Paul (Mordechaj) Katriel

"We were waiting for a pilot to come and lead us. The doctor arrived, he checks the ship that there is no disease and we can raise the flag to indicate we are ready. The doctor didn’t even realise that he was aboard an Israeli ship. [...] The captain invited him to a drink for the Jewish New Year, Rosh-Hashanah. So he told the doctor: 'Let us have a drink for the New Year.' And he gave him a glass of wine. 'What new year?' 'Jewish New Year.' He realised that he was on an Israeli ship, he walked off. A few hours later a navy patrol arrived with machine guns in their hands, collected us all. They took the ship; we had to do what they told us to, they had guns. There was only one old pistol, in the captain’s room, because of regulations - if there was a mutiny so he could defend himself. And it had no [firing pin]. [...] That was broken, so he could not even shoot with it. They claimed that we had killed some Egyptian fishermen, some story, and they took us to the military prison. We were there almost a month I think. Did they give us a beating every day! My mother wouldn’t recognise me. My left eye had this color [pointing to a flower]. From my left ear there came out something like coke, but more yellow. I was more worried about the medicine he was dripping into my ear than about anything else. Then suddenly it stopped."

"My share starts from underground against the British, to bringing people escaping from the Nazis to Israel through the blockade of British. Through participating after the war to create the Israeli flag ships' crews, and then operating those ships, building those ships – preparing the information what is needed. […] They had a Power Department at the Navy ministry, it was dealing with factories, and I was a consultant for the Power Department, and I went from factory to factory, bringing the information for Lloyd Register."

"I was born in Trenčín. My name was, when I was born, Pavol Kathriel. In Hebrew that becomes Mordechai Katriel. […] I was born in the year 1929. My early years I forgot more or less what happened then. When I was 5 years old, our family with friends emigrated to Israel in the year 1935. My mother is Hungarian, her family came from Budapest, but branches of it were all over the places. Her uncle was an engineer from Košice. They spoke Hungarian, German, my mother learned to speak Russian. […]" (Q: "What do you remember from Slovak?") "Things which a small child might remember. A song or a few words or something. A, bé, cé, dé, kočka v létě, kocúr motá okola plota. [a nursery rhyme - transl.] This is a big success. Or: Tatičku, starý náš - no, I don’t know more. Etcetera. I can count: jedna, dva, tri, čtyři etcetera. I was born in a street which was called Hviezdoslavova ulice, tríceť - thirteen [in fact thirty - transl.]."