It soon became clear to Herbert that it wouldn’t be safe for him to return to Kemnitz, and shortly afterwards, he and Annie decided to emigrate to Mandatory Palestine. Herbert’s acknowledgement that there would be no need for doctors in Palestine led him to study auto mechanics to be able to make a living there. Indeed, as will be seen below, this occupational change forced upon him by the immigration was one of the many difficulties he and his wife had to face.

A letter sent by Annie Hamburger to her acquaintance, Uli, on September 25, 1933, shed light on the Hamburgers’ very first encounter with their new home in Mandatory Palestine: the moment of arriving in Palestine, the significant difference between life in Europe and life in the Levant, and the everyday hardships that new immigrants had to face. As explained to Uli in her letter, the imbroglio and clutter in Palestine prevented Annie from expressing a coherent and clear view about her new life in Mandatory Palestine, despite knowing that her relatives and friends were eager to hear from her. It was only after eight weeks following her arrival in Palestine did she feel that she had seen and heard enough to be able to share her personal experiences.

The mess and disorder in Mandatory Palestine, as Annie shared, and what she referred to as the daily “struggle to live” (Kampf ums Leben) became evident already the moment the ship had docked in Haifa’s port. The welcoming in the new place, Annie confessed, was unpleasant and was described by her as being “very Levantine” (Echtes Levantinertum). Upon getting off the ship, one encountered the inconvenience and hassles related with customs clearance, passport issues, vaccination matters, etc., that the people who had just arrived had to undergo and they were walking around grumpy and desperate. Their luggage was not treated in a sufficiently gentle manner nor were people available to provide them with help and guidance (those who were present often only spoke Arabic, a language that was known to the immigrants).

The adjustment to life in Eretz Israel also turned out to be challenging for the Hamburgers: despite their appeal to the German Immigrants’ Organization and the Histadrut for to provide assistance in finding employment, these institutions were unable to help out because, according to Annie, the situation changed so quickly: a position that had been available one day was no longer valid the next day. In addition, the large number of doctors and the lack of available medical positions created a challenging competition: health insurance funds didn’t provide tenure for doctors. Those brave enough to ask for it were replaced by other doctors. Even more so, doctors spoke to their patients with contempt about their colleagues, and patients were much less polite than those living in Europe. Other areas of life, which, according to Annie, Western Europeans were accustomed to, were now different and were influenced by the habits of Eastern European Jews, the so-called Ostjuden (as referred to by German Jews): housing and cleanliness were in poor condition, and the service in shops and restaurants was so unpleasant that one had no desire to consume. Regarding housing, she elaborated, the situation was very difficult: the land for building houses was expensive and therefore the rent, especially in Tel Aviv, was very high and increased each and every day.

The Hamburgers were also surprised to discover that on Friday evenings, the locals usually stayed up late and spent Saturday mornings sleeping in and not praying, and that the synagogues, which were built in Eastern European style, were frequented by adults and not by young people. Thus, even though the Hamburgers were not Orthodox, they were disappointed to realize that children living in Palestine would not grow up in a Jewish atmosphere, and that just like in the Diaspora, a proper Jewish education for children and youth would only be facilitated by private organizations.

Towards the end of their first-impressions letter, it seems as if the Hamburgers nevertheless wanted to convey a note of optimism to their acquaintance, either to remove a worry from Uli’s heart, or whether because Uli was expected to immigrate to Mandatory Palestine. Annie stressed that despite these gloomy descriptions, not everything was pessimistic: all of the immigrants they talked to hoped to settle in quickly, food was cheaper than in Europe, construction was accelerating, and the weather was not as bad as they had expected it to be. Nevertheless, it seems that this optimism was strained. Whether distractedly or consciously, the Hamburgers emphasized difficulties accompanying every advantage they had mentioned: despite the immigrants’ hope to settle in quickly, their salaries were low; food was indeed cheaper than in Europe, but nothing else was cheaper and what one could find cheap meant it was of poor quality; despite the accelerating construction, there was a housing shortage, and in Tel Aviv, apartment owners demanded payment of one year’s rent in advance.

Some of these complexities continued to accompany the Hamburgers’ life even during a later period in Mandatory Palestine. For example, it was only in 1938 that Herbert was able to work again as a doctor. Up until then, he worked as a bus driver for the Drom Yehuda Cooperative. But, alongside these difficulties, the Hamburgers established their home and life in Mandatory Palestine and later on the State of Israel: in 1934, their daughter was born in Tel Aviv and in 1940, the family moved to Binyamina. Annie was engaged in handicrafts, and both she and Herbert were archeology enthusiasts who carried out independent research that was published in the Israel Exploration Journal.

To view Herbert and Annie Hamburgers’ collection, see: (Link to NLI)