28/9/99
Elie
Swed:
To
pray
to
die
Indescribable
horrors
are
too
familiar
to
our
people.
It
did
not
begin
or
end
with
the
Holocaust;
though
the
world
promised
"Never
Again,"
it
happened
again,
less
than
10
years
ago,
to
young
Elie
Swed.
Not
yet
30
when
he
was
thrown
deep
into
a
tiny
dungeon,
Elie's
best
years
were
spent
praying
for
a
merciful
death.
His
tormentors,
so
cruel
they
might
have
shocked
the
Nazis,
would
not
grant
him
such
satisfaction.
(That
is
the
Syrians,
with
whom
we
yearn
to
normalize
relations.)
Elie
cannot
speak
of
what
happened
to
him,
and
from
what
is
known,
no
one
can
imagine
what
he
endured.
What
is
known
comes
from
a
Canadian,
Judy
Feld
Carr,
whose
unbelievable
feats
in
almost
singlehandedly
rescuing
Syrian
Jewry
are
detailed
in
a
new
book
(she
was
profiled
in
this
column
in
May).
The
woman
they
call
"Mrs.
Judy"
is
a
vivacious,
youthful
grandmother.
Interviewed
last
week
in
Jerusalem,
she
recalled
the
desperate
efforts
to
rescue
Elie
and
his
brother
Selim,
who
suffered
alongside
him.
Incredibly,
this
story
has
a
happy
ending,
and
not
because
the
Swed
brothers
got
their
wish
and
died.
Truly
miraculously,
they
are
living
among
us.
CARCERATED
50
feet
below
ground,
in
a
hole
measuring
1
by
1.5
meters,
Elie
was
required
to
confess
to
having
spied
for
Israel.
He
had
been
here
to
visit
his
sisters,
and
was
photographed
by
a
Syrian
Jew
working
for
the
Muhabarat,
the
Syrian
secret
police.
What
he
said,
or
didn't
say,
didn't
matter.
For
almost
five
years
he
was
tortured,
tormented
and
maimed.
"Even
the
fillings
in
his
teeth
were
removed,
lest
he
might
be
concealing
something
in
his
mouth,"
writes
Harold
Troper
in
his
book
about
Judy
Carr's
rescue
of
Syrian
Jewry
(“The
Ransomed
of
God,”
Malcolm
Lester
Books,
Toronto).
"He
was
fed
once
a
day
--
a
cup
of
water,
a
single
pita
bread,
and
some
bean
mash...
"The
cell
had
no
toilet
facilities
and
Elie
was
only
permitted
to
relieve
himself
once
a
day...
He
was
often
beaten
for
asking
[to
go
more
often].
If
he
was
denied
permission
and
soiled
his
cell,
he
was
beaten
again."
"These
beatings
were
minor
compared
with
the
horrors
of
interrogation
and
systematic
torture...
No
atrocity
seemed
out
of
bounds..."
Judy
had
been
working
to
extract
Syrian
Jews
since
1972,
and
manipulated
the
corrupt
regime
by
building
up
an
extensive
secret
underground,
but
the
Sweds
were
beyond
its
reach.
"Elie
Swed
disappeared
for
two
years,"
she
relates.
"His
family
heard
nothing.
During
that
time
his
older
brother
Selim
goes
to
buy
Hanukka
candles
and
he's
taken
too.
They're
kept
in
adjoining
cells
--
unaware
of
each
other
--
for
two
years."
After
a
year
and
a
half,
in
1991,
Judy
got
a
message:
Two
men
had
been
arrested,
maybe
you
can
find
out
where
they
are.
"It
doesn't
take
me
very
long;
I
find
out.
The
Syrians
finally
admit
to
having
them,
and
they
will
be
charged
with
treason.
OK,
now
I
know
they're
alive.
What
do
I
do
next?
I've
got
to
show
the
Syrians
I
know
they're
in
prison,
so
I
do
something
I've
never
done
before:
I
write
a
letter
to
the
family,
to
Selim's
wife
Sara.
I
tell
her
I've
heard
about
what
happened,
do
they
need
anything,
do
they
have
food
for
their
seven
children.
"Now,
I
know
very
well
that
letter's
going
to
be
opened.
and
I
want
it
to
be
opened.
A
correspondence
starts
the
likes
of
which
you
can't
imagine.
It's
all
coded:
she
picks
up
my
codes,
I
pick
up
hers.
It
is
so
brilliant."
The
Swed
brothers
had
no
idea
what
was
going
on.
Global
changes
were
in
effect
that
would
ultimately
save
them:
the
fall
of
the
Soviet
Union,
the
loss
to
Syria
of
its
sponsor,
the
Gulf
War,
the
Madrid
Conference
--
and
Judy
Carr.
She
got
the
brothers
on
the
worldwide
diplomatic
agenda,
involving
the
White
House,
the
Kremlin,
the
Europeans,
everyone.
The
initial
breakthrough
was
astounding
in
its
monumental
insignificance:
the
Swed
brothers
were
permitted
medicine,
and
a
weekly
allotment
of
fresh
air
and
sunshine
--
"privileges"
that
each
cost
Judy
dearly
in
ransom
payments.
And
Sara
was
allowed
to
visit.
"She
goes
with
her
daughter,
