He was asked to provide testimonials from relatives to prove he was trustworthy and not a spy.
Only then, about a month after immigrating to Israel, Shaul Gessner was accepted to work at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and received an employee card bearing the number 81 - the numbering began with Haim Weizmann who was the institute's employee number one. His mission was to establish a laboratory for the study of plastic materials, which were at the forefront of research at the time. Six months later, the newcomer, employee number 81, participated in the dedication ceremony of the Weizmann Institute of Science, in the presence of ministers, Knesset members, ambassadors and other distinguished guests.
The inauguration of the institute, he recalled, was grandiose but not without problems: a train that was honking nonstop interrupted Weizmann's speech, so they had to send someone to the train station to stop the honking. The event was organized by Meir Weissgal, whom he remembers as a charismatic person.
Gessner served as a technologist of the Weizmann Institute's plastics laboratory, and by virtue of his position, in addition to assisting in the research of the chemistry of polymers, he was involved over the years in the production of dozens of plastic materials and devices. One of his first projects was the development of plastic parts that were required for the construction of "Vitzak", the first electronic computer in Israel. He was also involved in the development of pressure and heat sensitive copy paper, plastic components for irrigation systems (drippers), and plastic gears in water clocks.
"Good Jew"
He acquired his knowledge of chemistry during World War II in Czechoslovakia, when he was an "Economically Essential Jew", the status that protected Jews with certain professions from Nazi persecution. When Gessner established the plastics laboratory at the Weizmann Institute ten years later, it was after he had lost his entire family, survived a series of concentration camps, and gone through hardships that could fill an entire book.
He was born in the city of Kaczmarok, today in northern Slovakia, the eldest of six children. In 1939, when he was 18 years old, he began working in a factory for the development of synthetic materials and dyes which had undergone "arization" - that is, it had been transferred from Jewish ownership to an owner of Aryan descent. The new owner of the factory, a Slovak businessman named Mrozek, obtained for Gessner an exemption from being sent to the camps, but Gessner's parents, brother and little sister were sent to Auschwitz on Yom Kippur 1942, and around Passover were murdered.
About a year later he "crossed" the border to Hungary, but in a short time the persecution of the Jews began there as well. He was detained in the large "Rumbach" synagogue in Budapest, which was turned into a detention camp, when he received a surprise visit: the German wife of Mrozek, his former employer, managed to enter the crowded synagogue while shouting at the Hungarian guards in fluent German. She considered Gessner a member of her family and a "good Jew" (he is still in contact with her two children, now doctors in Germany). She brought him 30 thousand kroner to help him pay a bribe in order to get back to Kajmaruk. But Gessner refused because he didn't want to get away from his sister who was hiding in Hungary.
The information about the fate of his family hit him when he himself was sent to Auschwitz in the spring of 1944: pointing to the chimneys of the camp, one friend told him that his loved ones had gone to heaven. Later he learned that his sister who remained in Hungary was also murdered, and that this was also the fate of two other sisters who were caught when they tried to enter Hungary. From Auschwitz he was sent to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, notorious for its underground stone mine. His next stop was the Abenzaa concentration camp, where life was just as difficult. At first he cleaned the toilets. Later, thanks to the fact that he knew languages and shorthand, he was transferred to work in the office. He stood out there among the German officials because he was wearing the prisoner's clothes and his head was shaved with a stripe in the middle - this is how the Germans marked the prisoners so that it would be easy to recognize them if they escaped from the camp. The work saved his life, although when the Americans liberated the camp in May 1945, he was too weak to stand on his feet.
The birth of polyethylene
After the war, thanks to his experience in the production of various materials, Gessner got a job in a plastic factory in Hungary, and worked there for four years. It was an exciting time to work with these materials, which were then at the forefront of advanced industry.
Gessner: "I was present at the birth of polyethylene, I became aware of this material during my visit to England. When I returned to the factory, I threw a plastic cup on the floor and everyone was amazed that it didn't break." At that time Gessner met his future wife, Rena, born in Hungary, who also lost her entire family in the Holocaust. They got married in Paris in 1949 and immigrated to Israel together.
One of his greatest successes at the Weizmann Institute of Science was a contribution to the development of a dung coating to protect citrus fruit. In this development Gessner took advantage of one of the disadvantages of polyethylene: its ability to "breathe". The coating, which is called "TG" - an acronym for "Tafozim-Gasner" - is produced by the company "Makhteshim". The coating protected oranges and grapefruits that carried the JAFFA label, a very important export product of Israel at that time, and gave them an attractive and shiny appearance.
Later, Gessner collaborated with doctors in Israel, in the development of various medical devices, including plastic coating for screws used in surgeries, tiny tubes for prolonged blood transfusion, artificial joints, and disposable dialysis cells. Over the years, "Yade" handled several patents based on his works. He retired in 1987, after almost four decades in the plastics laboratory.
