Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology ISSN No : 1006-7930
Architects of a Jewish Nation: A Historical Reading of Dominique
Lapierre’s A Thousand Suns
J. Sreethi Krishna, Dr. N. U.Lekshmi, Research Scholar Part-time Internal, Assistant Professor and Research Guide, Reg. No. 19223184012004 Department of English, Sree Ayyappa College for Women, Sree Ayyappa College for Women, Chunkankadai, Chunkankadai. Affiliated to Affiliated to Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Abishekapatti, Tirunelveli. Abishekapatti, Tirunelveli.
Abstract
Texts have universal significance. The French author Dominique Lapierre’s works are closely
linked to the American, Isreal and Indian history, politics, ideology, and culture. A Thousand
Suns by Dominique Lapierre chronicled some of the great historical moments with
personalities from all walks of life in a very extraordinary way. These historical moments and
encounters are analysed in the light of new historicism. In the book, Lapierre explored the
birth of the Jewish nation of Israel, through the eyes of its heroes like Ehud Avriel, David
Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir whose destinies have been world news. He shared the stirring
encounters with David Ben-Gurion in his kibbutz in the Neguev, and Prime Minister Golda
Meir in her two- roomed flat in Jerusalem. He narrated how Golda Meir saved the future state
of Israel by collecting more than fifty million dollars in a few weeks of a passionate trip
throughout the United States. He also shared the story of a relatively unknown Israeli named
Ehud Avriel, who revealed how he had been able to snatch tens of thousands of Jews from
Eichmann’s death camps and saved Israel by buying arms and ammunitions from
Czechoslovakia which permitted the Jews to survive the onslaught of five Arab armies in the
spring of 1948. The paper attempts a new historical reading of several adventures in A
Volume XII, Issue IV, 2020 Page No: 4221 Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology ISSN No : 1006-7930
Thousand Suns by unfolding some of the extraordinary episodes of the architects of the
Jewish nation.
Keywords: Crusades, Jerusalem, Israel, and history
New historicism is the representative historiography of significant historical events –
of events joined together by a narrative formation. Literature is simply a medium for the
expression of historical knowledge. It is an active part of a particular historical moment. The
French author Dominique Lapierre’s works are more or less like a collage of historical
snapshots. Regarding Lapierre, it is not the literary text that has integrated history, but history
in its turn has become the literary text. Dominique Lapierre in A Thousand Suns talks about
his visit to Jerusalem. He refers to Jerusalem as The Queen of cities, Capital of Abraham,
David, and Solomon. The city is also the place where Jesus was born so it is important for
Christianity and being formerly a part of the Ottoman Empire it is also significant for the
Arab Muslims. It is also the city for whose control Christians, Muslims, and Jews have been
fighting each other for centuries and for which several crusades have been fought by great
warriors like Godfrey de Bouilon, Richard the Lion Heart, Saladin and so on. Lapierre
remembers the great sacrifices that have been inflicted upon the city in the name of God
during the course of its long history. During the journey from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Lapierre
sees the evidence of the city’s violent past first hand. He sees wrecks of dozens of burnt out
trucks some decorated with flowers, inscriptions in Hebrew and commemorative plaques.
Upon questioning his driver, Lapierre comes to know that these were the result of an event
which took place in the spring of 1948 just weeks prior to the birth of the state of Israel.
Jerusalem was besieged by Palestinian Arab leader Abd el-Kader el_Husseini. David Ben
Gurion, the then Leader of the Jewish community in Palestine and the first Prime Minister of
the future Israel State had sent a convoy of three hundred trucks driven by immigrants who
had just arrived from Europe to help the Jewish inhabitants inside the city who were on the
Volume XII, Issue IV, 2020 Page No: 4222 Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology ISSN No : 1006-7930
verge of surrendering. The Arab troops ambushed the convoys massacring the drivers,
burning and pillaging the vital supplies they were carrying. Not even an ounce of food or pint
of water had reached the inhabitants of the city. The remains that littered the roadside serve
as a stark reminder of the terrible days when the future Jewish state was nearly wiped out
before it had even come into existence.
New historicism pays attention to whether the events derive historical significance or
not. In A Thousand Suns, Lapierre’s description of Ehud Avriel is historically more
important. Lapierre met Ehud Avriel the protagonist at a party hosted by the Israeli couple
Miles and Guita Sherover. He was also introduced to other top Israeli leaders like Vivian
Herzog, Ezer Weizman, Moshe Dayan and Yigael Yadin. Ehud Avriel, although unknown to
Israeli public at that time was one of the founding fathers of the state. He was the Israeli
ambassador to Rome.This was an official posting that was the pretext for two other epic tasks
crucial to the birth and survival of the Jewish state -Clandestine mass immigration of
European Jews to Israel and procuring the First arms that would save the country. Ehud was
of Austrian Descent. He was born in an old merchant family in the city of Vienna. He was an
aspiring lawyer, But deep down in his heart he wanted to build a future far away from
Vienna. He had been actively involved with a Zionist organization that ran agricultural
schools in Austria where young Austrian Jews were being taught how to work the Land upon
their return to the Promised Land. The only physical link that Ehud had with the Promised
Land was the Scent of Etrog, the Jasmine Scented Jaffa Lemon that Travelling friends used to
bring home.
