Antiquarian Auctions

Auction #126 begins on 25 Sep 2025

Susman (David)

AN AFRICAN SHOPKEEPER

Memoirs of David Susman

Published: Fernwood Press, Cape Town, 2004

Edition: First Edition

Reserve: $80

Approximately:

Estimate: $150-200

Bidding opens: 25 Sep 16:30 GMT

Bidding closes: 2 Oct 16:30 GMT

Ships from: South Africa

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262 p which includes index. Illustrated throughout with B/W photographs. Family tree.

Limited Edition of 250 copies.

Hardcover covered in a protective transparent dust jacket. 

David Susman (1925-2010) was a highly respected businessman and philanthropist in South Africa, but was also always involved with business in Zambia which meant a great deal to him, as did central Africa as a whole. He was born in 1925, in Livingstone, where he spent much of his childhood. His university studies took him to South Africa, to the University of the Witwatersrand, to read for a degree in commerce, but this was interrupted by military service in Italy in the Second World War and as an officer of distinction in the 1948 Israeli War of Independence. The next year, in England in 1949, he became a trainee manager at the British retail chain, Marks & Spencer, and married Ann Laski the niece of the Chairman, Sir Simon Marks.

Back in South Africa in 1952, he became a general manager at Woolworths, the South African retail chain that had been co-founded by his uncle Elie. Managing director there by 1956, he later served as Chairman until 1993 presiding over the rapid expansion of the business and responsible for the transmission of the ethics and methods of Marks & Spencer to the Woolworth’s chain, as well as to his family’s Zambian businesses including Susman Brothers & Wulfsohn. A staunch opponent of apartheid, David Susman insisted that his employees be appointed on merit, and not colour, and refused to have racially separate amenities for his staff. As a noted philanthropist, he gave generously both to general and to Jewish causes, and one of these is the Gateway Museum which he conceived and which he substantially endowed.

Source: https://jewishmuseumofzambia.org/pdfs/Zambia%20Book%2028.pdf 

See https://www.machal.org.il/personal-stories/david-susman/ for an except from this book where Susman details his volunteer work fighting with the Israel Defense Forces in Palestine to secure Israel. Two paragraphs are included below:

MY SECOND WAR.

We took off for Haifa from Rome at dawn, stopping only at Athens for refueling. Lydda airport was still controlled by the Arabs, as was the main Haifa-Tel Aviv road. To reach our mustering point south of Tel Aviv, we were bussed along a roundabout and hastily prepared road behind the Carmel mountains. There was little distinction between military and civilian activity in the beleaguered country. Our bus was an ordinary city bus, in the colours of the Egged Bus Company, and driven by its owner-driver. As with many Israeli utilities, the company was a cooperative, and its members were fiercely independent and totally unimpressed by rank or authority. In the months ahead, we would make many journeys in these ramshackle busses, some right up to the battle front, and I acquired a deep admiration for the courage and sensibility of their drivers. On this first occasion, the driver gave us an articulate and accurate description, in fair English, of the state of affairs on the various battle fronts.

The picture was grim. The Syrian and Lebanese armies had advanced from the north, and the Iraqis from the northeast. The professionally-trained Arab Legion of Transjordan, led by a British general, Glubb Pasha, had cut off and besieged the city of Jerusalem, and the Egyptians were 30 miles to the south of Tel Aviv. The Arab Liberation Army of some 6000 mercenaries, under the command of a long-time Palestinian insurgent, Fawzi-el-Kaukji, had advanced to within nine miles of Haifa. Their pay, we understood, was to come from the supposedly rich loot of destroyed Jewish settlements. Jeff and I were later to meet Kaukji’s troops in Galilee, and to share the pleasure of driving them out of Israel.

  • Jacket Condition: Very good
  • Binding Condition: Very good
  • Overall Condition: Very good
  • Size: 4to (290 x 210 mm)


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