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| Documents concerning Holocaust survivors that left Sweden on S/S Ulua can be found in the National Archives in Stockholm (Riksarkivet, Marieberg). Rödakorsflykting stamp on it means Red Cross refugee. |
Ulua Journey of Holocaust Survivors from Sweden to Eretz Israel in 1947 and Its Coverage by the Swedish Press
Abstract
Introduction
Who were "Ulua Emigrants"?
The S/S Ulua ship departed from Trelleborg in Sweden on January 24, 1947. After the horrors of Holocaust and the brief period of recuperation in Sweden, Ulua was to bring a group of Holocaust survivors to their destination, Eretz Israel, at the time still the British Mandate of Palestine. The British opposed immigration to the Mandate and the trip that had to be secretive was dangerous, and the goal was hard to reach as history confirmed it.
"Ulua emigrants" were mostly women and children liberated in Bergen-Belsen by the British who were brought to Sweden by the UNRRA White Boat humanitarian Mission in June-July 1945. Few of the passengers came to Sweden from Germany on the Red Cross White Buses, and some were children sent from Germany to Sweden in the so-called, Kindertransport already before the war. Of the 650 Ulua passengers, 500 were women. All were united by a common and tragic fate that their mothers, fathers, and siblings were murdered during the Holocaust, and that they did not expect that a single family member could have been left in their home countries. For many of them, Europe appeared as the biggest Jewish cemetery! Some might have expected to meet distant relatives living in Eretz Israel (British Mandate of Palestine) who emigrated before the war. To the objective observer, the circumstances of the Ulua passengers could only have inspired extreme sympathy and respect that, as we will demonstrate, was fully absent in the Swedish media coverage of the Ulua journey.
The plight of the survivors, Ulua passengers, can be dramatically illustrated by the picture taken in the women's camp in Bergen-Belsen. Here, sitting on the ground, two women peel potatoes for a meal in Bergen-Belsen, seemingly unaware of the abandoned naked corpses of the fellow prisoners who died before the liberation of the camp. A woman pictured in the background appears as if searching for the relatives among the bodies. The woman in the front left of the picture has been identified as Alice Lok, and It is likely that a woman laying on the ground is her sister, Edith, who died at the British hospital in Bergen-Belsen. Subsequent research showed that Alice Lok had come to Sweden on UNRRA White Boat M/S Kronprinsessan Ingrid that left Lübeck for Sweden on July 10, 1945.
"Ulua emigrants" were mostly women and children liberated in Bergen-Belsen by the British who were brought to Sweden by the UNRRA White Boat humanitarian Mission in June-July 1945. Few of the passengers came to Sweden from Germany on the Red Cross White Buses, and some were children sent from Germany to Sweden in the so-called, Kindertransport already before the war. Of the 650 Ulua passengers, 500 were women. All were united by a common and tragic fate that their mothers, fathers, and siblings were murdered during the Holocaust, and that they did not expect that a single family member could have been left in their home countries. For many of them, Europe appeared as the biggest Jewish cemetery! Some might have expected to meet distant relatives living in Eretz Israel (British Mandate of Palestine) who emigrated before the war. To the objective observer, the circumstances of the Ulua passengers could only have inspired extreme sympathy and respect that, as we will demonstrate, was fully absent in the Swedish media coverage of the Ulua journey.
The plight of the survivors, Ulua passengers, can be dramatically illustrated by the picture taken in the women's camp in Bergen-Belsen. Here, sitting on the ground, two women peel potatoes for a meal in Bergen-Belsen, seemingly unaware of the abandoned naked corpses of the fellow prisoners who died before the liberation of the camp. A woman pictured in the background appears as if searching for the relatives among the bodies. The woman in the front left of the picture has been identified as Alice Lok, and It is likely that a woman laying on the ground is her sister, Edith, who died at the British hospital in Bergen-Belsen. Subsequent research showed that Alice Lok had come to Sweden on UNRRA White Boat M/S Kronprinsessan Ingrid that left Lübeck for Sweden on July 10, 1945.
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| Fig. XX. April 17, 1945. Bergen-Belsen after liberation. Survivors in the women's camp prepare a meal, peeling potatoes while behind them lie the naked abandoned corpses of fellow prisoners who died before the liberation of the camp. A woman in the background seems to search for relatives among the bodies. The woman in the front left is Alice Lok. It is possible that the woman laying on the ground in the front right is Alice's sister, Edith, who died at the British hospital in Bergen-Belsen. Alice Lok came to Sweden on UNRRA White Boat M/S Kronprinsessan Ingrid that left Lübeck for Sweden on July 10, 1945. |
At the same time one gets the impression that the Swedish government was not opposed to the desire of the survivors to leave Sweden and maybe even favored it. The survivors who found themselves in Sweden after the war would obtain passports of their country of origin, such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, or Hungary from the appropriate consulates in Sweden unless they could not bear contact with these consulates in which case they were granted a Swedish foreign passport, a Främlingspass. Similarly, Swedish foreign passports were also granted to a group of stateless Holocaust survivors, mainly German Jews whose citizenship was withheld during the Nazi era. Possession of a passport was one of the two preconditions for embarking on a journey.
The second requirement to leave Sweden besides the justifiable passports was a valid entry visa to a recipient country. And here the problem was solved through an action of the Jewish Refugees Welfare Society who obtained a group visa to Cuba. This particular group visa was issued on August 5, 1946 for a group whose content to be specified at a later date but the visa was valid for only 6 months from the date of issue, or until February 5, 1947. This clearly indicates that the trip had been planned before October 1946. According to the documents in the Swedish National Archives, the stamp was in use for the travelers' passports, saying :"Unimpeded departure before 31/10/1946. Does not entitle the bearer to receive a ration card", indicating that the person will have left the country by the end of October 1946 and did not need a ration card.
In fact the trip was delayed and at the time of departure on January 24, 1947 it had no chance of reaching Cuba before the expiry of the entry visa on February 5, 1947, yet the Swedish authorities were willing to overlook this fact.
While the documents, even with their shortcomings, were found passable by the customs officers, a different issue was presented by the condition of the ship that appeared not seaworthy to carry some 600 people to Cuba. In the end, the Trelleborg port manager was persuaded that the ship was to travel only to Le Havre where it would be relieved by an ocean steamer. S/S Ulua traveled under the Honduras flag underlining the fact that it was a third party rather than a Swedish expedition.
Significance of the Trip to the Press
It is evident from the Swedish press at the time that the trip was treated in Sweden as an extremely newsworthy item. Articles about S/S Ulua appeared on the front pages of the newspapers, accompanied by the photographs of the boat's journey. Even a full week after S/S Ulua left Trelleborg, on January 31, 1947, an article about Ulua's journey was placed on the front page of Dagens Nyheter, just next to a photo report from the funeral of Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf, who died in a plane crash at Kastrup Airport!
