Transcript of interview with Gilbert D. Yarchever by Claytee White, 2006

An Interview with Gilbert D. Yarchever An Oral History Conducted by Claytee D. White The Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project Oral History Research Center at UNLV University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas ?The Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2007 Produced by: The Oral History Research Center at UNLV - University Libraries Director and Editor: Claytee D. White Assistant Editors: Gloria Homol and Delores Brownlee Transcribers: Kristin Hicks and Laurie Boetcher Interviewers and Project Assistants: Suzanne Becker, Nancy Hardy, Joyce Moore, Andres Moses, Laura Plowman, Emily Powers, Dr. Dave Schwartz n The recorded interview and transcript have been made possible through the generosity of Dr. Harold Boyer and the Library Advisory Committee. The Oral History Research Center enables students and staff to work together with community members to generate this selection o f first-person narratives. The participants in this project thank the university for the support given that allowed an idea the opportunity to flourish. The transcript received minimal editing that includes the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader?s understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language o f the narrator. In several cases, photographic sources (housed separately) accompany the collection as slides or black and white photographs. The following interview is part of a series of interviews conducted under the auspices of the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Additional transcripts may be found under that series title. Claytee D. White, Project Director Director, Oral History Research Center University Nevada, Las Vegas iii Table of Contents Bom in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; graduated high school 1937; living through the Depression; encountering prejudice when applying for work; mention of Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria-Hungary, granting mother?s family the last name of Kurfeerst; description o f Seder; taking government exam, moving to Washington, D.C.; recalling atmosphere of anti-Semitism; activities in Washington...................................................1-10 Recalling December 7th, 1941; preparing to go to Africa as administrative assistant; remembering search for birth certificate; taking passage on an armed merchant ship; the long journey to Africa; searching in Asmara, Alexandria, Damascus, Baghdad, Basrah, and Haifa for the major he was assigned to; anecdote about Lawrence of Arabia; helping Dave Krashevsky smuggle Jewish refugees into Jerusalem; serving as court reporter for British forces; assigned by Colonel Lieber to act as position classification analyst; negotiating with Arab sheikhs to pay native laborers to work on road; anecdote regarding Madam Litsus, pianist; mention of Yaffa Eliach and Elie Wiesel and their efforts to start the Holocaust museum........................................................................................................11-20 Connecting with a survivor 60 years later; torpedoed and sunk in the Panama Canal; working six months in Panama before finding passage back to the States; working with Jack Small (Munitions Board) in D.C.; mention of Herman Wouk; joining the Navy; assigned to the San Clemente in charge of supplies; back to New York to join wife after mustering out.......................................................................................................................21-30 Recalling duties as onshore patrol while serving on the San Clemente', discussion of Kamikaze pilots; more concerning Jack Small and the Munitions Board; story about Werner von Braun; meeting Herschel Aurbach, to whom von Braun had surrendered; moving with family to Panama; lengthy discussion of efforts to solve wage problems on behalf of Panamanians; early return to States because of wife?s illness; working for Department of Army, then assignment in Japan; details on life in Japan; moving the job to Hawaii............................................................................................................................ 31-40 Further comments on job in Okinawa and Hawaii; short description of wife?s point of view on all the traveling; details on job description; family recreation while abroad; lengthy discourse on assignment in Alaska; wife?s contribution to Alaskans and Hawaiians; changes seen in Hawaii; seeking education in most job assignment locales; setting up the EXCEL program at UNLV with Mrs. Harris and Stephanie Smith; further explanation of job duties on the West Coast and the tortuous path through Sacramento, Hawaii, and Chicago before retiring to Las Vegas in 1977...........................................41-50 Anecdote about Korean assignment; deciding to retire in Las Vegas; purchasing condo in Regency Tower; discussion of art collection; involvement in consultant work; traveling the USA and abroad; working with the EXCEL program at UNLV; participating in choir activities; marriage to second wife Edythe; award for work in Korea during JFK?s administration; last anecdote about helping others in his career...................................51-60 I V Preface Gilbert Yarchever was one of nine siblings, born and bred in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He describes the way his mother?s family was granted the last name of ?Kurfeersf ? by Emperor Franz Joseph (of Austria-Hungary), explains the Seder (the Jewish observation o f the exodus o f Hebrews from Egypt), and tells what it was like to survive the Depression. Gilbert describes the jobs he held after high school and the government examination he took that led to his lifetime of adventure and travel. He moved to Washington, D.C., in 1940 and kept himself busy working for the government and taking classes at George Washington University, as well as working part time at Hecht Department Store and as a freelance court reporter. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Gilbert was sent to Africa on a merchant ship, helped smuggle Jewish survivors into Jerusalem, and was assigned the task of negotiating with Arab sheikhs for laborers to build a road. In the years after that, he worked in Europe, Panama, Alaska, Japan, and Hawaii and describes many of the jobs he was responsible for and many o f the individuals he met. He also married and had children, kept up with university classes whenever he could, and collected art objects and paintings. Following his retirement in 1977, Gilbert and his family came to Las Vegas and bought a condo in Regency Towers. He did some consulting work for a couple of years, and then he and his wife began traveling around the states and going abroad. He was involved with UNLV?s EXCEL program, the music department, and the Las Vegas Art Museum. (He and his second wife Edythe presented the first major exhibition on Holocaust art at the museum.) These days Gilbert often donates pieces from his art collection to churches, synagogues, and charitable organizations. v This is Claytee White. It is April 3rd, 2006. This is the Oral History Research Center at UNLV. And today we're interviewing? Gilbert D. Yarchever. Okay. Gilbert, we are here today because of your interesting life. But first tell us about your childhood, where you grew up, how many were in the family, just about your childhood. Well, that's interesting considering that I just received a call from my grandnephew regarding the birth o f my great grandniece. And it's been a big family. I was one of nine siblings. My mother, who was a very wonderful lady, married my father following the death of his first wife who had eight of the nine children and took them over and took care of them and, of course, the family. I was the baby. I was the baby of the family. Despite the fact that they had a new mother, I was more or less ? I never even thought of having what you would refer to as half brothers and a half sister. There were seven boys and myself, which made eight, and my one sister. She was the second oldest. And, of course, she was like a second mother to me because with everything my mother had to do, she was the one that really took care o f me. I had a nice childhood. I was brought up in what I'd like to say was very free of any prejudices because I was brought up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where we had all races in the school. I never even heard of discrimination, per se, until I went to Washington ? and that's another story ? where I was absolutely shocked to find that when I got on the bus to go to my first morning o f work there, I went to sit in a vacant seat in the back and was told I couldn't sit there; that I had to sit up front. And I said, "Well, there weren't any seats up front." They said, "It makes no difference. Then you'll have to stand. But you can't sit back there." I said, "I don?t see why not." And I sat down in the seat. And this black gentleman got up to me and said, "You're going to have to move." He said, "You're not really supposed to be here." And I said, "I don't understand what you mean." And he said, "Only the blacks can sit back here. The whites have to sit up front," which was kind of a turnabout, to put the blacks in the positive and the whites in the negative. 1 But at any rate, getting back to my childhood, I was fortunate to have some wonderful teachers at both my grade school and my high school. I graduated cum laude with a four-point average as you would refer to it today, o f which I'm very proud. Of course, I don't know why because I never really had to study. Somehow or other, I always seemed to know the answers. That's what brought me to the forefront, I guess, in my future career with the government. So tell me about your education once you finished high school. Well, I finished high school, Taylor Alterdyce High School, in February of 1937. It's an interesting story as to why it was a mid semester and why it was actually in '37 instead of June of '36. I guess I was about four years old ? or three or four ? when I used to follow my brothers to school. And in those days, you know, approximately 80 years ago, people didn?t worry too much about their children, you know, being away. At the community, you knew everybody in Hazelwood, which is where I was brought up, a suburb of Pittsburgh. I wandered into the kindergarten class because there were a lot of kids in there, of course, and they were doing things that most kids of five or six would be doing. And even though I was four, I sort of felt, well, you know, it was fun. So I went in. The teacher just acted as if I belonged there. And I attended it. Believe it or not, I used to go to kindergarten