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From S/S Exodus 1947, the Holocaust survivors were transferred onboard to the British prison ship that brought them back to Germany 1947. Here, the view in Haifa port. Many of the passengers were in a very poor condition and had to be stretchered into prisoner ship as in this photo. After stretchers followed small children.
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S/S Exodus 1947 might have been the most famous of all the Aliyah Bet ships, but there were hundreds of other ships trying to do the same, to enter the Promised Land - Israel. Some of them succeed.
Looking at the old movies, newsreels, and newspaper photos, I tried following the flow of Holocaust survivors from Europe to Eretz Israel, their promised land. Many of the newsreels are just 2-4 minute long, shaky and dark, and to brief to appraise the human drama that was taking place there. However, by stopping the film, it is possible to isolate a single scene by taking it out one by one and examining in detail to discover the scale of human emotions. White spots become suddenly the faces of small children and, as the journey progresses, the adult survivors’ express changing feelings from hope to apathy and to grief and then again to hope when hoisting the flag of Israel on approaching the land.
Aliyah Bet was the code name given to the illegal immigration by Jews, most of whom were at first the refugees from Nazi Germany and later, after WWII ended, the Holocaust survivors. At the end of the WWII, there were thousands of Holocaust survivors in the so called DP (Displaced Persons) camps. The original plan for all the DPs was to repatriate them to their countries of origin as quickly as possible but it proved difficult if not impossible, see below.
Jews who wanted to go back home to Eastern Europe found that their homes and businesses had been taken over and many who returned found only danger and destitution. For instance, in July 1946, in Kielce, Poland, some 42 former concentration camp survivors were murdered. The Kielce pogrom was not an isolated incident and afterwards the Polish government opened the Polish Southern border and approximately 175 000 Polish Jews left country heading South.
Most of the Jewish DPs experienced trauma and many had serious health conditions as a result of what they had endured. Many suffered from psychological difficulties. They knew exactly what happened to their entire family. They were often the only member of the family that survived the Holocaust. Many saw with their own eyes how their mothers, fathers and younger siblings were sent to the gas chambers in the death camps. They suddenly realized that they had no place to go. Their homes, families, friends, entire villages and towns didn't exist anymore. In some places, particularly in Eastern Europe, survivors who had returned home encountered antisemitism and were met with violent hostility.
DP camps in post-World War II Europe were established in Germany, Austria, and Italy, primarily for refugees from Eastern Europe and for the former inmates of the Nazi German concentration camps. A “DP camp" was a temporary facility for displaced persons, whether refugees from other countries or the locals. However, two years after the end of World War II in Europe, some 850,000 people lived in displaced persons camps across Europe. At the end of 1946, in the wake of mass emigration from Poland (175 000) after the Kielce pogrom, about 15 000 Jews were living in the British zone of occupation, about 140 000 were in the American zone (most of them in Bavaria), and about 1 500 were living in the French zone. About 700 Jewish DP camps were in operation at this time.
DP camps were often located in the former concentration camps or tn the military buildings close to former concentration camps. When I discussed the birth places within Seconds Generation group. I was chocked that many of us had places of birth like Bergen-Belsen or Buchenwald. Over 2,000 babies were born in DPs camps in five years. Thus, representing one of the highest birthrates ever in history. Many women that had stopped menstruating in the concentration camps wanted a child eagerly to prove to themselves that they were still viable human beings.
Recreating a family was seen as an act of defiance against Nazi Germany. Children became the symbol of renewal and normalcy. They were seen as the continuation of the chain that had been severed with the annihilation of an entire generation of Jewish children by Nazi Germany, which saw these children as latent parasites and destructive elements who carried with them the heritage of their race. The birth rate in the camps was among the highest in the world at that time. In Bergen-Belsen alone, 555 babies were born in 1946. The growing rates of pregnancies and births expressed a deep-seated Jewish need; it was as if a child was the personal contribution of each survivor to the continued existence of the Jewish people.
When my brother was born in Poland, exactly 9 months after WWII ended in Europe (my father got some days of from Polish army in Berlin in May 1945), all my mothers and fathers friends, Holocaust survivors were sending congratulations. Letters arrived from USA, France, England, Eretz Israel and Germany. I was as well in a way their child, their triumph.