The information about S/S Ulua was also cabled out on January 23, Thursday from the Swedish news agency TT (Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå) with further details about the destination of the ship, (Cuba) and the number of passengers (600) and also that ship was sailed under Honduras flag. There was also information about the crew that was mostly of Jewish origin and that Jews that will board the ship on midday Friday will arrive by morning train from Stockholm. This short info was cabled and published in numerous newspapers. It is not known if it was included in the TT-news broadcasted by the national Swedish Radio. Again not there was no single information who the Jews were but instead a description of the sleeping conditions on board and that linnen were not enough for all passengers.
It is my hypothesis that information leaked to the media came from the British government and the British security service who wanted to stop the Jewish immigration to Eretz Israel. Most Displaced Persons' (DP) camps were in Germany, and the majority of illegal transports of Holocaust survivors went through France as it was only a matter of crossing a single border on the way to coastal ports on the Mediterranean. Not to mention that, in France, there was also a strong Aliyah Beth network. The British government concluded an agreement with the French counterpart that the border stations would allow crossing only for the survivors equipped with visas. As most did not possess such visas, a trip by boat was an alternative route because it did not involve any border crossings. And this is exactly what was intimated by the Swedish newspapers that claimed the journey by boat was instigated by the fear of obstacles erected by the British Government in order to prevent the entry to the Promised Land by the Holocaust survivors, Eretz Israel. The papers wrote about a British naval ship that shadowed S/S Ulua, but often they disclosed that Ulua did not take the shortest way to LeHavre through the Kiel Canal within the British military zone, but instead traveled around to avoid the controls.
Evidently to disarm the operation, reportedly the harbor master in Copenhagen received pertinent information from the British that S/S Ulua was to transport young women to the brothels of South America and that they should be detained in Copenhagen to stop the illegal activity. Fortunately, the harbor master, a member of the Danish resistance movement, was forewarned about the final destination of the voyage and he simply wished Ulua's captain good luck before the boat left Denmark. The fact that the British followed S/S Ulua had been reported in the New York Times on January 24, 1967, and confirmed in the Swedish newspaper Expressen the next day.
Mainly through the information from the British press, the Swedish newspapers continued to report on the progress of S/S Ulua's journey along the coastline in Europe and then in the Mediterranean. At the same time, the purpose of the entire trip and the nature of its passengers were rarely mentioned, as if the trip itself was veiled in mystery.
When S/S Ulua arrived in Le Havre from Sweden at the end of January 1947 the boat was prevented from leaving on the basis that she was unseaworthy to carry so many passengers. Again British action. To get the ship released the commander on board, Arieh Eliav (25 y.), telephoned the Mossad office in Paris (Szwarc 2006), requesting help to get the ship to be released. The commander of the Ulua, gave an account of the direct assistance from Jules Moch, the French Minister of Transportation. Thereafter, the maritime direction in Le Havre port issued a seaworthiness certificate for the boat and S/S Ulua was able to continue her journey. Apparently, the British Authorities in France insisted that the boat was not seaworthy to carry so many passengers. Jules Moch gave direct orders to the maritime officials in Le Havre to issue a certificate of seaworthiness for the boat so that she could no longer be held in any port under French control. Later, at the Mediterranean, when the ship commander got the order to pick up additional survivors stranded in Italy the ship instead of entering the port of Metaponto (Italy) was probably watched by the British anchored close to the beach of Terento (February 21st). At the beach Terento, the Holocaust survivors were taken on board during the night using rubber boats. Thus, instead of going to the port of Metaponto the authorities might try to stop the ship. 684 additional survivors were taken on board. There were a total of 1384 immigrants on board when leaving Italy.
The keyword "Judetransporterna" - "Jew-transports" appears strangely enough again in 1947 in connection with the departure of the survivors with S / S Ulua from Trelleborg. Based on the readily obtainable statistics, "Belsen" as the keyword is found one hundred and sixty-two (162) times in Dagens Nyheter and one hundred and sixty-one (161) times in Svenska Dagbladet, the morning papers, and similarly one hundred and seventy-five (175) times in the evening newspapers Expressen and one hundred and forty-three (143) times in Aftonbladet.
Fig.X. Based on accessible statistics obtained from the digital searches at the Royal Library in Stockholm, the Frequency of the use of the keyword "judetransporterna" - "Jew-transport". It shows that it was precisely in 1942, the start of the Industrial Holocaust, when that expression gained its foothold in the press. " Jew-transport" referred to the trains from the ghettos in Poland that rolled towards the death camps, and again, in 1944 when the Holocaust of the Hungarian Jews started with the daily transports to Auschwitz, and in 1945 when "Jew-transports" meant a rapid evacuation of remaining prisoners to concentration camps in central Germany due to the impending offensive of the Red Army and the allied forces.
Earlier on, upon the arrival of survivors in Sweden in 1945, Dagens Nyheter and several other Swedish newspapers coined and used a more empathetic term for Bergen prisoners and Belsen who came from the concentration camps to Sweden at the end of the Second World War. One would expect the use of this term with respect to Ulua passengers who were recruited from this group. Instead, they were presented as an anonymous group carried by a "Jude. ("Jewish ship") under "mysterious" and "obscure circumstances". One of the organizers of the trip, Günter Cohn, was called "the tour guide" or "manager" and on 12 April 1947, Expressen, used the term "Jewish traffic" while relating the information about the British inquiry and discussions with the Swedish Foreign Ministry.
Ulua was a tougher meat - was a description of the strong resistance by the Holocaust survivors trying to stop some 84 especially trained British soldiers to board S/S Haim Arlosoroff. In: The Royal Navy and the Palestine Patrol, 2002.
S/S Ulua - S/S Haim Arlosoroff חיים ארלוזורוב was crewed by:
Dagens Nyheter: 31 januari 1947, 1 februari 1947, 11 mars 1947, 11 april 1947,
Svenska Dagbladet: 24 januari 1947, 19 februari 1947. 8 augusti 1948.
Söderhamns Tidning: 28 januari 1947.
Aftonbladet: 24 januari 1947, 17 februari 1947, 20 februari 1947, 24 februari 1947, 6 mars 1947,
Expressen: 24 januari 1947, 25 januari 1947, 14 februari 1947, 28 februari 1947, 12 april 1947.
The Daily Telegraph. Jews fight boarding party of Haifa. 1 mars 1947.
Gottfarb Inga. `Den livsfarliga glömskan`. (Wiken förlag), 1986
First mate of S/S Ulua, Arthur Bernstein cites: "Ulua initially went to Sweden, where about 650 displaced persons came aboard. Those people were given Cuban passports – "paid for with good money" -- toward fooling authorities who questioned their presence."