every year for two years. I would wander into the school and walk in there and so forth. Most people knew the Yarchever family, too, and teachers knew. So there I was one day, and it was coming up around Christmastime or our Hanukkah time. And my teacher came over and said, "Gilbert, how old are you?" And I said, "Six?" And she said, "Well, I think it's about time you went into first grade." She said, "We have to get your registered." So she registered me. And, of course, it was in the middle of a semester. I couldn't go right into first grade then. So I wound up going into first grade in February, where I should have gone in there the September before. But at any rate - So your parents didn't catch that? Well, no, because they knew I was there and they didn't think anything of it. I mean, all my brothers were going there and so forth. So I went on to Taylor Alterdyce. Actually, I went to a junior high, Gladstone Junior 2 High, where I was preparing myself basically for business. I wasn't too sure about whether I would be able to go to college because it was the Depression. My family was having considerable difficulties because my father was quite a philanthropist, although we were not wealthy people. But we did have our stores. And in those days, people just ran up a monthly credit bill. And then at the end o f the month, they'd come to pay their bill and that would be it. Well, of course, when the Depression happened in '29 and '30, people couldn't quite pay their bills. My father would never turn them down. He would also see that they got what they wanted. And he said, "Well, you'll be able to pay someday." And as a matter of fact, it got so bad that many of them would come to my father because he did own the properties, and they couldn't borrow any money from anywhere unless they had a signer for collateral. A co-signer. And my father did. He just went right ahead and signed off for them because he kept telling my mother, "Well, you know, they have to eat." Finally, we reached a point where we just lost everything because then the creditors began to close in on the notes that he had signed for other people because they couldn't pay. But then we had to move to this much smaller house ? we had been living in a large three-floor house. The first floor at the front was one of the stores. We had two stores. What kind of stores? They were fruit and vegetable, but we also had meats and all sorts of condiments and that. It was a regular grocery store. And all of us helped out in the store. I mean, we all worked. I'll never forget after we moved into this very tiny house, which was literally right in the back of the railroad tracks. The railroad tracks ran behind us. But somehow or other, we sort of managed. There's a very interesting story about my mother, God bless her. She never said anything. But come Passover time when we had to get special foods, my father had to go to a certain place to buy all these kosher foods that were specific for Passover. My mother said, "Well, Joe, here is the money for the things. You go and get the stuff." And he said, "Well, what money?" She said, "I've been saving it. I knew we would have to have it." And she said, 3 A penny here, a penny there, and there was enough to start buying some of the stuff." He came home about an hour or two later and he walked in. And she said, "You want me to help you?" He said, "No, no." She said, "Well, where is the food?" He said, "Well, you know, Smule (phonetic)," which means Sam, "down the street, his horse just died." And she said, "Well, what has that to do with getting the food?" He said, "Well, how can he work to make some money for food for his family?" She said, "Joe, you didn't." And he said, "Well, I had to. I couldn't leave the man there. He has to rent a horse. We'll manage somehow. We'll manage somehow." But those were the kind of things that I think motivated me for all the future endeavors that I got into after I graduated from high school. I had received a scholarship to two universities. I couldn't accept them because they were strictly scholarships for, of course, the tuition, but they didn't include the cost of the books and certainly didn't include the cost of where you were going to stay. You know what I'm talking about. So I had to forego those. But I did take an examination, a federal examination, because I knew at a certain point for a certain reason that I was not going to be able to get much employment in Pittsburgh. And I'll tell you why. When I graduated -- as I mentioned before, I graduated cum laude ? I had a major offer from Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation. I went over. I was interviewed. Oh, it was fine. Everything was wonderful and so forth and so on. And I was told to report on Monday to go to work. Well, I got up Monday. I went to the office and walked in. And I said ? oh, I forgot. He told me on Friday, he said, "Now, stop by the personnel office and fill out whatever forms they have because they're going to have to know all the things for payroll and the records." So I went down and I filled it out. There were a lot of questions, some of which you can't ask today if you're being employed. Well, those questions were there. So when I got in Monday, I was told when I walked in and started to look around, they said, "Oh, Gilbert" -- already I was Gilbert, not Mr. Yarchever as I was when