'There's
this
Mr.
Verall,
the
chief
censor
for
telegrams
in
Haifa.
He
has
a
map
on
his
wall
showing
where
the
underwater
cable
from
Haifa
goes
to
Europe.
It's
top
secret;
no
one
is
allowed
into
his
office.
We
need
to
know
where
in
Europe
the
cable
ends
--
and
if
you
can,
the
convolutions
it
makes
under
the
sea.'
They
had
frogmen
who
could
go
underwater
and
tap
into
the
telegram
wire,
using
Morse
to
send
telegrams
as
if
they
were
from
the
British.
ג€I said, 'How am I going to get in there?' They said they
didn't
know.ג€
Verall had a daughter, Gloria, who worked there too. Ruth
befriended
her.
After
six
months,
Ruth
got
her
chance.
Gloria
was
absent
from
work
with
the
flu,
and
Ruth
burst
into
Verall's
office,
hysterical,
begging
to
know
what
had
befallen
her
friend.
When Verall turned his back to fetch her a soothing cup of
tea,
she
cast
her
eye
on
the
map.
Gibraltar!
ג€That saved hundreds of lives,ג€ she says, with understated
pride.
SHE
WOULD
save
many
more
lives,
in
a
12-year
spy
career
jam-packed
with
adventures,
intrigues
and
dangers.
Four
times,
she
says,
she
faced
ג€inevitable
deathג€;
thrice,
she
was
saved
by
Arabs.
ג€The German documentary is about one incident in 1943. We
received
word
from
the
Jewish
Agency
that
there
were
1,200
Jewish
children
in
Persia,
mostly
between
the
ages
of
five
and
seven.ג€
They became known as the Teheran Children.
ג€Many children had been thrown off trains when their parents
knew
they
were
going
to
concentration
camps,
and
they
were
going
to
be
killed.
Somebody
saved
them
and
put
them
into
monasteries.
ג€They were later brought to Poland and placed in an orphanage.
When
the
Germans
advanced,
the
children
were
sent
to
Russia.
When
the
Germans
made
a
pact
with
the
Russians
they
were
sent
to
Siberia.
From
there
they
went
to
many
places
by
sea;
no
country
wanted
to
take
them.
But
the
Shah
of
Persia
said
they
could
come
to
Teheran.
ג€But Persia was also at war, there was hunger, they had no
medicines,
no
blankets,
no
clothes.
ג€Then the Jewish Agency received an SOS: 200 children had
died
already,
the
others
were
becoming
sick,
we
can't
keep
them
anymore,
you
have
to
get
them
to
Palestine.
But
there
were
no
visas.
ג€We found out there was only one very high civil employee
in
the
British
staff
--
nobody
knew
about
it
--
who
was
allowed
to
give
visas.
His
signature
was
kept
in
a
safe,
and
nobody
was
allowed
to
see
it.
It
was
my
job
to
get
it.
ג€We checked on this man's private life. It appears he had
a
British
girlfriend
who
was
a
secretary;
his
hobby
was
sailing,
and
he
didn't
have
a
boat.
The
Etzel
and
Lehi,
who
we
were
dead
against,
they
had
boats.
They
had
founded
a
sailor's
club
[to
ferry
messages]
called
Zevulun.
So
we
invented
a
jubilee
--
25
years
of
the
Zevulun
club.
ג€There was a casino in Haifa, the Bat Galim, which was used
by
the
British
for
high
occasions.
We
decided
to
rent
it,
never
mind
the
money.
He
was
invited
as
the
guest
of
honor.
ג€We had planted a Jewish girl in his girlfriend's office
to
become
her
friend,
and
she
found
out
the
English
girl
was
madly
in
love
with
him,
but
he
wouldn't
marry
her.
ג€So we had a fair at this party, and I became a gypsy, very
old,
with
a
wig
--
a
soothsayer,
not
only
a
palm
reader,
but
signatures
too.
Of
course,
there
was
an
army
of
our
boys
and
girls
who
came
in
and
had
their
future
read.
I
prepared
little
pieces
of
paper,
with
their
signatures.ג€
Ruth warms to the memory. ג€We were laughing. I told them
all
sorts
of
jokes,
and
they
came
out
and
said,
'She's
fabulous,
she's
fantastic,
she
knew
my
past!'
The
whole
hall
was
talking
about
it.ג€
The Jewish girl lured her friend, who was mesmerized by this
gypsy's
knowledge
of
her
life.
Ruth
then
moved
in
for
the
kill:
she
said
she
could
ג€erase
the
bad
spellג€
on
her
boyfriend,
and
apply
a
good
spell
so
that
he
would
marry
her
--
if
only
she
could
see
his
signature,
which
she
needed
to
read
his
future.
Meanwhile,
other
Hagana
boys
were
plying
him
with
whisky.
And
he
fell
for
it.
ג€Five
minutes
after
he
was
seated,
his
signature
was
already
with
our
forger,
and
we
made
a
collective
visa
for
900
children.
Some
of
them
rose
high
in
the
military,
others
became
big
industrialists,
many
made
good.ג€
And where does Teddy fit in?
ג€When he heard I was engaged and going to Palestine, he became
a
monk.
He
entered
a
monastery,
broken-hearted.
ג€Years later, when he heard there were Jewish children running
around
parentless
in
the
woods
of
Europe,
he
took
his
Harley
Davidson
and,
in
his
white
robe
and
barefoot
and
in
sandals
--
he
was
known
as
the
Flying
Monk
--
he
put
these
children
in
monasteries.
Many of them ended up in Teheran.
ג€He saved them there, I saved them here. And we never knew
what
the
other was doing.
ג€His father told me the story long, long after the war. He
had
asked
Teddy
why
he
did
it,
and
he
said:
'I
loved
Ruth,
the
only
woman
I
ever
loved,
the
only
Jew
I
ever
knew.
And
when
I
heard
these
were
Jewish
children
--
that's
why
I
did
it.
In
every
child
I
picked
up,
I
saw
Ruth's
face.ג€™
ג€