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| The survivors who found themselves in Sweden after the war would obtain passports of their country of origin, such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, or Hungary from the appropriate consulates in Sweden unless they could not bear contact with these consulates in which case they were granted a Swedish foreign passport, a Främlingspass. Similarly, Swedish foreign passports were also granted to a group of stateless Holocaust survivors, mainly German Jews whose citizenship was withheld during the Nazi era. Possession of a passport was one of the two preconditions for embarking on a journey. |
The second requirement to leave Sweden besides the justifiable passports was a valid entry visa to a recipient country. And here the problem was solved through an action of the Jewish Refugees Welfare Society who obtained a group visa to Cuba. This particular group visa was issued on August 5, 1946 for a group whose content to be specified at a later date but the visa was valid for only 6 months from the date of issue, or until February 5, 1947. This clearly indicates that the trip had been planned before October 1946. According to the documents in the Swedish National Archives, the stamp was in use for the travelers' passports, saying :"Unimpeded departure before 31/10/1946. Does not entitle the bearer to receive a ration card", indicating that the person will have left the country by the end of October 1946 and did not need a ration card.
In fact the trip was delayed and at the time of departure on January 24, 1947 it had no chance of reaching Cuba before the expiry of the entry visa on February 5, 1947, yet the Swedish authorities were willing to overlook this fact.
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| Fig.1. The second requirement to leave Sweden was a valid entry visa to a recipient country. And here the problem was solved through an action of the Jewish Refugees Welfare Society who obtained a group visa to Cuba. This particular group visa was issued on August 5, 1946, for a group whose content to be specified at a later date but the visa was valid for only 6 months from the date of issue, or until February 5, 1947. (SHMA Archives, Wasserman Wroblewski, R). |
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| According to the documents in the Swedish National Archives, the stamp was in use for the travelers' passports, saying :"Unimpeded departure before 31/10/1946. Does not entitle the bearer to receive a ration card", indicating that the person will have left the country by the end of October 1946 and did not need a ration card. This clearly indicates that the trip had been planned before October 1946. |
While the documents, even with their shortcomings, were found passable by the customs officers, a different issue was presented by the condition of the ship that appeared not seaworthy to carry some 600 people to Cuba. In the end, the Trelleborg port manager was persuaded that the ship was to travel only to Le Havre where it would be relieved by an ocean steamer. S/S Ulua traveled under the Honduras flag underlining the fact that it was a third party rather than a Swedish expedition.
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| May 15, 1946 list of 3 311 Holocaust survivors, who were in various places in Sweden. Probably they had a common desire, to leave Sweden for Eretz Israel. Note that 472 survivors were in hospitals and sanatoria (Group IV). From Hachshara and Youth Aliyah in Sweden 1933-1948 by Emil Glück, Judith Diamond, Yaël Glick. The port of Trelleborg is marked at the bottom of the map. |
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| Above, an application form for a residence permit in Sweden that Holocaust survivors with Polish and Hungarian homeland passports had to submit. It seems that the responsibility for the application process and the references for the S/S Ulua passengers resided entirely within the Jewish Refugees Welfare Society in Stockholm. Significantly, all applications are for the residence permit lasting only until December 31, 1946. The application form asks for a signature (at the end on page 2). Some signatures had been copied from previous documents, put on a piece of paper, and glued onto the form, apparently by the Jewish Refugee Welfare Society in Stockholm. This seemed to have been tolerated by the Swedish authorities, indicating a positive attitude towards the Ulua mission. Note that the word "Jewish" appears as "Jewis" on one of the stamps used. |
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Fig. 2. February 24 1947. Trelleborg harbor. Sweden. On the right of the quay, the chartered SJ train with third-class carriages. To the left, is the stern of the refurbished S/S Ulua. In the background, survivors embark on the ship.
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| Fragments of two cards issued to Holocaust survivors who came to Sweden at the end of WWII and departed on S/S Ulua: the top one was stamped in green on entry to the port of Malmö on April 28, 1945. The bottom one carries a red stamp indicating a departure from the port of Trelleborg on January 24 1947. |
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| Fig. 3. Holocaust survivors onboard S/S Ulua after leaving the port of Trelleborg. (SHMA archives, Picture from Israel TV). |
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| Holocaust survivors and the crew with white badges loading "cargo" on S/S Ulua. Only 15 kg was allowed. |
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It is evident from the Swedish press at the time that the trip was treated in Sweden as an extremely newsworthy item. Articles about S/S Ulua appeared on the front pages of the newspapers, accompanied by the photographs of the boat's journey. Even a full week after S/S Ulua left Trelleborg, on January 31, 1947, an article about Ulua's journey was placed on the front page of Dagens Nyheter, just next to a photo report from the funeral of Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf, who died in a plane crash at Kastrup Airport!
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| Fig. 4. Articles about S/S Ulua appeared on the front pages of the newspapers, accompanied by photographs of the boat's journey. Even a full week after S/S Ulua left Trelleborg, on January 31, 1947, an article about Ulua's journey was placed on the front page of Dagens Nyheter, just next to a photo report from the funeral of Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf, who died in a plane crash at Kastrup Airport. Above, is the report of the London correspondent of Dagens Nyheter writing about S/S Ulua being stopped in Le Havre. (SHMA Archives, DN Archives, Wasserman Wroblewski, R). |
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| Articles about S/S Ulua appeared on the front pages of the newspapers, here "Dramatic Happy End" from Skånska Aftonbladet which was one of the few newspapers that mentioned that the passengers or Jews on the S/S Ulua were former concentration camp, prisoners. |
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| Based on the accessible statistics obtained from the digital searches at the Royal Library in Stockholm, "Ulua" as the keyword generates as many as 25 articles published by Dagens Nyheter, followed by Svenska Dagbladet and Trelleborgs Tidningen with 16 each. By comparison, the evening papers often considered gossipy and scandal-seeking, have placed only a few articles and on a later date. |
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| Based on the accessible statistics obtained from the digital searches at the Royal Library in Stockholm. During the period between January 18, 1947 and December 31, 1948, there were 98 articles about S/S Ulua. Observe that six of them appeared between January 18 and January 23, or a day preceding the departure of the ship from Trelleborg. |
Based on the accessible statistics obtained from the digital searches at the Royal Library in Stockholm, "Ulua" as the keyword generates as many as 25 articles published by Dagens Nyheter, followed by Svenska Dagbladet and Trelleborgs Tidningen with 16 each. By comparison, the evening papers often considered gossipy and scandal-seeking, have placed only a few articles and on a later date. It is clear that in the case of Ulua, it is the morning newspapers that have attempted to present the ship's journey as a sensation of sorts, something normally attributed to the evening press. In this case, there were only nine (9) articles in Aftonbladet and only six (6) in Expressen.