they were interviewing me - "I?m sorry to tell you this, but the job's been filled." I said, "It's been filled?" I said, "Friday it was practically closing time, and you told me I was to report Monday for the job." I was told, "Oh, well, we didn't know that they had already found someone." And it suddenly dawned on me why 4 because, obviously, my religion was identified on the form. So what I said before about non-prejudice, I meant it within our own family and within my own associates and so forth. Sure, I was subject to anti-Semitism, the same as all of us were back in those days that were Jewish. Now, what about the last name? Was that a Jewish last name? No. Yarchever ? well, there are two names. There's Kurfeerst and Yarchever. Kurfeerst was my mother's family name. Would you spell that for us, please? K-u-r-f-e-e-r-s-t. In Europe it would have been K-u-r-f-u-e-r-s-t, Kurfuerst, which means first of the crown. And I'll tell you a story about that. And by the way, my father and my mother were first cousins because my mother's father ? I mean, my mother's uncle was my father's father. And my father's mother was an aunt of my mother. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. Anyhow, however it sounds ? if s kind of complicated, I know. But the name Yarchever stems from a title sort of like a governor or what have you, a person who sort o f is the so-called mayor or main person for this particular community in Europe where he was raised and lived before he came to the United States in 1907. My mother whose name was Kurfeerst, her name was given to her family by Franz Joseph, Emperor o f Austria, Hungary, because one of my ancestors apparently had thwarted an assassination attempt on Franz Joseph's life and he got word to the proper authorities that this was going to happen. And, of course, they presumably apprehended the culprits that were about to do this. As a result, Franz Joseph wanted to give him something. Well, I must presume that my family was relatively well off, the Kurfeerst family. My great-great whoever it was, said, "Well, really what we would like to have is a name," because back in those days people - even non-Jews did not have last names. They were either John the son of so-and-so, which ultimately became Johnson and so forth and so on. Only the aristocrats had what was the equivalent of a last name, although even they didn't because if you will go through history, you'll see that most o f the people are so-and-so of a particular area. Like right now our very dear friend is the Contessa de Pamri. Her name is Ester. So she's Ester de Pamri, 5 Ester of Pamri, o f that area. So my ancestor apparently said, "Well, what I would like to have is a name." And the emperor said, Well, I will give you a name that can only be given to the successor of the crown, the first family o f the crown. You will be called Kurfeerst." And today our good friend Don Katzberg who is, of course, a great-great-great-great grandson ot Queen Victoria and a nephew of Franz Joseph happens to be, by coincidence, a very close triend that we met quite a number o f years ago. As a matter of fact, there's a picture of Franz Joseph as a young man, which has been in our family for many, many years. But I don't know if we can get that or not. That's when he was a young man, Franz Joseph. So that's the story of the names. Okay, great. You know what I'd like to have you do ? and this is for audiences that are non-Jewish. Even though we know the history of the Passover, can you explain the celebration? Yes. The Seder, of course, is a celebration of the liberation of the Jews from Egypt. During the time o f the exodus, as you would refer to it, from Egypt, there was no time to prepare food as you normally would. You know, taking sometimes a day or two in advance for the making of bread, which in those days you would let rise and remain for a while and then put into the ovens. Sometimes it took days to prepare meals and so forth. The Seder itself - Seder means an order o f things ? contains foods that were symbolic of the time when Moses was leading the people o f Israel out of Egypt in the 40 years when they were traveling day after day after day. I have a cute cartoon on the refrigerator that has a woman talking to another woman about the amount o f time. And there's Moses and we still haven't come to the area yet. But he's a man. Would he ask directions? That's good. So at any rate, the Seder is to remind us of the trials and tribulations that we went through during the period o f our slavery in Egypt and to celebrate, in a way, the freedom that we finally managed to obtain as a result of God's intervention. So after trying for the job at the steel company, what did you do? 6 Well, while I waited, I decided to take a government examination, which was then known as ? how was it ? clerical administrative examination, which would cover just about everything including, by the way, shorthand and typing, which I had taken in high school and was, if I must say so myself, quite good at. I began to earn some money while I was in college as a court reporter. So I took the exam. I don't remember the score, but it had to be very, very high because I received more telegrams from Washington and from other states, government activities, than you could shake a stick at. There must have been a dozen or more telling me to report, that they had decided