‘All I wanted was justice’

Within a few years the hotel in the heart of Alexandria Bay had become famous, and turned into one of the most famous meeting places in the Levant. British author Lawrence Durrell, who lived in the city for a few years, commemorated it in his “The Alexandria Quartet.”

One morning in November 1956, however, Albert Metzger was forced to leave. The gallery of famous guests who used to stay at the hotel – from Al Capone, to Josephine Baker, to Winston Churchill – couldn’t help him. Nor could the fact that the battle of El Alamein had been planned on its first floor, at a time when the hotel had served as the headquarters of the British Police. Nor could the fact that Metzger himself had built and created the place ex nihilo.

That morning Metzger went from being a wealthy businessman whom everyone in Alexandria knew, to being persona non grata, an enemy among his fellow Egyptians. In the days following the outbreak of the Sinai Campaign, Egypt had decided on a campaign to punish its Jewish community, which numbered about 50,000 souls. The Jews lost their citizenship, their businesses and bank accounts were confiscated, and they were not allowed to work. The Cecil Hotel, like hundreds of other assets, was taken away by the Egyptian regime for one reason only: Its owners were Jewish.

Overnight Metzger turned from multimillionaire to penniless refugee. Even when he decided to leave the country and try his luck elsewhere, the authorities refused to allow him to take out money, property, jewelry, books or pictures. Only one suitcase full of clothing, weighing 20 kilograms. He left by car accompanied by his family and headed for the Libyan border, leaving behind an entire life that had gone down the drain.

During Metzger’s wanderings he passed through Libya, Italy and England, and in the end settled in Tanzania, where he passed away without ever seeing his hotel again. Today, 50 years after Metzger was expelled from Egypt, his son Chris, his daughter-in-law Patricia and his grandson John are conducting a legal battle to get the hotel back. In 1996 the Egyptian high court ruled in favor of the Metzgers, and said that the hotel – which meanwhile has become part of the Sofitel chain – and the land on which it is built belong to them, as do the revenues that accumulated over the years. But the Egyptian government did not act on the ruling, and only this past June offered a deal to the family: Egypt will recognize the legal decision, but will immediately buy back the hotel. The Metzgers agreed, but discussions of the amount of compensation continue.

“They told me I’d never win,” says Patricia Metzger, 69, in a phone conversation with Haaretz from Dar es Salaam, “but I’m a very stubborn woman. I wanted to return to Alexandria and run the hotel, but the Egyptians told me ‘Forget it, it’s over.’ They kept dragging things out, and in the end they offered us very low compensation. They didn’t want to give up the hotel, and that’s why they said that if we didn’t accept their offer, they would bury the matter for a few more years. I cried when I heard the sum they had offered us for this beautiful hotel, but I agreed, because in any case this may be the longest lawsuit in history. All I wanted was justice”… Read more.