These simple statistics and the content and placement of the articles show that it was the morning newspapers that fostered an atmosphere of sensation in the reporting on Ulua. Based on the above survey, while the evening newspapers shied away from emphasizing the event, the morning newspapers and Trelleborg Tidningen tended to portray the departure of Holocaust survivors to the Swedish public as a primary event requiring special attention. This was accentuated by the pointedness of the language and the choice of shockingly derogatory headlines. It was especially curious that supposedly serious morning papers such as Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet engaged in journalism based on secondary gossip rather than solid facts that would require describing the background and circumstances of the Holocaust survivor's departure from Sweden and Europe. In contrast, uncharacteristically, reporting on "Ulua" was twice as high in the morning papers compared to the evening papers, leading to speculation that the press had been guided by reasons other than just journalistic curiosity.
The morning newspapers normally invest more than the evening newspapers in providing readers with in-depth reporting and background information but, their reporting on Ulua was scandalously low. Especially since all these newspapers had at their disposal an army of experienced reporters. Trelleborgs Tidningen's report at the quay appeared duplicated by the others who received information from the same source, for instance, a telegram agency. Similarities in the published articles were striking, although some things were magnified or described more negatively than in other papers.
Information About the Trip
It is particularly striking how the newspaper articles abstract from the human factor of the Ulua expedition, presenting it as a curious anonymous event where a group of Jews was leaving Sweden in a substandard vessel for an unknown destination. Instead, one would be compelled to describe a dramatic circumstance where a number of people who shared the same tragic fate: first imprisonment in the ghettos, some as early as 1939, suffering in concentration and death camps, witnessing the annihilation of their younger siblings and parents in the gas chambers, death marches, and near-death conditions in Bergen-Belsen who, finally at the end of the war, were rescued in Sweden to receive the life-saving care. There was no recognition that many were small children and lone travelers, the sole survivors of entire families. For that whole group, Europe was a large Jewish cemetery and for most of them, there was no home to come back to, not only because of psychological barriers but also due to hostility at home that awaited them. All that is missing from the press coverage. Ironically, the only "human" factor mentioned in one article is the voice of a young woman who, when asked about the purpose of the journey, apparently responded that she hoped to find a husband. Another was an amusing mention of the fancy signs marking Ulua's toilets: the ladies' decorated with a picture of an airily dressed woman on the door and the men's with a gentleman dressed in a tailcoat with a high hat in his hand, as reported by Expressen on departure day, January 24,1947.
The Leaks
The Jewish Refugees Welfare Society planned that S/S Ulua would depart on January 24, 1947 from the port of Trelleborg. Prior to the trip, the Holocaust survivors were to gather in safe, secret places preferably near Trelleborg or along the Gävle-Stockholm railway line and then Stockholm-Trelleborg. A chartered SJ train was to run the above routes the night between 23 - 24 January. Those who were notified were, of course, the Swedish passport and customs authorities, the port office in Trelleborg, and the SJ personnel (SJ Sveriges Järnvägar - Swedish Railway). Everyone else involved was to be kept in the dark until the last minute. The survivors who were to board the boat and who worked were not to inform their employers about the trip, just not come to work at the appointed time. Information about the places where the survivors who were not to travel by train, was also kept secret. Despite all of these precautions, the information about the trip leaked to the Swedish press, potentially jeopardizing the whole operation.
An information leak, "läckan" in Swedish, occurs when the secret information is spread outside an organization to unauthorized persons. It can be about the secrets that are spread to benefit the organization's enemy. A leak is used to stop or complicate a planned operation by spreading the secrets to the public via the mass media. To gain information about the leak surrounding the departure of the ship S/S Ulua from Sweden in 1947, I have performed a search of the archives of the articles published by the largest and most digitized Swedish newspapers available at the Royal Library in Stockholm.
The first newspaper to "leak" the information was Trelleborgs Tidningen and then Dagens Nyheter. The information seems to have reached the editors early, before 21 January 1947, because it was already published on January 22. The entire secret plan, including the places where the survivors would gather before the voyage, was published at the same time as the ship S/S Ulua stopped to stock up on fuel in Copenhagen, and when most of the future passengers were still spread over half of Sweden, from Malmö in south to Gävle in the north.
According to the headline in Trelleborgs Tidningen, the so-called "Judetransporten" (Jew-transport, Transport of the Jews) has been planned since last autumn" and that indicates that the newspaper was aware of the trip earlier but probably received a tip about its movement on January 21, 1947. That information may have been leaked to the other morning and evening newspapers as Trelleborgs Tidningen already indicated in the headline that they knew about it all. The fact that S/S Ulua docked in Copenhagen was partly due to the ice situation as the Swedish ports were not ice-free. Of course, it was also more convenient and safer for S/S Ulua to stock up and refuel on diesel in Copenhagen and come to Trelleborg just to swiftly pick up the passengers. Early in the morning of January 23, 1947, S/S Ulua sailed from Copenhagen and later, with the help of a Swedish pilot, docked in the port of Trelleborg, right by the quay track. At the quay in Trelleborg, there was then a gathering of Swedish journalists and photographers.
These simple statistics and the content and placement of the articles show that it was the morning newspapers that fostered an atmosphere of sensation in the reporting on Ulua. Based on the above survey, while the evening newspapers shied away from emphasizing the event, the morning newspapers and Trelleborg Tidningen tended to portray the departure of Holocaust survivors to the Swedish public as a primary event requiring special attention. This was accentuated by the pointedness of the language and the choice of shockingly derogatory headlines. It was especially curious that supposedly serious morning papers such as Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet engaged in journalism based on secondary gossip rather than solid facts that would require describing the background and circumstances of the Holocaust survivor's departure from Sweden and Europe. In contrast, uncharacteristically, reporting on "Ulua" was twice as high in the morning papers compared to the evening papers, leading to speculation that the press had been guided by reasons other than just journalistic curiosity.
The morning newspapers normally invest more than the evening newspapers in providing readers with in-depth reporting and background information but, their reporting on Ulua was scandalously low. Especially since all these newspapers had at their disposal an army of experienced reporters. Trelleborgs Tidningen's report at the quay appeared duplicated by the others who received information from the same source, for instance, a telegram agency. Similarities in the published articles were striking, although some things were magnified or described more negatively than in other papers.
Information About the Trip
It is particularly striking how the newspaper articles abstract from the human factor of the Ulua expedition, presenting it as a curious anonymous event where a group of Jews was leaving Sweden in a substandard vessel for an unknown destination. Instead, one would be compelled to describe a dramatic circumstance where a number of people who shared the same tragic fate: first imprisonment in the ghettos, some as early as 1939, suffering in concentration and death camps, witnessing the annihilation of their younger siblings and parents in the gas chambers, death marches, and near-death conditions in Bergen-Belsen who, finally at the end of the war, were rescued in Sweden to receive the life-saving care. There was no recognition that many were small children and lone travelers, the sole survivors of entire families. For that whole group, Europe was a large Jewish cemetery and for most of them, there was no home to come back to, not only because of psychological barriers but also due to hostility at home that awaited them. All that is missing from the press coverage. Ironically, the only "human" factor mentioned in one article is the voice of a young woman who, when asked about the purpose of the journey, apparently responded that she hoped to find a husband. Another was an amusing mention of the fancy signs marking Ulua's toilets: the ladies' decorated with a picture of an airily dressed woman on the door and the men's with a gentleman dressed in a tailcoat with a high hat in his hand, as reported by Expressen on departure day, January 24,1947.
