Isenbergh’s former-prisoner witness dated the transfer of fifty imprisoned יהודים YEHUDIM from Huckstep to El Tor to 1949-01-29. The prisons were under the Kingdom of Egypt. He said that seven of the transferred prisoners returned.1

Which parts did the witness know directly?

The witness’s account of food shortages and restrictions on visits at El Tor came from those who returned. He did not claim that he had been confined there himself. The reported transfer and the secondhand account of conditions are therefore separate layers of evidence.

Moving prisoners farther from their families could compound the loss of contact already imposed by confinement. The memorandum supplies a dated episode in that system, while the witness’s own release account shows how detention could end in permanent departure.

How is this dated?

The controlling date is 1949-01-29, supplied by Isenbergh’s memorandum for the event. TJD converts that Gregorian civil date to כ״ח בטבת ה׳תש״ט 28th 𝑜𝑓 Tevet, AM 5709 using the fixed Hebrew calendar. The source does not supply this Hebrew date. The date is accepted at the level of the identified published account; the earlier source cited in the account has not been inspected.2

Guided reflections

What can returning prisoners establish that a witness remaining at Huckstep could not see directly?

How did transfers and restrictions on visits affect the ability of families to help imprisoned יהודים YEHUDIM?

Footnotes

  1. Isenbergh, Recent Information from Egypt, p. 2. https://www.hsje.org/library/HUCKSTEP_Report.PDF ↩
  2. Isenbergh, Recent Information from Egypt, pp. 1 to 3. https://www.hsje.org/library/HUCKSTEP_Report.PDF ↩

Works cited

  1. Isenbergh, Max. Recent Information from Egypt. American Jewish Committee, Paris office, 1949-05-18. Three-page memorandum. https://www.hsje.org/library/HUCKSTEP_Report.PDF. Accessed 2026-09-21.