to employ me, et cetera, et cetera, and please contact them. Well, among them, the Corps o f Engineers had a position of an administrative assistant secretary. It sounded good and it was in Washington, D.C., where I knew I would be close to several universities ? American, Maryland and George Washington University ? and I could go there at night. So off I went to Washington. But in the interval between the time that I had graduated from high school and then went on to Washington, I worked in a couple of relatively minor jobs. I went to one as sort of a gofer and wound up being a dispatcher for the Bendix Corporation in terms of their calls on repair service and all that. I remember I also worked for a friend of my father's who had an auto agency, and it was to deliver automobiles to the various purchasers. And it was the year when the automatic shift came into being. And all I knew was the regular shift. They showed me how to work the shift. I did all right until I got downtown in the middle of Pittsburgh. And somehow or another, I don't know, the engine stopped or whatever it may be. That would happen regardless in these cars. And I couldn't start it. At that time it was relatively new. And I wasn't aware until they sent one of the mechanics down after I had tied up traffic for hours in the middle of Pittsburgh. He got in there and pushed the gear forward into neutral or park and then started the car. Well, I didn't know you had to take it out of gear in order to start the car. Well, I still worked for him until I got the word from Washington to come in. Then when I got to Washington, it was wonderful, of course, my experience. But my family wanted to make sure that I retained my Judaic origins. So they had investigated and they were the ones that found a kosher boarding house for boys in Mrs. Siegle's Kosher Boarding 7 House for Boys in the District o f Columbia. So when I got into Washington, she had met me, Mrs. Siegle. She was a widow with two girls, two daughters, who were the only girls in the house, young children. The rest of us were all boys. It was nice. She had about four bedrooms. In the smaller bedrooms there were two fellows, and in the larger ones there would be three. And she had the most delicious breakfasts and lunches and dinners, always. We had breakfast and then she would pack a lunch for us. Then we would get home and have dinner. All of that I remember very definitely because it impacted on my salary, which at that time was just $1440 a year. I paid $40 a month for room and board. It was all kosher. Then subsequently, I moved somewhere else later on. But that was to "pyro" as she called it, a classier section of town. I had been promoted a couple o f times in that short time and wound up being an administrative assistant to the deputy chief o f construction for the Corps of Engineers. Of course, I always had in my ? oh, I didn't tell you. When I graduated from high school, I really wanted to get into the service because I knew what was happening in Europe. You know, it was in '39. I knew it was happening, and I wanted to get in there. Perhaps I could do something. And when I applied for the Navy, they turned me down because they claimed that I had to go home for six months and eat carrots to improve my eyesight. Well, there never was anything wrong with my eyesight. And, of course, that still was, unfortunately, a mark o f prejudice that existed with respect to the anti-Semitism. So which year did you move to Washington, D.C.? I moved to Washington, D.C. in early 1940. I remember it had to be either December of 1939 or January o f--n o . Wait a minute. In 1941, I'm sorry. I think I moved in 1940. My father had just died in, I think, 1939. So how did your mother, then, and the rest of your family feel about your leaving Pittsburgh and going to Washington, D.C.? You know, we get wrapped up in our lives. As far as my brothers were concerned, "Yeah, okay, okay, just take care o f yourself and make sure you're okay. Oh, boy, we got a politician now in the family." You know, that type of thing. 8 So were you the first of the nine to leave Pittsburgh? Actually, yes. Yes, I was, because not too long after, some of my brothers moved to Phoenix and to Los Angeles during the early 40s. So 1939, H itler invaded Poland ? Right. ? starting World War II. Right. What was the talk in the Jewish community? Hitler had already started tremendously abusing the Jewish population. Right. Was there talk in the community? In Pittsburgh there were somewhat what you would call drives to collect monies to send. But most o f the people in Pittsburgh that had families in Europe were already sending as much as they could and so forth and so on. I know my father had a cousin in Europe. Later on we found he had a half sister. That's another tragic story. There was a certain amount o f awareness, but it wasn't as defined as it became in the later years, in '39. There was some sort o f hints about it. But, of course, there was so much anti-Semitism at that time. And Roosevelt was often the target for some of these bigots that would refer to him, "Oh, Frightened D. Rosenberg." You know, that happened. So the Jewish people kind of didn't say too much about it because there was a feeling ? didn't want to get into a war. And there was an undercurrent of ?we?re not getting into the war because of the Jews,? that type o f thing. When I got to Washington and then began working at what they called Buzzard's Point, which was the Corps o f Engineers ? later on we moved into the Pentagon before it was finished; we were the very first group to move into the Pentagon - there was a greater understanding of what was going on in Europe but not so much with respect to the Jews, but with respect to Hitler himself and his modus operandi, if you want to call it that. I could call it something else, but it wouldn't be nice for television. Yes. That's right. 