The Leaks
The Jewish Refugees Welfare Society planned that S/S Ulua would depart on January 24, 1947 from the port of Trelleborg. Prior to the trip, the Holocaust survivors were to gather in safe, secret places preferably near Trelleborg or along the Gävle-Stockholm railway line and then Stockholm-Trelleborg. A chartered SJ train was to run the above routes the night between 23 - 24 January. Those who were notified were, of course, the Swedish passport and customs authorities, the port office in Trelleborg, and the SJ personnel (SJ Sveriges Järnvägar - Swedish Railway). Everyone else involved was to be kept in the dark until the last minute. The survivors who were to board the boat and who worked were not to inform their employers about the trip, just not come to work at the appointed time. Information about the places where the survivors who were not to travel by train, was also kept secret. Despite all of these precautions, the information about the trip leaked to the Swedish press, potentially jeopardizing the whole operation.
An information leak, "läckan" in Swedish, occurs when the secret information is spread outside an organization to unauthorized persons. It can be about the secrets that are spread to benefit the organization's enemy. A leak is used to stop or complicate a planned operation by spreading the secrets to the public via the mass media. To gain information about the leak surrounding the departure of the ship S/S Ulua from Sweden in 1947, I have performed a search of the archives of the articles published by the largest and most digitized Swedish newspapers available at the Royal Library in Stockholm.
The first newspaper to "leak" the information was Trelleborgs Tidningen and then Dagens Nyheter. The information seems to have reached the editors early, before 21 January 1947, because it was already published on January 22. The entire secret plan, including the places where the survivors would gather before the voyage, was published at the same time as the ship S/S Ulua stopped to stock up on fuel in Copenhagen, and when most of the future passengers were still spread over half of Sweden, from Malmö in south to Gävle in the north.
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| Trelleborgs Tidningen seems to know everything in advance. Its headline on January 22, 1947 reads:"Judetransporten ( Jew-transport or Jewish transport) has been planned since last autumn". They must have received the information as early as January 21, 1947 if they are publishing it the next morning. The entire secret plan, including where the survivors were to gather before the voyage, is thus revealed while the ship S/S Ulua is still restocking on fuel in Copenhagen and when most of the future passengers are spread over half of Sweden from Malmö in the South to Gävle in the North (distance of 781 km). |
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| The importance of the S/S Ulua trip as indicated by the placement of the articles on the front pages of the Swedish newspapers. |
The information about S/S Ulua was also cabled out on January 23, Thursday from the Swedish news agency TT (Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå) with further details about the destination of the ship, (Cuba) and the number of passengers (600) and also that ship was sailed under Honduras flag. There was also information about the crew that was mostly of Jewish origin and that Jews that will board the ship on midday Friday will arrive by morning train from Stockholm. This short info was cabled and published in numerous newspapers. It is not known if it was included in the TT-news broadcasted by the national Swedish Radio. Again not there was no single information who the Jews were but instead a description of the sleeping conditions on board and that linnen were not enough for all passengers.
Evidently to disarm the operation, reportedly the harbor master in Copenhagen received pertinent information from the British that S/S Ulua was to transport young women to the brothels of South America and that they should be detained in Copenhagen to stop the illegal activity. Fortunately, the harbor master, a member of the Danish resistance movement, was forewarned about the final destination of the voyage and he simply wished Ulua's captain good luck before the boat left Denmark. The fact that the British followed S/S Ulua had been reported in the New York Times on January 24, 1967, and confirmed in the Swedish newspaper Expressen the next day.
Mainly through the information from the British press, the Swedish newspapers continued to report on the progress of S/S Ulua's journey along the coastline in Europe and then in the Mediterranean. At the same time, the purpose of the entire trip and the nature of its passengers were rarely mentioned, as if the trip itself was veiled in mystery.
When S/S Ulua arrived in Le Havre from Sweden at the end of January 1947 the boat was prevented from leaving on the basis that she was unseaworthy to carry so many passengers. Again British action. To get the ship released the commander on board, Arieh Eliav (25 y.), telephoned the Mossad office in Paris (Szwarc 2006), requesting help to get the ship to be released. The commander of the Ulua, gave an account of the direct assistance from Jules Moch, the French Minister of Transportation. Thereafter, the maritime direction in Le Havre port issued a seaworthiness certificate for the boat and S/S Ulua was able to continue her journey. Apparently, the British Authorities in France insisted that the boat was not seaworthy to carry so many passengers. Jules Moch gave direct orders to the maritime officials in Le Havre to issue a certificate of seaworthiness for the boat so that she could no longer be held in any port under French control. Later, at the Mediterranean, when the ship commander got the order to pick up additional survivors stranded in Italy the ship instead of entering the port of Metaponto (Italy) was probably watched by the British anchored close to the beach of Terento (February 21st). At the beach Terento, the Holocaust survivors were taken on board during the night using rubber boats. Thus, instead of going to the port of Metaponto the authorities might try to stop the ship. 684 additional survivors were taken on board. There were a total of 1384 immigrants on board when leaving Italy.
The language used by the Swedish Press
The press called the travelers "repatriandi", a seemingly ironic terminology as these homeless people were not returning to their homes. At the same time, however, this was an official term used in Sweden for the war "refugees" coming to Sweden at the end of the war, while returning from the concentration camps, lagers, prisons, and other places as the result of the war. For example, the term "repatriandi" was used with respect to Polish, French and Dutch concentration camp prisoners. The Jews have been excluded from that nomenclature at an early stage because it was understood that they really have nowhere to return to. Their homes have been taken over by others and their families were completely wiped out. Nevertheless, in some reports, the Swedish journalists chose to use the term "repatriandi" when referring to the passengers of S/S Ulua as if to disregard the fact that the Swedish Refugee Council specifically excluded that term with respect to the Jews who lacked the protection of their homeland.
The peculiar thing about the Swedish newspaper articles about S/S Ulua's voyage is that despite the large headlines and the extensive text, the journalists did not bother to explain the special case of the people onboard and the desperate reason for their travel. At the same time, the press clearly described the abominable conditions of the boat which was barely seaworthy and it clearly derided the ability of the boat to travel with so many people even for three hours to Le Havre.
The terms "Jewish refugees" and "repatriandi" are sometimes replaced by "Ulua passengers" and later by "Ulua immigrants", with that latest expression picked from the British media reflecting British opposition to immigration to Eretz Israel. The Holocaust survivors who were brought to Bergen Belsen from various camps at the end of WWII were named "Belsen prisoners". Belsen prisoners were people from different countries rescued in Bergen-Belsen by the British and who were carried on UNRRA humanitarian Mission on White Boats to Sweden in June and July 1945. From the bias demonstrated by the press, it is evident that most of the names given to the ship and to the traveling survivors were either misleading or condescending.
