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| S/S Ulua - S/S Chaim Arlosoroff - A painful description of the photos taken onboard before arrival to Haifa - February 1947. The photo is taken on the way from Italy to Eretz Israel. |
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| On S/S Ulua there were about 70 kids from Selvino with their counselor Yeshayahu Flamholz who was just 2-3 years older than the oldest boys. Children bordered Ulua at night when Ulua anchored close to the beach at Metaponto, Italy. Some of them came from Orphanages in Poland and from DP camps in Europe. |
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| On S/S Ulua there were about 70 kids from Selvino with their counselor Yeshayahu Flamholz who was just 2-3 years older than the oldest boys. Children bordered Ulua at night when Ulua anchored close to the beach at Metaponto, Italy. Here are their Entry cards to Eretz Israel after they were released from the British camps in Cyprus. Rachel Bernstein was previously imprisoned in Ravensbrück. |
There were about 70 kids from Selvino with their counselor Yeshayahu Flamholz who was just 2-3 years older than the oldest boys.
On January 24th, 1947, the ship S/S Ulua left Trelleborg port in Sweden with 644 Maapilim, mostly women (500). Writing Maapilim as the group name of passengers I mean that the final country for its travel was Eretz Israel.
However, when at Mediteranian the Hagana crew on Ulua got a radio message to pick up an additional 684 immigrants (75% men) at the bay, not port in the Italian city Metaponto.
The Ulua ship left the bay of Metaponto early on February 21st. Now, there were a total of 1 328 Holocaust survivors onboard. Too many for Ulua. To diminish the cargo, all the language and the unnecessary staff were immediately thrown into the water.
This action of throwing personal belongings into the water was remembered by Chana Bressler. When we talked about her memories from her time in Sweden I also asked her if she had some of her own photos from that time. At this point, she told me that she had to discharge all her belongings at the Bay of Metaponto.
On January 24th, 1947, the ship S/S Ulua left Trelleborg port in Sweden with 644 Maapilim, mostly women (500). Writing Maapilim as the group name of passengers I mean that the final country for its travel was Eretz Israel.
However, when at Mediteranian the Hagana crew on Ulua got a radio message to pick up an additional 684 immigrants (75% men) at the bay, not port in the Italian city Metaponto.
The Ulua ship left the bay of Metaponto early on February 21st. Now, there were a total of 1 328 Holocaust survivors onboard. Too many for Ulua. To diminish the cargo, all the language and the unnecessary staff were immediately thrown into the water.
This action of throwing personal belongings into the water was remembered by Chana Bressler. When we talked about her memories from her time in Sweden I also asked her if she had some of her own photos from that time. At this point, she told me that she had to discharge all her belongings at the Bay of Metaponto.
Ester Wasserman from Lodz, Poland lived in Selvino for about eight months.
The end of the war found her in Lodz, Poland. The Zionist movement, Aliyat Hanoar (Youth Aliyah), arranged for orphans from all over Europe to travel to Selvino, a small town in northern Italy about half an hour from Bergamo. It was a long trip, she remembers, in a truck over the mountains. There, more than 800 orphans lived in a compound called Sciesopoli, and then it came time to leave for Mandatory Palestine. At that time, in 1947, it was under the control of the British Mandate, which prevented many Jews from entering the country.
Ester was 16, and she remembers that she and the others traveled the length of Italy to reach the southern port of Metaponto. There, they boarded a ship called the Haim Arlosoroff, which originated in Sweden and had already taken on 684 Holocaust survivors, including many young women who had survived the camps. One of those women named Malka, a survivor of Bergen-Belsen, would later give birth to Benny Gantz, who currently serves as Israel’s alternate prime minister and defense minister.
There were a total of 1,384 immigrants on board. The captain of the ship was the famed Aryeh “Lova” Eliav, and Ester remembers the journey as being difficult.
“We slept on the deck and whenever we heard a noise we had to lay down and cover ourselves so the British wouldn’t discover us,” she says.
