Between 1973 and 1993, over 30 of the 591 American ex-POWs from the Vietnam War (1973) published autobiographies; on the Israeli side, a book was written by only 1 of the 314 ex-POWs from the Yom Kippur War (1973). In the United States, their return transformed the POWs into national heroes. Alternatively, in Israel, the ex-POWs put on a thick cover of silence, to disappear from the public eye and the public discourse for almost twenty-five years. This article attempts to delve into the meaning of the voluntary reticence of Yom Kippur War ex-POWs. An examination of the complex relationship between their personal stories and Israel’s cultural code of captivity helps explain that silence. The article contributes to our understanding of the influence of cultural codes in the construction of military history, military autobiography, and military values and myths.
Elliott Gruner, Prisoners of Culture (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1993), 231-235.
2.
Ibid., 225-26.
3.
According to the official Israel Defense Force (IDF) spokesperson’s Web site, during the Yom Kippur War, 242 soldiers were captured on the Egyptian front, 68 in Syria, and 4 in Lebanon—all told, 314 POWs.
4.
In 1979, Lieutenant Colonel Assaf Yaguri published his autobiography, Living with Them, They Are All Mine [in Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Idanim). Three other autobiographies were published after 1998: Avi Weiss, A Prisoner of Egypt on the Yom Kippur War [in Hebrew] (Tel Aviv, Israel: Ministry of Defense, 1998) [to be distinguished from another Avi Weiss, an intelligence officer, mentioned in the text]; Yaakov Ariel, The Road to Damascus: Memories of Captivity [in Hebrew] (Tel Aviv, Israel: Sifriat Poalim, 1999); and Arie Segev, I Didn’t Complete the Assignment [in Hebrew] (Tel Aviv, Israel: Halonot, 2001). One biography was written after the death of ex-POW Hillel Onsdorfer: Menachem Michelson, Hillel from the Mezach Stronghold [in Hebrew] (Tel Aviv, Israel: Miskal, 1997).
5.
Scattered, sporadic stories were published from 1973 to 1998.
6.
Ronen Bergman and Gil Meltzer, “The Prisoner from the Cairo Hilton,”Yedioth Aharonot [Seven Days, Weekend Supplement], December 31, 2004.
7.
and John Hellmann, American Myth and the Legacy of Vietnam (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986).
8.
See, for example, Anita Shapira, “History and Memory—The Case of Latrun, 1948” [in Hebrew], Alpayim10 (1994): 9-41.
9.
See Nir Toib (director and producer), The Chinese Farm: Rashumon [in Hebrew] (2004).
10.
Shai Ginzburg, “Shaul Friedlander: Between History and Autobiography” [in Hebrew], Teoria Vebikoret17 (2000): 220-220.
11.
and Barry Schwartz, “The Social Context of Commemoration: A Study in Collective Memory,”Social Forces61 (1982): 374-402.
12.
Maurice Halbwachs, “Autobiographical Memory and Historical Memory: Their Apparent Opposition,” in The Collective Memory (New York: Harper, 1960), 59-59.
13.
Hayden White, “The Value of Moralitivity in Representation of Reality,”Critical Inquiry7, no. 1 (1980): 5-29.
14.
and Zehava Solomon, “Residues of Long-term Stress among Yom Kippur POWs” [in Hebrew], HaRefuah128 (1995): 65-71.
15.
Gruner, Prisoners of Culture, 37-37.
16.
The Masada ethos, an ancient ethos from the Second Temple period, tells the story of a group of Jews whocommittedsuicideratherthanfall into Romancaptivity. Daniel Bar-Tal, The Masada Syndrome: A Case of Central Belief (Jerusalem: The International Center for Peace in the Middle East, 1983).
17.
The Military Justice Law (1955) relates to the issue of captivity.
18.
During January 2005, prior to concludingthe draft of this article, I participated in a programtelevised on the Israel Broadcasting Authority’s Channel One, Politica. Part of it was dedicated to a discussion of the issue of POWs. As a result of the broadcast, several POWs turned to me, especially the prisoners’ wives, who expressed their desire to tell me their personal stories.
19.
Michelson, Hillel, 129-129.
20.
Ronen Bergman and Gil Meltzer, “The POW Who Talked (and Got a Citation for It)” [in Hebrew], Yedioth Aharonot, October 10, 2003.
21.
Josef Bar, “Many of Us Didn’t Sleep Nights and Sang Sad Songs,”Yedioth Aharonot, June2,1974.
22.
Weiss, Prisoner of Egypt, 86-86.
23.
Alex Doron,“Ona Clear Day You Can See Damascus”[in Hebrew], Maariv, December30,1999.
24.
Yitzchak Letz, “God, Oh God, Let It Be Over” [in Hebrew], Anashim, April 28, 1998.
25.
During World War II, Hanna Senesh volunteered to parachute into Hungary to help the Jews there escape. She was caught by the Nazis, tortured, and murdered.
26.
Letz, “God, Oh God.”
27.
Michelson, Hillel, 117-117.
28.
Bergman and Meltzer, “The POW Who Talked.”
29.
Rami Tal, Ronen Bergman, and Gil Meltzer, “The Man Who Told Everything” [in Hebrew], Yedioth Aharonot [Special supplement: Thirty years after the Yom Kippur War], October 5, 2003.
30.
Ariel, Road to Damascus, 53-53.
31.
Liat Ron, “POW Forever” [in Hebrew], Maariv, September 15, 2003.
Dalia Gavriely, “The Cultural Dimension of Strategic Surprise and the Yom Kippur War—The Representation of War in Israeli Culture 1967-1973” (Ph.D. diss., Tel Aviv University, 2005).