The term "Judetransporterna" - "Jew-transports" were used in several articles about Ulua and that term was also previously used in the Swedish press. In fact, a study of the archives shows that it was precisely in 1942, the start of the Industrial Holocaust when that expression gained its foothold in the press. " Jew-transport" referred to the trains from the ghettos in Poland that rolled towards the death camps, and again, in 1944 when the Holocaust of the Hungarian Jews started with the daily transports to Auschwitz, and in 1945 when "Jewish transports" meant a rapid evacuation of remaining prisoners to concentration camps in central Germany due to the impending offensive of the Red Army and the allied forces.
The press called the travelers "repatriandi", a seemingly ironic terminology as these homeless people were not returning to their homes. At the same time, however, this was an official term used in Sweden for the war "refugees" coming to Sweden at the end of the war, while returning from the concentration camps, lagers, prisons, and other places as the result of the war. For example, the term "repatriandi" was used with respect to Polish, French and Dutch concentration camp prisoners. The Jews have been excluded from that nomenclature at an early stage because it was understood that they really have nowhere to return to. Their homes have been taken over by others and their families were completely wiped out. Nevertheless, in some reports, the Swedish journalists chose to use the term "repatriandi" when referring to the passengers of S/S Ulua as if to disregard the fact that the Swedish Refugee Council specifically excluded that term with respect to the Jews who lacked the protection of their homeland.
The peculiar thing about the Swedish newspaper articles about S/S Ulua's voyage is that despite the large headlines and the extensive text, the journalists did not bother to explain the special case of the people onboard and the desperate reason for their travel. At the same time, the press clearly described the abominable conditions of the boat which was barely seaworthy and it clearly derided the ability of the boat to travel with so many people even for three hours to Le Havre.
The terms "Jewish refugees" and "repatriandi" are sometimes replaced by "Ulua passengers" and later by "Ulua immigrants", with that latest expression picked from the British media reflecting British opposition to immigration to Eretz Israel. The Holocaust survivors who were brought to Bergen Belsen from various camps at the end of WWII were named "Belsen prisoners". Belsen prisoners were people from different countries rescued in Bergen-Belsen by the British and who were carried on UNRRA humanitarian Mission on White Boats to Sweden in June and July 1945. From the bias demonstrated by the press, it is evident that most of the names given to the ship and to the traveling survivors were either misleading or condescending.
The term "Judetransporterna" - "Jew-transports" were used in several articles about Ulua and that term was also previously used in the Swedish press. In fact, a study of the archives shows that it was precisely in 1942, the start of the Industrial Holocaust when that expression gained its foothold in the press. " Jew-transport" referred to the trains from the ghettos in Poland that rolled towards the death camps, and again, in 1944 when the Holocaust of the Hungarian Jews started with the daily transports to Auschwitz, and in 1945 when "Jewish transports" meant a rapid evacuation of remaining prisoners to concentration camps in central Germany due to the impending offensive of the Red Army and the allied forces.
The keyword "Judetransporterna" - "Jew-transports" appears strangely enough again in 1947 in connection with the departure of the survivors with S / S Ulua from Trelleborg. Based on the readily obtainable statistics, "Belsen" as the keyword is found one hundred and sixty-two (162) times in Dagens Nyheter and one hundred and sixty-one (161) times in Svenska Dagbladet, the morning papers, and similarly one hundred and seventy-five (175) times in the evening newspapers Expressen and one hundred and forty-three (143) times in Aftonbladet.
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| Based on accessible statistics obtained from the digital searches at the Royal Library in Stockholm, "Belsen" as a keyword appears 162 times in Dagens Nyheter and 161 times in Svenska Dagbladet as opposed to Expressen - 175 and Aftonbladet 143. |
Earlier on, upon the arrival of survivors in Sweden in 1945, Dagens Nyheter and several other Swedish newspapers coined and used a more empathetic term for Bergen prisoners and Belsen who came from the concentration camps to Sweden at the end of the Second World War. One would expect the use of this term with respect to Ulua passengers who were recruited from this group. Instead, they were presented as an anonymous group carried by a "Jude. ("Jewish ship") under "mysterious" and "obscure circumstances". One of the organizers of the trip, Günter Cohn, was called "the tour guide" or "manager" and on 12 April 1947, Expressen, used the term "Jewish traffic" while relating the information about the British inquiry and discussions with the Swedish Foreign Ministry.
Follow Up on the Trip
An explanation for the "Uluaresan" will not be known in the Swedish media until March 11, 1947. Dagens Nyheter is actually the only newspaper where an explanation could be found indirectly as their reporters visited the Belsen survivors remaining in Sweden (Belsenungdom, the Belsen Youth") in 1947. Young Belsen Holocaust survivors of the concentration camps brought to Sweden mainly on UNRRA's White Boats, were comrades, former fellow prisoners of those who previously had left Sweden on Ulua. Their description as orphans, half of them marked by tuberculosis, indirectly informed about the Ulua crowd.
Based on my previous research, published in 2020, "The Liberated 1945, White Boat Mission from Bergen-Belsen to Sweden", after a period of recuperation, almost all survivors wanted to leave Sweden in 1946. The countries they wanted to go to were mainly Eretz Israel, then the Mandate of Palestine, and/or America. Few wanted to stay in Sweden or return to their home countries. That desire was already demonstrated at the time of registration and at the issuance of the so-called DP-2 cards. And the same wish was evident at Belsenungdom, when Dagens Nyheter visited on March 11, 1947. Tragically, the Holocaust survivors who left Sweden on S/S Ulua were taken by British prison ships to internment camps in Cyprus, put behind barbed wire, and guarded by armed British soldiers seemingly of the similar type as the guards in the concentration camps just a few months before.
An explanation for the "Uluaresan" will not be known in the Swedish media until March 11, 1947. Dagens Nyheter is actually the only newspaper where an explanation could be found indirectly as their reporters visited the Belsen survivors remaining in Sweden (Belsenungdom, the Belsen Youth") in 1947. Young Belsen Holocaust survivors of the concentration camps brought to Sweden mainly on UNRRA's White Boats, were comrades, former fellow prisoners of those who previously had left Sweden on Ulua. Their description as orphans, half of them marked by tuberculosis, indirectly informed about the Ulua crowd.
Based on my previous research, published in 2020, "The Liberated 1945, White Boat Mission from Bergen-Belsen to Sweden", after a period of recuperation, almost all survivors wanted to leave Sweden in 1946. The countries they wanted to go to were mainly Eretz Israel, then the Mandate of Palestine, and/or America. Few wanted to stay in Sweden or return to their home countries. That desire was already demonstrated at the time of registration and at the issuance of the so-called DP-2 cards. And the same wish was evident at Belsenungdom, when Dagens Nyheter visited on March 11, 1947. Tragically, the Holocaust survivors who left Sweden on S/S Ulua were taken by British prison ships to internment camps in Cyprus, put behind barbed wire, and guarded by armed British soldiers seemingly of the similar type as the guards in the concentration camps just a few months before.