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| The conditions in the D.P. camps and suggestion how to solve the problem are described in the judge Harrisons report to the president of United States: Their (Jews)desire to leave Germany is an urgent one. The life which they have led for the past ten years, a life of fear and wandering and physical torture, has made them impatient of delay. They want to be evacuated to Palestine now, just as other national groups are being repatriated to their homes. |
Generally speaking, three months after V-E Day and even longer after the liberation of individual groups, many Jewish displaced persons and other possibly non-repatriables are living under guard behind barbed-wire fences, in camps of several descriptions (built by the Germans for slave-laborers and Jews, including some of the most notorious of the concentration camps, amidst crowded, frequently unsanitary and generally grim conditions, in complete idleness, with no opportunity, except surreptitiously, to communicate with the outside world, waiting, hoping for some word of encouragement and action in their behalf.
(2) While there has been marked improvement in the health of survivors of the Nazi starvation and persecution program, there are many pathetic malnutrition cases both among the hospitalized and in the general population of the camps. The death rate has been high since liberation, as was to be expected. One Army Chaplain, a Rabbi, personally attended, since liberation 23 000 burials (90 per cent Jews) at Bergen Belsen alone, one of the largest and most vicious of the concentration camps, where, incidentally, despite persistent reports to the contrary, fourteen thousand displaced persons are still living, including over seven thousand Jews. At many of the camps and centers including those where serious starvation cases are, there is a marked and serious lack of needed medical supplies.
(3) Although some Camp Commandants have managed, in spite of the many obvious difficulties, to find clothing of one kind or another for their charges, many of the Jewish displaced persons, late in July, had no clothing other than their concentration camp garb-a rather hideous striped pajama effect-while others, to their chagrin, were obliged to wear German S.S. uniforms. It is questionable which clothing they hate the more.
More reading from judge Harrisons report to the president of United States:
Refusal to recognize the Jews as such has the effect, in this situation, of closing one's eyes to their former and more barbaric persecution, which has already made them a separate group with greater needs.
Their second great need can be presented only by discussing what I found to be their
Wishes as to Future Destinations
(1) For reasons that are obvious and need not be labored, most Jews want to leave Germany and Austria as soon as possible. That is their first and great expressed wish and while this report necessarily deals with other needs present in the situation, many of the people themselves fear other suggestions or plans for their benefit because of the possibility that attention might thereby be diverted from the all-important matter of evacuation from Germany. Their desire to leave Germany is an urgent one. The life which they have led for the past ten years, a life of fear and wandering and physical torture, has made them impatient of delay. They want to be evacuated to Palestine now, just as other national groups are being repatriated to their homes. They do not look kindly on the idea of waiting around in idleness and in discomfort in a German camp for many months until a leisurely solution is found for them.
(2) Some wish to return to their countries of nationality but as to this there is considerable nationality variation. Very few Polish or Baltic Jews wish to return to their countries; higher percentages of the Hungarian and Rumanian groups want to return although some hasten to add that it may be only temporarily in order to look for relatives. Some of the German Jews, especially those who have intermarried, prefer to stay in Germany.
(3) With respect to possible places of resettlement for those who may be stateless or who do not wish to return to their homes, Palestine is definitely and pre-eminently the first choice. Many now have relatives there, while others, having experienced intolerance and persecution in their homelands for years, feel that only in Palestine will they be welcomed and find peace and quiet and be given an opportunity to live and work. In the case of the Polish and the Baltic Jews, the desire to go to Palestine is based in a great majority of the cases on a love for the country and devotion to the Zionist ideal.
Emissaries of different Jewish organizations were, after WWII ended,very active in entire Europe to localize displaced persons. For example, in May 1946 they presented the list of 3 311 presumptive displaced persons in Sweden that could emigrate to Eretz Israel. 472 of them were stil in the hospitals and sanatoria. Above the map of Sweden and the number of persons at each place. Below the names of the camps, schools and hospitals where they, so called hawerim, were located.
Most of the Holocaust survivors that ended after World War II in allied zones of occupied Germany, Austria and Italy as well as in Poland were trying to get to the ports in France, Bulgaria and Italy were departure points for the Aliyah Bet. British tried to stop the Aliyah Bet ships in the ports. Therefore, in may cases, the departure was done during the night without any clearance and without the hel of tugboats. As an alternative Aliyah Bet ships stoped at the shores and the transportation to the vessels was in the rubber boats. Very dangerous way as many survivors had small children or newborns with them.
Most of the ships transporting the Jewish refugees, namely the Holocaust survivors, were, however, stopped by the British warships. Whenever they approached Palestine, also on so called territorial waters, they were stormed by the British. Some ships, far from the territorial waters, were forced to go directly to Famagusta in Cyprus, some reached their destination escaping British attention. Only S/S Exodus which equipped in New York started its mission in Marseille had to return from the shores of Palestine back to Europe, and ironically not to Britain but of all other places, to Germany.