New historicists pay significant attention to the place where the narrative account
derives its historical significance. In the book, extraordinary life epic had begun on a
glittering spring day in 1938. From Ehud Avriel’s Family’s living room on the Marcus
Aurelius Strasse, a twenty year old Avriel watched the arrival of Hitler’s troops to his city,
Volume XII, Issue IV, 2020 Page No: 4223 Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology ISSN No : 1006-7930
the First stage of Nazi conquest of Europe. It was not long before that Ehud and the 220000
Austrian Jews discovered the fate that was reserved for them. The Nazis were Planning to
swiftly get rid of the Jewish Vermin that was infecting the Third Reich. Openly taking the
road to Palestine was out of question . The British authorities who were administering the
region under pressure from their Arab allies reduced the immigration quotas, On March 22
1938 President Franklin D Roosevelt proposed an international conference of thirty three
nations including France, Great Britain and Italy to determine a common policy to help
political refugees driven out of Germany and Austria . The conference was opened on July 6
1938 in a ballroom at a Royal hotel at Evian-les-Bains. No Jewish leader had been invited to
Evian to speak for those suffering persecution. All the participating countries with the
exception of Dominican republic turned a blind eye to the Plight of the Jews. This event
made young Avriel realise that Jews could only look to themselves for their survival. The
unbearable situation altered the life of many including young Avriel. Immigration by
clandestine means had to be organized at once. This led to the formation of Mossad.
It is also a major historical event when Ehud Avriel and Mossad team returned from
Evian. They are convinced that Jews’s only chance was a clandestine mass exodus to
Palestine. Agents were dispatched to Romanian, Bulgarian ports on the black sea and to
Turkish coast and Greece to procure boats. All this had to be done without alerting the British
secret agents. Smaller boats had a greater chance of beating the British Surveillance on June
12 1938 sixty six young Austrians landed on David’s Creek. Emboldened by their success
Avriel and his companions spotted a boat of bigger capacity at the Greek port of Piraeus. The
Russian boat Attrato was capable of transporting six hundred passengers. In order to reach
Palestine the refugees needed a transit visa to cross Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania and
Greece, however, these were granted only upon the production of a passport duly stamped
with an entry visa for the country of destination. In the end it was not for Palestine that the
Volume XII, Issue IV, 2020 Page No: 4224 Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology ISSN No : 1006-7930
passengers of Attrato would set sail but to Mexico. It is due to this boat that thousands of
Jews escaped Nazi Persecution.
The British eventually hardened their attitude to Jewish migration. On May 17 1939
London announced the end of all Jewish Immigration and prohibited the Jews in Palestine
from buying further land. David Ben-gurion had replied “only Bayonets would stop Jewish
immigration” (156) this was taken as an open declaration of war. On September 2, 1939 a
rust bucket known as Tiger hill with Fourteen hundred Jews reached Tel Aviv from Romania,
the British Coast Guard opened fire. The British intercepted another boat off Istanbul, which
they took to Haifa under escort. They announced that the Refugees would be deported to
Paraguay which unleashed an immediate revolt. The Haganah, retaliated by blowing up
British Military installations. As a result of the violence the British renounced their plans to
deport the immigrants. Many other tragedies were to cast a shadow on the efforts of Avriel
and his companions. Many ships were in a pitiful state that they could not withstand the
storms of Black and marmara seas. The Salvador went down with 107 women and 66
children. The Struma with 769 Romanian refugees. Under pressure from the British that they
would suspend their oil purchases the Romanians closed their borders to the Jews who were
trying to reach the Mossad boats in the Black sea ports. In Yugoslavia, a convoy of eleven
hundred refugees were blocked by ice when near Belgrade. On April 7, 1941 the Nazi
invaders of Yugoslavia emptied their machine guns on the camp. Not one single person
survived. Avriel and his companions had to abandon their headquarters in Vienna and shift to
Istanbul. They later bought a whole flotilla of Fishing boats since these boats were too small
to show up on the radar screens of the British Patrol.
For new historicism the object of study is not the text and its context, not literature and
its history, but rather literature in history. In A Thousand Suns, Avriels’s Priorities changed
with he end of the second world war. His mission was to save Jewish people from the gas
Volume XII, Issue IV, 2020 Page No: 4225 Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology ISSN No : 1006-7930
chambers which was a strictly historical as well as humanitarian. After the war, his main
objective was to increase the Jewish population in Palestine thereby showing the British that
the right of the Jews to return to their land was not a matter of negotiation. In December
1945, Ben-Gurion held a meeting with Avriel and his companions at the Claridge hotel in
Paris it was decided that the survivors of the Holocaust need to be brought to Palestine and a
new Jewish state need to be formed. Prior to bringing the immigrants Military Training was
to be provided to them. Training was decided to be carried out in Europe considering the
political situation in Palestine as the British Government there was hostile. France became
the logical choice. Avriel moved to Paris together with his companions, they rented a small
apartment at 53 rue de ponthieu which became the headquarters of the Mossad in Europe.
