Several children's homes in France were planned as a transit stop for children, Holocaust survivors. The children were transferred to the children's homes from several DP camps and also from Sweden, where they landed in the UNRRA mission White Boats. Most of the children went to France after being in Sweden for one year (left Sweden in May and in August 1946). Only a few of the Jewish children were adopted into Finland. Some. however, were reunited with relatives in DP camps and in their home countries. Most of them, however, left Sweden in 1946-8 immigrated to Eretz Israel. Some went to their murdered parent's families in the US, Canada, and Australia.
From France (and Italy) most of the children were legally immigrating to Eretz Israel (Mandatory Palestine). However, several were trying to enter Israel by taking illegal ships. The biggest group of Holocaust survivors who traveled all the way from Sweden were caught by the British and sent to a detention camp in Cyprus for months. Many children/youth from Cyprus were then moved to Israel to Magdiel. Magdiel was a kind of agricultural educational institution. However, Magdiel became as well a kind of Orphan's home.
Many children/youth from Sweden that were imprisoned for six years in ghettos and concentration camps, landed actually in Magdiel in Israel (photos).
