Sami Anbar
I am a third generation Egyptian whose family originally came from Iraq. Life in Egypt was wonderful until the 1948 war with Israel. Two thousand innocent Jewish-Egyptian men were arrested and sent to a prison camp (El-Tur) in the Sinai desert. It became difficult for Jews to obtain permission to travel abroad and impossible to get jobs unless they had their own business. Jewish owned companies were no longer allowed to do business with the Egyptian Government.
On July 1st 1956 my mother, sister Laila, and I went to Switzerland on holiday, while my father went to Montreal. During this time, Egypt and Israel went to war. Our business, apartment and car, were expropriated by the Egyptian Government. Our family was among a list of Jews accused of having “sucked the blood of Egypt.” Around September of 1956, four men in uniform stormed into my grandfather’s office and told him to sign a paper saying he was giving his business and property to the Egyptian Government. When he asked why, one of the soldiers took a revolver out of his holster and pointed it at my grandfather’s forehead. “Because you are a Zionist.” My grandfather signed. Advised not to return to Egypt my mother, sister and I stayed in Vienna, Austria for 2 years in a tiny room with one bed in a guesthouse.
My father decided in early 1957 to return to Egypt, as the situation had somewhat calmed down. The Egyptian Government decided to return a few businesses, but Jews had to pay a tax equivalent to 10% of the value of all our assets to get everything back. In 1958 my grandfather died a heart-broken man. My father then decided to leave. But Jews who had gotten their businesses back could not leave without keeping a family hostage in the country. Because my father had once done a favor for the relative of a high ranking official, he was able to receive authorization to go on a business trip.
My parents moved to Milan, Italy and my sister and I went to school in Britain. In 1959 the Egyptian Consulate in Milan refused to renew our Egyptian passports beyond six months. We became Austrian citizens.
Egyptian Resources