The escalation of violence was becoming inevitable. The inevitable day when Britain
would have to give up its mandate was imminent. On Saturday, November 29, 1947 it was
decided when the United Nations voted to divide Palestine in to a Jewish State and an Arab
state. This double birth was to take place on May 15 1948. Following this Avriel met up with
Ben-Gurion in Jerusalem, During the meeting the future prime minister informed Avriel that
a war was imminent and the Jews had to be prepared. He instructed Avriel to go back to
Europe for procuring Arms and ammunition, which was vital for the Jewish war effort. Ben-
Gurion handed him a note, which read “ten thousand rifles, one million rounds of
ammunition one thousand sub machine guns, five hundred machine guns” (164). Avriel was
supposed to contact a Jewish businessperson named klinger in Paris to get this merchandise.
Avriel managed to obtain all necessary international export and transit licenses
without mishap now all that was necessary was to find a boat that would break through the
British blockade to take the whole lot to Palestine. After weeks of searching, he eventually
found in the Yugoslavian port of Rijeka a boat by the name Nora prepared to take some of the
arms. To divert the attention of the British customs officers he covered the armaments with
Volume XII, Issue IV, 2020 Page No: 4226 Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology ISSN No : 1006-7930
hundreds of tons of onions in various stages of decay. These light weapons would be
ineffective against tanks cannons and the airpower of the Arab regular armies. Ben-Gurion
having anticipated this sent Avriel a fresh telegram for buying weapons tanks cannons and
even planes .At least 25 to 30 million dollars was needed and obtaining the funds was the
next big challenge.
New historicism is subject to specific historical conditions and becomes prominent in
specific circumstances at specific times. They always fit into a representative narrative
account. Golda Meir the Future Prime Minister of Israel is another significant historical
figure in the book. She was the one tasked with obtaining the Funds by Ben- Gurion. Eliezier
Kaplan the treasurer had returned almost empty handed from United States. The American
Jewish Community which had been the primary support for the Zionist movement, was
becoming more tired with repeated appeals for funds. Golda Meir made a famous speech in
front of the American Jewish community in Chicago on January 1948 . Excerpts of this
speech has been documented by Lapierre in the novel. By the end of the meeting a million
dollars had been collected. For the first time in the history of Zionist fund raising money was
made available immediately. Delegates called their bankers and arranged loans in their own
names for the sums they thought they could collect from their communities. Amazed by the
success, the American Zionist leaders urged Golda Meir to go all over America.
Accompanied by Henry Morgenthau, Roosevelt’s former secretary of treasury and by a group
of financiers, Golda Meir went on a pilgrimage from town to town. Every time she delivered
a speech, she was met with a positive response. The Jewish community responded to her
pleas with the same generosity. Every evening she sent a telegram to Tel Aviv with the total
amount collected for that day. Having arrived in New York with a ten dollar bill, Golda Meir
was able to raise fifty million dollars. The Figure was ten times what the treasurer Kaplan had
Volume XII, Issue IV, 2020 Page No: 4227 Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology ISSN No : 1006-7930
hoped and twice what Ben-Gurion had set himself. It even exceeded. It exceeded all the oil
revenues of Saudi Arabia the largest oil producer for the year 1947.
Ehud Avriel was now in a position to acquire tanks, cannons and airplanes that Ben-
Gurion had hoped for. He soon became Czechoslovakia’s best arms and Ammunition
customer. In the spring of 1949, an armistice was drawn up on the island of Rhodes at the
instigation of the United nations between Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria which put
an end to the Israeli war of independence. The young Nation had survived the assault of five
armies and paid heavily for its victory. Approximately six thousand of its citizens had laid
down their lives for the birth of the new nation. The nation of Israel still needed Ehud
Avriel’s services, Czechoslovakia the country that sold him arms and Ammunition would see
him return in the role of ambassador. Avriel was next assigned to Ghana, Congo, Liberia,
Rome and Chicago. In the mid seventies, this position was even more important than any
ministerial position in the Jerusalem government. The American Midwest was full of young
American Jews returning from Vietnam after the Vietnam war who could be persuaded to
emigrate to Israel. This was to be his last crusade. Yahud Avriel died of a massive heart
attack while giving a speech in Jerusalem on the diaspora of American Jews.
New historicism deals with the relationship between literature and history, and shares
an understanding of the texts of all kinds as both products and functional components of
social and political formations. Lapierre’s A Thousand Suns has essential historical truth to
impart. The paper depicts several spectacular characters who are more or less the heroes and
also their sacrifices without which the Jewish nation would not have been a reality.
Volume XII, Issue IV, 2020 Page No: 4228 Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology ISSN No : 1006-7930
Works Cited
Brannigan, John. New Historicism and Cultural Materialism. Macmillan, 1998.
Lapierre, Dominique. AThousand Suns. Full Circle, 1999.
Lapierre, Dominique. The City of Joy. Full Circle Publishing, 1999.
Manmohan. Twentieth Century Literature in English. Atlantic Publishers and
Distributors, 1986.
Veesar, H Aram. The New Historicism. Routledge, 2013.
Volume XII, Issue IV, 2020 Page No: 4229