The Jewish refugees tried to put up resistance before and during the boarding by British paratroopers. When caught by the British, the crew members tended to mix withthe refugees. The British paratroopers had killed several Holocaust survivors onboard the Aliyah Bet ships and there were also casualties among the crew.
From the end of World War II until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, ‘illegal’ immigration became the main way of gettingto Palestine because the British enforced a strict policy of allowing only several hundred Jewish refugees into Palestine per month. During these years 1946-48, over sixty Aliyah Bet ships were organized and expedited, but only a few managed to penetrate the British blockade and bring their passengers ashore.
Despite the danger, on approaching the Palestine shores, the ships tended to undergo a complete metamorphosis; in obvious defiance of the British, the name of the ship might have been changed to something of patriotic (i.e., Haim Arlosorof") or biblical (Exodus") meaning and the David Star replaced the flaga under which the ship had sailed until then. People onboard begun to sing Hatikvah, the song of hope that later became an Israeli anthem.
As long as Jewish spirit
Yearns deep in the heart,
With eyes turned East,
Looking towards Zion.
Our hope is not yet lost,
The hope of two millennia,
To be a free people in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.
Most of the ships were actually stopped off the waters of the Jewish homeland and the people sent to prison camps in Cyprus that had originally been built for the German prisoners of war. The notable exception was S/S Exodus whose 4 554 defiant passengers were forced onto prison ships in Haifa and sent back to Europe in an attempt by the British to discourage the increasing flow of Jewish immigrants). The prisoners in the camps in Cyprus were mostly young, 80% between 13 and 35, and included over 6,000 orphan children. This numbers are of course also the characteristics of Holocaust survivors in Europe. This mono-generation was as well due to the primary selections in the concentration camps when the older peoples and children were ordered to gas chambers. Exception was Bergen-Belsen camp that had children baracks.
While at sea, days before reaching Eretz Israel, the passengers and crew practiced how to oppose a British attack and how to enter the country.Aliyah Beth ships to Eretz Israel were often deliberately grounded as close to shore as possible. Waiting groups that were in radio contact with the ships would try to get the passengers quickly ashore and disperse them in local towns and colonies before they could be intercepted by the British army. The bridge with the steering wheel and the engine room
were the most important places to defend.
British Royal Navy patrols were performed with all the sizes of warships from minesweeper to destroyers, assisted by the RAF, as it was mainly by sea that most transfers were conducted. British intelligence agents in European and US ports were constantly leaving the reports. British intelligence was acting from Sweden and Denmark in Both, in int coast cities at the North Sea and English Channel and in all the cities on the African and European coasts of Mediterranean. British intelligence was acting in all D.P,s camps in Germany, Italy and Austria and were following the Holocaust survivors from the camps to the coast of Mediterranean.
The British army was responsible for intercepting clandestine landings along the coast and for receiving immigrants when the ships were escorted into Haifa. They also watched the borders as although most refugees tried to come in by sea some came overland.
I do not know if the British troops disliked all these duties. They saw the tattoo, the numbers from concentration camps on the underarms of Holocaust survivors. They knew that instead of the possibility of building the Promised Land, they will be put in the British detention camps with the same structure as in German concentration camps - dubble electrified fences and watchtowers with soldiers with ready to shoot guns.
On the Aliyah Bet ship “The Unafraid,” there are actually 5-6 persons that do not belong to the group of refugees trying to enter Eretz Israel. In this documentary movie there are two amateur actors playing Polish refugees, a boy called Mika and his girlfriend Sarah. They, Meyer Levin and cameramen are the only ones that accompany 853 refugees, including 150 babies and toddlers on the small wooden freighter as she sets sail for Palestine on December 11, 1947. Before that, the film team accompanies the refugees on their way from Poland through DPs camp in Germany and a harrowing trek though the Alps. Their exodus out of Europe ends when arriving in Italy and boarding the ship..
After that Holocaust survivors raised Star of David flag and banner: "Haganah Ship Unafraid" both in English and in Hebrew they started to sing Hatikvah.
When Latrun, Unafraid and other Aliyah Bet ships were towed into the Haifa port, numerous Jews of Haifa went to meet them. Thereafter, heavy reinforcements of British troops, grenadiers of the 1st Infantry Division were rushed to the port area and cordoned off the dock area. British troops, carrying placards inscribed in English and Hebrew—"Disperse or We Fire". The tension was in the air.