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| Fig. 5. On April 12, 1947, Expressen reports that the British asked the Swedish Foreign Ministry to investigate whether Sweden did not become a center for illegal Jewish emigration. According to the paper, Sweden had assured the British that they had no legal means to prevent the Jews from leaving the country and promised to undertake a thorough investigation by the Swedish police. Expressen nevertheless uses the pejorative term, "Jew traffic", and calls the departure of Holocaust survivors from Trelleborg "the Ulua affair," suggesting an improper event. |
In March 1947, the newspapers also published information about what happened to those who left Sweden on S/S Ulua, later renamed Haim Arlosoroff. They described the capture by the British and life in an internment camp in Cyprus. According to the article in the Daily Telegraph published on March 1, 1947, the ship "Haim Arlosoroff" carrying 1,378 passengers from Sweden and Italy was stopped on February 27, 1947, by the British. The Royal Navy fighter HMS Chieftain and other hunters tried a number of times to get over the ship but the passengers resisted hard. The ship was then deliberately sunk at Bat Galim, just south of Haifa, opposite a British army camp. The crew and passengers were arrested and deported to Cyprus. And yet despite the hardships, a letter from the camp in Cyprus published later by Dagens Nyheter clearly indicates that the prisoners did not regret their trip and would have done it again. They looked forward to being transferred to Eretz Israel as soon as current quotas for Cypriot prisoners would allow it.
As described in the book by Inga Gottfarb who spoke with the Jewish leaders in Sweden at the time, people in Jewish circles were very worried about the press. Everyone was well aware that the Swedish government's positive attitude towards emigration could change overnight. Newspaper coverage could easily provoke strong protests and pressure from the British government to stop the trip, and this was to be avoided by all means. This is why the information about the boat's arrival in Sweden was kept top secret. As recorded in the Gottfarb book, Günter Cohn, "the tour guide" of the trip in the words of the Swedish press confirms both the plan for the journey and the generally favorable attitude of Swedish authorities towards those passengers who obtained their home countries' or aliens' passports and visas, with the exception of Swedish citizens that were not allowed to board. Cohn shares with Gottfarb his fear of the potential British pressure that could be triggered by the Swedish press. Unaware of the leak by Trelleborgs Tidningen on January 22, 1947, revealing the details of the voyage, he describes to Gottfarb his shock on arrival in Trelleborg Harbor on January 23 when the ship is met at the quay by some twenty journalists.
Information about the boat's arrival had spread quickly and reached the newspaper's editorial offices early on January 23, 1947, and Günter Cohn had to hide from the journalists. He had gone on board of Ulua only in the evening after the press contingent was dispersed. Cohn traveled north early the next morning to meet the chartered train with passengers from Stockholm in order to bring them to Trelleborg. To his surprise, Dagens Nyheter newspaper he picked up at the station, described in detail and with photos the departure of the train from Stockholm Central station he was waiting for. The coverage of the trip was massive and oppressive. Gottfarb also relates Cohn's conviction that, although invisible, the British Secret Service was strongly opposed to the Jewish immigration to Eretz Israel, trying to stop it. As it turned out Günter Cohen's fears had come true: initially, the Trelleborg harbormaster did not allow the survivors to embark on the boat. Instead, people were sitting in the SJ train carriages rolled on the quay track next to S/S Ulua. Cohn quickly realized that an attempt to stop the trip must have occurred and proceeded to act quickly and forcefully. Engaging members of the group, he ordered an inspection of the ship that finally convinced the harbormaster to withdraw his objections. In the end, the survivors sitting trapped by the train and those who came on buses are allowed to board. The departure is accelerated with reference to the Jewish Sabbath which falls at four o'clock. Gottfarb describes Dagens Nyheter as the initiator of the total media coverage. According to Gottfarb, Ulua's departure did not give rise o any official diplomatic protests. However, such protests were reported by the media later.
The mass media pressure was from all the national newspapers as well as from TT - Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå which was jointly owned by the national and evening newspapers. TT compiled and broadcasted news on Swedish Radio "Latest news from Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå". It is not known if the news about the S/S Ulua was broadcasted by Swedish Radio.
Information about the boat's arrival had spread quickly and reached the newspaper's editorial offices early on January 23, 1947, and Günter Cohn had to hide from the journalists. He had gone on board of Ulua only in the evening after the press contingent was dispersed. Cohn traveled north early the next morning to meet the chartered train with passengers from Stockholm in order to bring them to Trelleborg. To his surprise, Dagens Nyheter newspaper he picked up at the station, described in detail and with photos the departure of the train from Stockholm Central station he was waiting for. The coverage of the trip was massive and oppressive. Gottfarb also relates Cohn's conviction that, although invisible, the British Secret Service was strongly opposed to the Jewish immigration to Eretz Israel, trying to stop it. As it turned out Günter Cohen's fears had come true: initially, the Trelleborg harbormaster did not allow the survivors to embark on the boat. Instead, people were sitting in the SJ train carriages rolled on the quay track next to S/S Ulua. Cohn quickly realized that an attempt to stop the trip must have occurred and proceeded to act quickly and forcefully. Engaging members of the group, he ordered an inspection of the ship that finally convinced the harbormaster to withdraw his objections. In the end, the survivors sitting trapped by the train and those who came on buses are allowed to board. The departure is accelerated with reference to the Jewish Sabbath which falls at four o'clock. Gottfarb describes Dagens Nyheter as the initiator of the total media coverage. According to Gottfarb, Ulua's departure did not give rise o any official diplomatic protests. However, such protests were reported by the media later.
The mass media pressure was from all the national newspapers as well as from TT - Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå which was jointly owned by the national and evening newspapers. TT compiled and broadcasted news on Swedish Radio "Latest news from Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå". It is not known if the news about the S/S Ulua was broadcasted by Swedish Radio.