9 So what w as the difference between your life in Pittsburgh and your move to Washington, D.C.? How did it change? Well, I became more ? I don't know ? more aware of ? I don't know if there was sort of more ot a social commentary that had come out, really. When I was in Pittsburgh, I had friends, Jewish as well as non-Jewish. And we had our little parties. But, generally, it was like a regular... But when I got there, I suddenly was exposed to a lot of things. I was always a very avid reader. And, of course, I was always reading The Post. (End side 1, tape 1.) It was very exciting because in Pittsburgh, I mean, we all knew the Heinz factory and we all knew the Mellon Institute and the Carnegie Museum and we had field trips there and so forth. But in Washington, D.C., gosh, we had the National Gallery of Art, we had the archives, we had the U.S. Capitol. There was so much to see and do. And I was so excited. And then, also, there was a park. That was Rock ? I can't remember the name. Rock Springs. Rock Springs Park was right alongside the side of 16th Street where I had moved to later on. And there were tennis courts right across the way, and I was able to get up and 6:00 in the morning, 5:30 or 6, and go over and play tennis and then get back. It was a different life, you know. But my time in Washington wasn?t that long because it was in November and I had only been about a year away from home. At the time I was working for the government, I was taking classes at George Washington University, working part time at Hecht department store and also working as a freelance court reporter. I mean, that's what you did in those days. When you were trying to help out your family at home and you found yourself with a little more expenses than $40 a month, you needed some extra cash. And we worked and didn?t think too much of it. It was just that. I had a wonderful mentor there. He was the colonel, the deputy chief of construction. He took a great interest in what I was doing. He said, "You know, we've got a position for a legal assistant. You're taking law. It's an assignment that is outside the country. I can't tell you 10 anything about it other than you would be working outside of the United States." And I thought, gee, that's great because I was a Swiss Family Robinson family and, you know, Treasure Island, all that sort o f stuff. And going abroad was something that ? really, oh, that's great. So I said, "Well, yes, I'd be glad to go." So I was filling out some of the papers and all. Then along came December 7th, and all hell broke loose because it was on a Sunday. I remember I was studying some of my class material. I got a call from the colonel. He said, "Can you come to the Pentagon today?" I said, "Of course." He said, "Well, we're going to be working around the clock, and I need you very badly." So I immediately got on the bus and took off for the Pentagon. So what was the atmosphere like in Washington, D.C. on that day? Oh, it was ? I mean, people were just aghast for one thing, and they were angry for another thing. And the people were crying. Other people were saying, "Oh, that's the Nazis" - not Nazi, but they used some offensive words about the Japanese, which we all knew they used in those days, for a good reason. When I got to the office, there was a lot of work waiting for me to do, a lot of supply material to work up to get going because we had already been aware of the fact that the next day Roosevelt was going to declare war. I took just a few minutes out to contact my two congressmen and senators from Pennsylvania and asked them if they could arrange for passes for the hearings tomorrow when the president spoke. And I still have those passes. I was there when ? When he went before Congress? When he said, "This is a day o f infamy." Uh-huh, I was there at that. As a matter of fact, there are a lot o f historical times when I managed somehow or other to be there. Why did you even think that that was going to be such an important speech? Well, wouldn't you? Yeah. I mean, we're declaring war. And we knew the war was on in Europe. We knew all the efforts that were being made to stay out of the war, but we also knew some of the things that were being done for Great Britain in order to be of some assist despite the opposition. And there 11 was tremendous opposition in those days. Things were said on the House floor that would never be allowed today, discussions that were held regarding the Jewish problem. And the things that some ot these senators and congressmen would say about the Jews... Even not too long ago, there was a certain person, a very high level position ? as a matter ot tact ? I m not going to mention names ? but at one point in time, and this is just a few years ago and it s in one o f the books written about him where he said he used this word beginning with F, "F the Jews. They won