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A man onboard hearrs and spots the Lancaster airplane. Everyone immediately disappears below the deck to hide from the British and to avoid the bombs. The plane (or several planes) passes three times over the ship.
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A man onboard hearrs and spots the Lancaster airplane. Everyone immediately disappears below the deck to hide from the British and to avoid the bombs. The plane (or several planes) passes three times over the ship.
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| A man onboard hearrs and spots the Lancaster airplane. Everyone immediately disappears below the deck to hide from the British and to avoid the bombs. The plane (or several planes) passes three times over the ship. |
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| An empty deck as everyone went immediately below deck to hide from the view or the bombs. The plane or planes passes three times over the ship. The deck is empty when the British Lancaster plane approaches the ship. |
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Back on deck from the hiding. The people realize that their ship has been discovered. They climb up on the deck. Some of them faint fearing the worst. The signs of resignation appear on their faces
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| The people realize that their ship has been discovered. They climb up on the deck. Some of them faint fearing the worst. |
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The refugees understand that their ship has been revealed. They climb again on the deck. Some of them faint due to the disclosure. They put diapers and washing to dry on the foredeck.
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The refugees, Holocaust survivors understand that their ship has been discovered. In minutes , the British battleships arrive. Wooden booms are hanging around the ships. British Navy patrollers, specially trained troops, would soon attempt go onboard.
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Refugee boys taking loss out former sign of the ship - "Karaco Adalia". After that Holocaust survivors raised Star of David flag and banner: "Haganah Ship Unafraid"
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| The Holocaust survivors sing Hatikva, after they raised the Star of David flag and hung a banner, saying: "Haganah Ship, Unafraid" in both English and Hebrew. |
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| The Holocaust survivors sing Hatikva, after they raised the Star of David flag and hung a banner, saying: "Haganah Ship, Unafraid" in both English and Hebrew. |
The Holocaust survivors took off the their caps when the Star of David flag was raised and all of them begun singing Hatikva, the song of hope.
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| There were numerous children on the S/S Unafraid. This little boy in forge followed the group of Holocaust survivors from the D.P. Camp where I saw him on the film during registration. |
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| The Holocaust survivors took off the their caps when the Star of David flag is raised and all of them begun singing Hatikva, the song of hope. The young couple we followed on the pictures before is now standing in the middle looking as all other on Star of David flag being raised. |
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The young couple who looked quite resigned when the ship was captured now seem full of hope, singing Hatikva.
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Armed British Navy patrollers jump onto S/S Unafraid. The British captured in the same way S/S Ulua - S/S Haim Arlosoroff A violent battle took place as paratroopers wanted to reach the bridge. The captain of S/S Ulua succeed
to put his ship on ground, at the shore that was to shallow for both destroyers and minesweepers. Here S/S Unafraid that was captured after a violent battle, taken in tow by the minesweeper and brought in Haifa port. |
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| Armed British Navy patrollers in white helmets on the foredeck of S/S Unafraid. City of Haifa in the background. |
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| S/S Unafraid. Armed British Navy patrollers in white helmets on the foredeck of refugee boat. City of Haifa in the background. The Jewish population of Haifa; declared a protest strike today against the anticipated deportation of the ship's passengers. Jewish shops were closed and all Jewish workers stopped work. Heavy reinforcements of British troops were rushed to the port area and cordoned off the dock area. |
Many of the passengers were in a very poor state and had to be stretchered off as in this photo.
Aliyah Bet ships were well organized, however, only a few managed to penetrate the British blockade and bring their passengers ashore. Most were stopped off the waters of their destined Jewish homeland and sent to prison camps in Cyprus that had originally been built for German prisoners of war (All except the 4 554 passengers on the Exodus who rather than being sent to Cyprus were forced on to deportation ships in Haifa and sent back to Europe in an attempt by the British to discourage the increasing flow of Jewish immigrants).
Outside Famagusta port. British warship and Z-lighter.
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| Z-lighters were frequently used to transport Holocaust survivors between the stranded Aliyah Bet ships and other British warships and prisoner ships. Here unloading of British warship that arrived with captured Holocaust Survivors from Haifa. |
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| Directly from the Z-lighters in Famagusta old port, the Holocaust survivors were loaded on the trucks and directed to different British detention camps on Cyprus. |
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Entrence to the British detention camp. Some shooting must occur as peoples waiting for the entrance are suddenly running hunching in opposite direction. The observation tower is seen in the background.
