Full Transcript
hi my name's Gary Kirsten Bell it's the 19th of January 2016 okay Gary tell us a little bit about how your family first got to South Africa in the first place okay so on my father's side his parents were from Poland and they obviously got out of Poland just in time before World War two my dad was born in 1936 so in nineteen just before they ran to Israel they thought about and went to Israel but it wasn't Israel yet it was still Palestine and my father was born in Israel in 1936 and when he was 1 years old they jumped on another post who
came to South Africa because my father's father got a job as a carpenter waiting in South Africa and on my mom's side they were from Germany her parents and but my mom was born in South Africa they just came over to South Africa my mom was born in South Africa did their families know each other no in the beginning no not enough to know those at all okay tell us a little bit about your young life growing up in South Africa so South Africa was born in 1970 and South Africa was it first of all it is the most beautiful country in the world the
nature the geography the climate have been just spectacular so wonderful wonderful place to grow up South Africa is a small place the whole of South Africa fits into the state of Texas and Oklahoma and especially among the Jews that was very it was a very close-knit small community so really everyone knew each other the schools were smaller so really the kids that you you started from kindergarten with most of the time you it all through two even after high school college or even adult what you kept as the same phrase so it was great it was the plot at yours but just being born white
and you know and unfortunately for the black people that was obviously the not good years but it was a very privileged lifestyle if you don't know better we all had maids and the Jewish people I think anywhere in the world especially you know but could be coming from South Africa were well-off all the the the businessmen that very well people lived in beautiful homes and it was just a great great life there was really minimal crime it was you know when they say that good old days it's not like today kids played on the streets a lot of freedom and it was just a very
innocent at arm growing up like I mean agreement what areas I was in the area in Johannesburg we lived in Johannesburg and I lived in a in a suburb called Santa which was a great effluence area and I mean it was fantastic we played on the streets we rode our bicycles we walked to Ivan used to walk to school it was just fantastic it really truly was so yeah I mean always I think any South African I mean it we'll get into that with your other questions but we all left for pretty much the same reason otherwise there was absolutely no reason to it was
just paradox how did Israel play in tear you youth so my earth I should he went to Israel when it was my first overseas trip and I was actually six years old and I'm not so long time ago 45 now so we're talking about 39 years ago but I actually remember a lot that says it's a different country to them so thank you those fans obviously the okay so Israel so yeah remember a lot obviously still a strong military presence but nothing like it was today and obviously it was half the size I mean it was double the size that it is today due to
us giving back a lot of the lead were you in any scientists youth group or a youth group growing up no I'm not in a zombies youth group I mean everything I did was through my synagogue that comedy yeah did they have a youth group there yeah they did they did but I wasn't involved in that okay so after high school did you go to college there did you say yeah after high school I went to college there and I did a business degree and at that stage it was was 1987 until 1990 it was three years and then I took a sabbatical and I
traveled I came to the States for six months and I traveled around the states and then my father said enough was enough and I came back to South Africa I didn't know what I wanted to do and my dad's business we were in retail in South Africa and at that stage no sorry sorry after after University I went to the Army in South Africa yeah are you heading to the army that was are you into college first and then you had to go to the army or you you went to the army after high school and then you could go and get your degree or
whatever you wanted to do something that you had did the army for a year and then I went to work for my father what type of retail work today so we were in the maze retail market at that time of the particle has a distinct black market in a white market we were in the black market side saying that we were in downtown LA when us was we had about 20 retail stores in downtown Joburg it became very very dangerous from about 1990 onwards the violence escalated extremely and that's the fact of problems and people started leaving right or even a little before oh yeah
before you so describe exactly how you made your decision to leave you and your family so my father actually he planned it for a very long time and while I was telling you that because in the pinyon in in the black market business that we wound in downtown Joburg there it was dangerous and so my dad kind of knew the writing on the wall for many years and he planned for it like a lot of South African Jews you know trying to get his money out the country for us America was always the only place it wasn't a choice of maybe Israel or Australia of
America that was always America I'll tell you the reasons why so he had made provisions over the years and basically you know when life is good you know you you you hang around till the very last minute and that's exactly what we did until things really really got bad and you know at that point month you know and we did it in stages we didn't all sort of just pack up and go it started out with my I come from three boys I'm the youngest my oldest brother's four years older than me so he's just basically turned 50 so he wasn't universally first there and
he was doing a business degree and then he was going to be a lawyer and at that stage my father said to him because our law system is totally different we were on the Commonwealth my father said no you can do your law degree in South Africa because we all going to be emigrating to the states so I want you to go and get your law degree in America and that's exactly what happened after he got his business degree he came over first he was the first one we all remained there he actually got into a New England School School of Law and he got
his degree there and then I we came about eight years after him and we did it in stages again my parents came after him in 1993 and they we sold the house and we started selling off whatever we could have the business I remained there with my little brother to to carry on running the business my parents came over they bought a house in Dallas and moved the furniture over set up the house and then art came in 94 you're after them why did they pick Dallas so they picked Dallas because a few reasons the main one is my mom's sister was living in is
is living in Dallas and she'll be here from the Wow from the 60s mm-hmm so she had a sister here and as most most people anywhere would always go to family when they had someone you know I mean that their family who was living in a place a network you know nucleus and I'd say that even a bigger reason because my mom wasn't actually that close to her sister the biggest reasons my father's best friend was living here who is that and his name is 5e Edler and five-year my father grew up together there were lifelong friends he was really luck they were like brothers
and actually five he was also in the clothing business so the initial idea was is to join him in the clothing business yeah that he had started you
