28/11/2015 Witness


28/11/2015

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Now on BBC News, it's time for Witness.

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Hello and welcome the Witness, hear from the British library in London.

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We have another five witnesses who have given us an extraordinary

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glimpse of history through the eyes of people who were there. This month

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we will hear from the owner of one of the first privately run

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restaurants in communist Cuba. And a journalist who witnessed a mass

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march into the Sahara desert. And we retrace the steps taken by millions

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of migrants, seeking the American dream. First, it's 40 years since

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the death of general Francisco Franco, the fascist leader of Spain

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who ruled the country for decades. Witness had spoken to a journalist.

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He was the fewer in Spain. He was a friend of Hitler and Mussolini. In

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75 he fell really sick. I remember I went to the hospital. We were asking

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how it was going. We thought it was impossible to be free of this guide.

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-- guy. I grew up in the civil war. Persecution was a problem. My father

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was in the army, so I grew up in an atmosphere of fear, not telling

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anyone what we spoke about in our house. It was like living in a jail

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for 40 years, my God! He was an extra ordinary man, the last of the

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Western European dictators and the only one whose power was

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undiminished until the moment he stopped breathing. He had been half

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dead for weeks, but nobody dared to move to replace him for fear that he

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might recover and exact retribution. Everybody thought that the civil war

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ended. April one, 1939. No. The dictator was killing people without

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trial and he was torturing, fighting against the other side. There was no

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peace agreement, never. Finally, when a got the phone call very early

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in the morning, it was dark. He died, they told me, he died! I

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couldn't believe my eyes, my ears. I woke up my wife, he died! He died! I

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gave it big increase to her and she was so excited, like me, and we

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almost cried. So much relief. We finished and we went to the newsroom

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and we thought the Prime Minister would say something, some official

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communication. He was crying. In the newsroom, we

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opened champagne. The beast is dead! I went to the printing press quickly

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to fix the front page cover story. We distributed that magazine with

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Franco on the cover story, saying he died. Only, he died. Franco has a

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lot of support. The Catholic Church was with him for the 40 years. The

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army and all of the conservative people. One by one Spaniard filed

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past the open Coughlan on a catafalque which was flanked by

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members of his guard. -- open coffin. The only sounds were those

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who were weeping as they filed past. Half were happy, the other half were

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grieving and sad. It was a great moment. The civil war finished when

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Franco died, that very day. It was the first day of peace on the 20th

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of November. The Spanish journalist.

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Now, that same year as Franco lay dying a quarter of a million

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Moroccans marched into the Sahara Desert to try to claim the colony

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which the Spanish had there. Our next witness went with them.

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The king of Morocco has brilliantly exploited this idea of a peaceful

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invasion. Both to achieve the bloodless takeover of the Spanish

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Sahara and as a sly device to muzzle his own internal political

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opposition by obliging them to rally patriotically behind the march.

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One of the highlights of his career.

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Next, we're off to New York to retrace the journey taken by

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millions of migrants. More than 8 million passed through a processing

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centre on their way to a new life in America. Our witness was one of

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them. My father was a singer. His voice was very beautiful. Very,

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very beautiful. My father had a lot of charm. He could charm anybody.

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Not only women, who adored him, but men too. I was ten years old, ten,

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11. He sang in the Opera in Russian. We lived in one room. It

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was difficult. Some Americans visited our town and they heard him

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sing and they invited him to come to America, which was also very unusual

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for a Jew. Everybody wanted to come to America. A relative was able to

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get us on a beautiful boat. That was some journey. It was cold, we had

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nothing to wear and everybody was freezing. Finally, we came through.

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This is where American sifted its new citizens. Expected, classified

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them and if necessary investigated them. Some, this was the end of the

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journey. It was interesting, but a little frightening too. Because we

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couldn't speak English. The masses who travel are brought to the great

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hall on the island and then they wait. Sometimes the long months at a

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time, waited to know their fate. They gave us ten minutes every so

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often to go outside, and when we went out they countered us and we

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came back, we were counted again and when we ate they also counted.

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That's the only thing we really brought of so-called value. That's

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how we drank our tea. For me, it was very exciting as a

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youngster. And, finally, they got us the papers to leave the island. It

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was a beautiful sight. Beautiful. That was the greatest day of all our

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lives. My father became famous. He sang in all the opera companies. He

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sang in English and Hebrew. So many things changed in my life. I had a

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very happy life, with my three husbands!

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Isabel has since dedicated herself to preserving memory of her father

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and his music. Remember, you can watch Witness every month of the BBC

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News Channel, or you can catch up on over 1000 radio programmes in our

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online archive. Just go to the BBC website.

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In the 1970s, Jim Jones, the leader of the Christian cult called peoples

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Temple instructed his followers to kill themselves. In all, 918 people

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died. Laura Johnston call was one of the few survivors. I want to warn

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you, some viewers might find parts of this film upsetting. I think that

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Jim Jones figured out what he needed to do to manipulate it one of us

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into a position of being a believer. And I was a sell out. I

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bought it. -- zealot. I joined in 1970 after I had been pursuing

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social justice and making the world better. It just felt like home. It

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was all ages and all races and all of the people we just kind, kind

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people. -- were just. When I first met Jim, he was so casual. There was

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no presumption of I am so important you will be happy to meet me. He was

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very intuitive. If you were sitting with a group of people, somehow he

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would figure out what it was that you needed to hear. By 1975, we were

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looking for a refuge, a place where people could have a good life, so we

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started making a big investment in Jonestown. We were going to be a

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role model of a community that actually had total integration and

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good healthcare, all the things that we wanted. It did look like paradise

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to me. The thing that I realised on reflection was that Jim was

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corrupted by power and when he was in Guyana, he was in absolute

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control. There was no radio, no BBC, no anyway to bring in any kind of

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information, and if so he used our love of Jonestown as a way to make

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us paranoid ourselves about what was going on outside. At the end of

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October, Jim asked me if I would move back into the capital to start

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buying supplies. He got contacted by Congressmen Leo Ryan who said he

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wanted to come and visit. We have had some complaints and I want to

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verify what is going on. And so what Jim would do to tighten the screws

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is indoctrinate us to think that we have all of these things going and

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now people are threatening to take it all away. He started talking in

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this fatalistic way, saying that we wanted our way or nothing. What I

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found out is that as Jim was calling everybody into the pavilion on the

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afternoon of the 18th at the same time he was having a truck full of

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armed guards gave to the airstrip to kill congressmen Ryan. It is too

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late. The congressmen is dead. And then he said I will be taking care

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of you by having you die. And has he is talking to them, the

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secretary said nurses moved over to the children. He took over and said,

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OK, you came here for your children. They are already dead. Is not like

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you can leave and you will ever be the same. And they passed up the

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poison to everyone and people drank it. -- passed out. It was not a mass

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suicide that people said, OK, let us do it. It was mass murder. He

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completely demolished people 's will to live by telling lies. I'm perfect

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proof. If I had been in Jonestown, there is no question about it. I

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would have had that poison. But I have survived. And our final Witness

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this month is Juan Carlos Montez. When the Soviet Union fell, Cuba

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fell into a deep economic crisis. Many decided to make them and we.

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Juan Carlos Montez decided to open Djourou's first private restaurant.

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-- Cuba's first private restaurant. The Cuban restaurant owner Juan

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Carlos Montez with some rather tasty looking food surrounding him. And

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that is all from this edition of Witness. We will be back at the

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British library next month with another round-up of history. Thank

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you for watching and goodbye from me and the rest of the team.

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Hello, welcome to the weekend but what a wild and windy start.

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