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| British detention camps like in Europe, concentration camps, were surrounded by a double electric wire fence with spotlights and an observation point, tower every 100 meters.. British soldiers kept watch with Tommy guns with orders to shoot anyone who tried to escape. |
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| British detention camps like in Europe, concentration camps, were surrounded by a double electric wire fence with spotlights and an observation point, tower every 100 meters.. British soldiers kept watch with Tommy guns with orders to shoot anyone who tried to escape. |
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| Cyprus. The group of youngsters, Holocaust survivors, that left Sweden onboard S/S Ulua on January 24th, 1947. The ship was put on ground South of Haifa port and 550 long girls and 94 boys were placed in the detention camp. |
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| From Famagusta back to Israel and port of Haifa. Some of the Holocaust survivors in the British detention camps were allowed to go to Israel within the smal quota that the British allowed before the State of Israel was proclaimed. Here in the port of Famagusta just after being released from the detention camp. |
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| From Famagusta back to Israel and port of Haifa. Some of the Holocaust survivors in the British detention camps were allowed to go to Israel within the smal quota that the British allowed before the State of Israel was proclaimed. Here in the port of Famagusta just after being released from the detention camp. |
The S/S San Dimitrio left a Spanish port a fortnight ago, entered towed the harbor port of Haifa with
a list of 45 degrees, and was in imminent danger of sinking.
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| When sighted by RAF reconnaissance planes the S/S Latrin (former San Dimitrio) had a list of 30 degrees, which gradually became worse. The ship was brought into harbor lashed to a British minesweeper. It was listing so badly that the bottom plates were visible. |
Despite resistance, with use of tear gas, ship was captured by the British destroyer HMS Chivalrous and minesweeper HMS Octavia. The ship was brought into harbor lashed to a British minesweeper. It was listing so badly that the bottom plates were visible. Refugees were taken to Cyprus on two British deportation ships HMS Empire Heywood and HMS Ocean Vigour for transfer to Cyprus.
S/S Ulua ship
550 girls and women and 94 men, Holocaust survivors, left Sweden at the Port of Trelleborg on January 24th, 1947.
S/S Ulua was followed by British intelligence during most of the trip and thereafter escorted by the British warships, after a one month travel they reached the shores of Haifa only to be caught by the British, just the same way as many other Alyah Bet ships. Except a few who made to the shore, the passengers were forcibly taken to the detention camp nr. 66, Dekalia, in Cyprus on February 28th, 1947.
There were two types of refugee camps in Cyprus. Summer camps (five: nos. 55, 60, 61, 62, 63) were located at Kraolos, near Famagusta where the detainees were housed in tents. Winter camps (seven, with the numbers from 64 to 70) were located at Dekalia with housing either in tin Nissen huts or in tents. A Nissen hut was a prefabricated steel structure made from a half-cylindrical skin of corrugated steel, primarily used as military barracks Cold during winters and hot during the summer.
Incidentally, the area where the detention camps were located is still today marked as "occupied by Great Britain" - using the nomenclature that the Swedish government uses with respect to Israel.
20 fatalities occurred on Ailyah Bet ships between September 1945 to May 1948, thus excluding natural causes.
Many scenes come from the film The Illegals by the American war reporter and author Meyer Levin His small film crew accompanied real Holocaust survivors on their journey from the ruins of Warsaw Ghetto through the several countries borders to Displaced Persons Camps in Germany and Austria. The trip goes further to the French coast where one of Haganah ships wait for them. Very special arrangement indeed. It is likely that Meyer Levin as a film director had more to act as "the follower" . Normally film director manages the creative aspects of the production and direct the making of a film by visualizing the script. There was no script for this movie, possibly the guideline where to start and where to finish the shooting.
Most guiding of the two amateur actors and the technical crew was just to follow the stream, follow the group of the Holocaust survivors. Normally the film directors are in the control of the film's dramatic and artistic aspects. Here he could just film the natural reactions depending on the situation. Normally the film team consists of a scenographer responsible of designing and creating scenery during fil production. Here the creation of artificial scenery was none. The ruins of Warsaw ghetto, the passages through the borders, cattle wagons and trucks as well as the ship Unafraid and its crew are real. Of course we can follow the two amateur actors in the movie but we can easily follow different peson in the group. The little boy in military cap at registration is the same boy in forage cap that sings with great feeling the Hatikva song when the captured by British.
