Kelvin Crombie presents the photgraph of Allenby’s entry to Jerusalem to the Premier Colin Barnett on behalf of CMJ Asutralia (represented by Martin Weatherston) amongst others. The main reason for his involvement with El Alamein was a book he had written entitled ‘El Alamein: Halting a Possible Holocaust in the Middle East.’  This book reveals the little known fact that the Nazi leadership had formed a specialised murder squad known as Einsatzkommando Egypt, which was to follow the German-led army into Egypt and Palestine when they won at El Alamein, in order to murder the 600,000 or so Jewish people who lived in those lands.  Thankfully this never happened, as the Australian, New Zealand, British, South African and other Allied soldiers won the key battle there in October-November 1942.

Crombie had been researching this subject for many years, and his efforts were  assisted by discoveries of original material by two academics, Mallman and Cuppers, in Germany.  He also managed to access other original German source material in order to produce this work. The subject matter is important for Australians as many of our soldiers served at Tobruk and El Alamein, and were thus involved in halting the Holocaust entering into the Middle East.

Recognition of the role played by the 8th army to avert this threat  was found in the Hebrew & English words inscribed by those who were leaders of Jewish people at that time & place in a Bible presented to express their thanks to Lord Montgomery: “G-d has placed salvation in Zion.” .  ‘Monty’ gave this Bible to the bishop of Rochester, Christopher Chavasse, who then gave it to CMJ, a Christian organisation working with the Jewish people. Crombie and an Israeli professor located this precious artefact many years ago, and it was on public display at this event. Following launches in various part of the UK including the House of Lords, Crombie had launched this book in New Zealand and in Parliament House in Sydney, in Melbourne and at Perth’s Victory Life Centre.  In making the presentation to the Honorable Minister Barnett, Crombie challenged his Government to note that the ideology which had threatened the Jewish people in 1942 is still alive today. It was therefore incumbent on the Governments of Australia (both State & Federal) to maintain the tradition of the Anzacs of being a friend of Israel and its people especially those who live here.  The Montgomery Bible will be returned to Christ Church in Jerusalem in August.