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| The Swedish media were following the fate of S/S Ulua in English language papers and news agencies reports. Here, the Reuter report about the ports Ulua visited after it passed the Strait of Gibraltar. It was published in Svenska Dagbladet on February 19, 1947. |
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| The Swedish media were following the fate of S/S Ulua in English language papers and news agencies reports. Above, in the "Daily Telegraph" on March 1, 1947, about "Haim Arlosoroff" (formerly S/S Ulua) carrying Jewish refugees to Palestine. On 27 February 1947, the Haim Arlosoroff (1,378 passengers from Sweden and Italy) was intercepted by the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Chieftain, and the passengers put up fierce resistance. The ship ran aground at Bat Galim south of Haifa, just opposite a British Army camp. The crew and passengers were arrested and deported to Cyprus. |
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| The Swedish media actively followed the "Immigrantfartyget" Ulua, a Ship of Immigrants, until March 1947. Above, an article from February 28, 1947, in the evening newspaper Expressen, relaying the information allegedly from the United Press (UP), an American news agency. In fact, the information is a copy of the British Royal Navy report about "hunting" of S/S Ulua. |
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| Fig. 6. February 27, 1947. S/S Haim Arlosoroff (S/S Ulua) on the beach at Bat Galim in Haifa. Holocaust survivors are being taken by Z-80 lighters, landing ships to three prison ships in order to be taken to a detention camp in Cyprus. (SHMA Archives, photographer unknown). |
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| The group of Holocaust survivors who left Sweden on S/S Ulua (later S/S Haim Arlosoroff were arrested in Haifa taken by British prison ships to internment camps in Cyprus. Camps were behind barbed wire, and guarded by armed British soldiers. |
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| The group of Holocaust survivors who left Sweden on S/S Ulua (later S/S Haim Arlosoroff were arrested in Haifa. Here taken to British prison ships to internment camps in Cyprus. Screen dump from British army movie. |
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| Fig. 7. Olga Deutsch from Karcascomor, Hungary, was 9 when WWII started. Olga. Taken to Auschwitz where her mother and two sisters were murdered, Olga was an object of Dr. Mengele's "selektion" at the ramp and a subject of his medical experiments. From Auschwitz, she was transferred to KL Buchenwald where she was a slave worker at Krupp in Essen. Liberated from the concentration camp in Bergen-Belsen, Olga was brought to Sweden on UNRRAs White Boat M/S Ingrid that left Lübeck on July 7, 1944. A passenger on Ulua/Haim Arlosoroff, she was captured on the ship in Haifa and was taken to the British detention camp in Cyprus. In 1947 she was brought back to Haifa and transferred to the British detention camp in Atlith, south of the city. Upon her release in August 1947, she was registered, photographed, and received a permanent permit to stay. (Arolsen Archives, SHMA Archives, Israel State Archives). |
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The British government concluded an agreement with the French that the border stations between Germany and France would stop all survivors who did not have valid visas to France. Therefore, it was considered that a sea journey where border crossings are avoided is preferable. |
- Gideon 'Gedda' Shochat
- Shmarya 'Rudy' Tzameret
- Aryeh 'Lova' Eliav
- Moshe 'Musik' Gidron. Gidoni, Wireless Radio Operator
- Nissan Levitan
- Yisrael 'Srulik' Auerbach
- Tzvi 'Miri' Katznelson
- An officer and four Spanish seamen were hired for the voyage.
Newspapers
Trelleborgstidning: 22 januari 1947.Dagens Nyheter: 31 januari 1947, 1 februari 1947, 11 mars 1947, 11 april 1947,
Svenska Dagbladet: 24 januari 1947, 19 februari 1947. 8 augusti 1948.
Söderhamns Tidning: 28 januari 1947.
Aftonbladet: 24 januari 1947, 17 februari 1947, 20 februari 1947, 24 februari 1947, 6 mars 1947,
Expressen: 24 januari 1947, 25 januari 1947, 14 februari 1947, 28 februari 1947, 12 april 1947.
The Daily Telegraph. Jews fight boarding party of Haifa. 1 mars 1947.
Literature
Eliav, Arie L. 1969. The Voyage of the Ulua. (New York: Funk and Wagnalls).
Glück, Emil et al. `Hachshara and Youth Aliyah in Sweden 1933-1948`. (2016). (Glück, Emil, Diamond, Judith, Glick, Yaël).
Gottfarb Inga. `Den livsfarliga glömskan`. (Wiken förlag), 1986
ISBN 9170243336.
Greenfield, Murray S.; Hochstein, Joseph M. (1987). The Jews' Secret Fleet: The Untold Story of North American Volunteers Who Smashed the British Blockade of Palestine. (Jerusalem and New York: Gefen Publishing House). ISBN 978-965-229-517-0.
Stewart, Ninian (2002). The Royal Navy and the Palestine Patrol. (London and Portland OR. Frank Cass Publishing. ISBN 0-7146-5210-5.
Swarc, Alan. 2006. `Illegal Immigration to Palestine 1945-1948: The French Connection`. (University of London, PhD theses).
Wasserman Wroblewski R. 2020. `The Liberated 1945. White Boat Mission from Bergen-Belsen to Sweden`. (Stockholm: Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association). ISBN 978-91-986601-2-8
Wroblewski R. 1995. `6 tusen av 6 miljoner: ett requiem`, Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association (Föreningen Förintelsens Minne) ISBN 9163036126, 207 pages.
Movies and Homepages
The Illegals - movie. 1947. Levin Meyer Levin, director, 72 Minutes, 1947.
The Illegals - movie. 1947. Levin Meyer Levin, director, 72 Minutes, 1947.
De Befriade. Wasserman Wroblewski R. Föreningen Förintelsens Minne, 2020. https://www.shma.online
Archives
The Royal Library, National Library of Sweden, Stockholm, Sweden.
National Archives in Stockholm (Riksarkivet, Marieberg)
Arolsen Archives, Bad Arolsen.
Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association Archives, Stockholm.
Israel State Archives, Jerusalem.
National Archives in Stockholm (Riksarkivet, Marieberg)
Arolsen Archives, Bad Arolsen.
Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association Archives, Stockholm.
Israel State Archives, Jerusalem.
From the end of World War II until the establishment of Israel (1945-1948), illegal immigration was the major method of immigration, because the British, by setting the quota at a mere 18,000 per year, virtually terminated the option of legal immigration.
“Illegal” immigration (Ha’apala) was also organized by the Mossad L’aliyah Bet, a branch of the Haganah. The Palyam, a marine branch of the Palmach, was given responsibility for commanding and sailing ships.
The loss of contact with European countries, the hazards of maritime travel under wartime conditions, and the difficulty in obtaining vessels for the transport of illegal immigrants placed severe constraints on Aliyah Bet. Sixty-six illegal immigration sailings carrying 70,000 immigrants were organized during these years, but only a few managed to penetrate the British blockade and bring their passengers ashore. In 1947, 4,500 immigrants on the Exodus were sent back to Europe by the mandatory government. The British also stopped vessels carrying immigrants at sea, and interned the captured immigrants in camps in Cyprus; most of these persons only arrived in Israel after the establishment of the state. Many Jews their lives at sea.
"Postwar Refugee Crisis and the Establishment of the State of Israel". Holocaust Encyclopedia. Washington, D.C.: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 2020. Archived from the original on 13 June 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
Observe: The captain of Ulua was Gad Hilb.
The RAF located the Ulua at 01.45 PM on 27 February and she was closed by HMS Chieftain at 1800 in 31°45'N, 32°45'E,