550 girls and women and 94 men, Holocaust survivors, left Sweden at the Port of Trelleborg on January 24th, 1947.
S/S Ulua was followed by British intelligence during most of the trip and thereafter escorted by the British warships, after a one month travel they reached the shores of Haifa only to be caught by the British, just the same way as many other Alyah Bet ships. Except a few who made to the shore, the passengers were forcibly taken to the detention camp nr. 66, Dekalia, in Cyprus on February 28th, 1947.
There were two types of refugee camps in Cyprus. Summer camps (five: nos. 55, 60, 61, 62, 63) were located at Kraolos, near Famagusta where the detainees were housed in tents. Winter camps (seven, with the numbers from 64 to 70) were located at Dekalia with housing either in tin Nissen huts or in tents. A Nissen hut was a prefabricated steel structure made from a half-cylindrical skin of corrugated steel, primarily used as military barracks Cold during winters and hot during the summer.
Incidentally, the area where the detention camps were located is still today marked as "occupied by Great Britain" - using the nomenclature that the Swedish government uses with respect to Israel.
20 fatalities occurred on Ailyah Bet ships between September 1945 to May 1948, thus excluding natural causes.
Many scenes come from the film The Illegals by the American war reporter and author Meyer Levin His small film crew accompanied real Holocaust survivors on their journey from the ruins of Warsaw Ghetto through the several countries borders to Displaced Persons Camps in Germany and Austria. The trip goes further to the French coast where one of Haganah ships wait for them. Very special arrangement indeed. It is likely that Meyer Levin as a film director had more to act as "the follower" . Normally film director manages the creative aspects of the production and direct the making of a film by visualizing the script. There was no script for this movie, possibly the guideline where to start and where to finish the shooting.
Most guiding of the two amateur actors and the technical crew was just to follow the stream, follow the group of the Holocaust survivors. Normally the film directors are in the control of the film's dramatic and artistic aspects. Here he could just film the natural reactions depending on the situation. Normally the film team consists of a scenographer responsible of designing and creating scenery during fil production. Here the creation of artificial scenery was none. The ruins of Warsaw ghetto, the passages through the borders, cattle wagons and trucks as well as the ship Unafraid and its crew are real. Of course we can follow the two amateur actors in the movie but we can easily follow different peson in the group. The little boy in military cap at registration is the same boy in forage cap that sings with great feeling the Hatikva song when the captured by British.
We have the possibility to follow the overfilled ship the Unafraid on its hazardous voyage to Palestine.Jewish Holocaust survivors could even attempt to enter Palestine, they had to first be in a geographic position to travel there. Guiding this she’erit hapleita (surviving remnant) of homeless Jews across hostile borders to safe gathering points in western Europe, and from there to Palestine, was a clandestine group of Palestinian Jews that called itself the “Bericha.” Upon reaching the relative safety of collection points in western Europe, these survivors were to be secretly helped by members of Aliyah Bet (the illegal immigration program) to continue their trek onwards to Palestine. The story of how this was accomplished - the mass exodus of 300,000 homeless people, first fleeing over land from eastern to western Europe, and then over the sea to attempt to run the British blockades into Palestine - is an amazing one, a story of great hardship and perseverance.
S/S Unafraid att skriva om
Pls watch also the following movie about Aliyah Beth ship Unafraid.
S/S Unafraid att skriva om
Pls watch also the following movie about Aliyah Beth ship Unafraid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZARn6zPrF2Y
Epilog
My grandfathers brothers and cousins were singing Jeshlanu Erets and they left Pinsk for Israel for 100 yers ago (approx. 1920). When Hitlers power and laws made it impossible for Jews to live in Germany, they were trying to leave Europe. However, many countries, though they knew of German persecution closed their doors tightly. In 1939 when the S/S St Louis and and other ships sailed from Europe, fleeing Nazi Germany with over 900 refugees numerous countries like Cuba, the US and Canada, all refused entry for the Jewish refugees.
The situation do not changed during and after Holocaust. What changed was the knowledge among the Jewish survivors that they can not rely on Europe, they can not rely on neighbors. They hav to rely only on themselves. So, kind of return to own country after years of diaspora was the main alternative for Holocaust survivors. I use to stress out that after Holocaust, the remaining Jews were kind of mono generation, Thus, without parents, grandparents and younger siblings. Often they saw them for the last time at selections at death camps when the were not chosen for work. They saw the groups to be directed to the area with gas chambers. Having 6 000 000 dead Jews in memory, going to Eretz Israel was the only choice.
