Before reaching Argentina he had begun to write for the local Yiddish newspaper Die Presse

Before reaching Argentina he had begun to write for the local Yiddish newspaper, Die Presse, as a correspondent. In 1949 he started work in the paper’s newsroom in Buenos Aires and remained there until 1951.It was possible then to make a reasonable living out of journalism in Yiddish as there were several newspapers (Di Iddischen Titren, Der Vek, Modern Zerteg) which over the years disappeared. In his eighties he translated and published in Spanish six volumes of autobiography and several volumes of short stories, one of which, Bread and Blood (1977), received several awards; it had been first published in Yiddish.He had started to write in Yiddish at the end of the Second World War for a magazine in London, where his first book was published by Narod Press. He decided to emigrate to Argentina simply because an English soldier had remarked that it was the furthest place from Europe. When Sneh went to the Argentine Consulate in London he was rudely discouraged: “The woman said there was no more room for Jews in Argentina.” He flew to Brazil, then to Paraguay, and took the river boat to Argentina’s second port, Rosario, where he landed with false papers.Sneh described himself as a Yiddish writer in Spanish and Yiddish.

In 1944 he joined the British army, with which he went to Palestine, Italy, Belgium and Holland.In 1947 he was discharged to find he was alone in the world, with no family or country to go back to. Only a few months before his death he presented his wife with a birth certificate to show that he was 90, and not 84 as she had believed. He had forged the younger man’s documents after deserting the Soviet army in 1943 to join the British army a few months later.
From the village in Pulawy, and life in pre-war Poland as a student and factory worker, he was called up by the Polish army as war loomed After the German invasion he fled to the Soviet army. He wanted to explain the meaning of Pesaj (“Passover”) to Argentines

Sneh was one of the survivors of the 20th century His life was filled with rich experience and narrow escapes. SIMHA SNEH was Argentina’s last novelist and journalist in Yiddish. Two weeks before he died, he had started on his last article on his ancient portable typewriter. If terrorism is brought to an end, he will be an Irish historical hero.

Meanwhile, Making Peace remains a good read.The reviewer is writing `The Belfast Agreement: a practical legal analysis’ for Sweet & Maxwell. He served a prison sentence in the Republic, having been convicted of being a member of the IRA.Despite this lapse, George Mitchell has performed an invaluable service to the people of Northern Ireland. Mitchell controlled his anger, enduring occasional sleepless nights But this man with the American smile had iron teeth. He set the deadline of Easter 1998 for a final agreement.In the last two weeks, Dublin sought to enhance the Irish dimension In London, Tony Blair tried to hold the line Mitchell was upset at his schedule being interrupted. In the most revealing part of the book, he explains that he was forced to distribute a draft paper as his own even though – he claims – he knew that it would provoke the Ulster Unionists.He attributes the rescue of the talks to Bertie Ahern. Having been advised not to back down, and grieving for his dead mother, the Taoiseach, walking the Dublin streets alone save for a security officer, made the call on his mobile which allowed the two premiers to negotiate.

Although Mitchell does not say so, this story can have only one source.Making Peace reveals that the talks were driven by the three independent chairmen, in cahoots with Mo Mowlam (“she swears a lot”) and Paul Murphy, the unsung hero of Castle Buildings. (The Irish ministers and officials were semi-resident in Belfast.) This book confirms that, while the British government ruled out the solution of joint sovereignty early on, the Irish government – as the self-appointed guarantor of northern nationalists – achieved something approaching practical joint authority in the conduct of the talks.Senator Mitchell provides pen portraits of most of the key negotiators. The significance of Blair and Ahern in the last few days is acknowledged. David Trimble – who opens and almost closes the book – was the decisive political leader Without him, there would have been no Belfast Agreement. Surprisingly, there is very little on John Hume, and the major reference to Seamus Mallon – now deputy first minister designate – is a reported comment that “he could take somebody’s scrotum, slice off their balls…

and they wouldn’t know it was done”.Although Mitchell and his two colleagues were briefed by London and Dublin that Sinn Fein and the IRA were inextricably interlinked, the nice American senator gives the impression of naivety on this score. Gerry Adams is described correctly as never having been convicted of IRA membership, despite being let out of internment in 1972 to meet William Whitelaw. But why describe Gerry Adams senior – who was injured in a shoot-out with the RUC in 1942 – as having been “jailed for five years as a result of his political activities”? Martin McGuinness is similarly excused: “no formal charges [have] ever been brought against him” This is not true. In 1967 he was appointed to the post of Consul General of Monaco in London. He also wrote several books on spearfishing, of which the 1975 edition of Modern Spearfishing remains a classic.Yet he will most likely be remembered by historians for his role in a group of Yugoslav emigres who advocated democracy as the alternative to Tito’s Yugoslavia. He continued to help his fellow countrymen until his death, sponsoring a number of postgraduate students who fled the 1990s conflict in Yugoslavia.Vane Ivanovic was one of the founders of Jean Monnet’s European Movement, heading the Yugoslav Committee for the European Movement for more than three decades. He was the founder and the first president of the Association of Free Citizens of Yugoslavia, a charity, financed mainly by himself, designed to help other Yugoslav emigres.