Itzhak Klein, one of the Selvino children, recalls the journey to Eretz Israel:
The goal – immigration to Eretz Israel. Establishing a kibbutz, building the country… At the end of the day, we are living the dream… They brought us here to the seashore, a “Ma’apilim” ship was supposed to pick us up there, and then I suppose the whole business was discovered by the British and they took us from there… to Metaponto, next to Bari. There were many Holocaust survivors there who wanted to go to Israel…We were about 70 kids from Selvino with our counselor Yeshayahu Flamholz who was older than the oldest boys by 2-3 years… Some time later the Haim Arlozorov ship arrived. At night they loaded the immigrants on board and once again we stayed below… Luba Eliav was the ship's officer and he decided to bring us up on deck. We boarded when the ship had almost cast off… The journey was very hard. There was terrible crowding… In the end, we didn't make it to Eretz Israel; we were taken to [the British detention camps in] Cyprus.
Selvino youth, formerly on S/S Ulua - Chaim Arlosoroff returns to Eretz Israel from the camps in Cyprus. Rachel Bernstein was previously imprisoned in Ravensbrück.
In most camps, prisoners were stripped of their own civilian clothing and forced to wear a uniform. Typically, this uniform was patterned with blue stripes, although this wasn’t always the case.
Men were given a cap, trousers, and jacket to wear. Women wore a dress or skirt with a jacket and kerchief for their heads. Some uniforms, especially those of higher-ranking prisoners such as Kapos had pockets, which were extremely useful for concealing extra rations or having useful luxuries such as spoons or cutlery. Some prisoners also secretly sewed pockets into their uniforms.
The uniforms usually had each prisoner’s number stitched onto front left-hand side of the uniform, as well as a triangle to show the category of prisoner to which they had been classified.
The end of the war found her in Lodz, Poland. The Zionist movement, Aliyat Hanoar (Youth Aliyah), arranged for orphans from all over Europe to travel to Selvino, a small town in northern Italy about half an hour from Bergamo. It was a long trip, she remembers, in a truck over the mountains. There, more than 800 orphans lived in a compound called Sciesopoli, and then it came time to leave for Mandatory Palestine. At that time, in 1947, it was under the control of the British Mandate, which prevented many Jews from entering the country.
Ester was 16, and she remembers that she and the others traveled the length of Italy to reach the southern port of Metaponto. There, they boarded a ship called the Haim Arlosoroff, which originated in Sweden and had already taken on 684 Holocaust survivors, including many young women who had survived the camps. One of those women named Malka, a survivor of Bergen-Belsen, would later give birth to Benny Gantz, who currently serves as Israel’s alternate prime minister and defense minister.
There were a total of 1,384 immigrants on board. The captain of the ship was the famed Aryeh “Lova” Eliav, and Ester remembers the journey as being difficult.
“We slept on the deck and whenever we heard a noise we had to lay down and cover ourselves so the British wouldn’t discover us,” she says.
Itzhak Klein, one of the Selvino children, recalls the journey to Eretz Israel:
The goal – immigration to Eretz Israel. Establishing a kibbutz, building the country… At the end of the day, we are living the dream… They brought us here to the seashore, a “Ma’apilim” ship was supposed to pick us up there, and then I suppose the whole business was discovered by the British and they took us from there… to Metaponto, next to Bari. There were many Holocaust survivors there who wanted to go to Israel…We were about 70 kids from Selvino with our counselor Yeshayahu Flamholz who was older than the oldest boys by 2-3 years… Some time later the Haim Arlozorov ship arrived. At night they loaded the immigrants on board and once again we stayed below… Luba Eliav was the ship's officer and he decided to bring us up on deck. We boarded when the ship had almost cast off… The journey was very hard. There was terrible crowding… In the end, we didn't make it to Eretz Israel; we were taken to [the British detention camps in] Cyprus.
Selvino youth, formerly on S/S Ulua - Chaim Arlosoroff returns to Eretz Israel from the camps in Cyprus. Rachel Bernstein was previously imprisoned in Ravensbrück.
In most camps, prisoners were stripped of their own civilian clothing and forced to wear a uniform. Typically, this uniform was patterned with blue stripes, although this wasn’t always the case.
Men were given a cap, trousers, and jacket to wear. Women wore a dress or skirt with a jacket and kerchief for their heads. Some uniforms, especially those of higher-ranking prisoners such as Kapos had pockets, which were extremely useful for concealing extra rations or having useful luxuries such as spoons or cutlery. Some prisoners also secretly sewed pockets into their uniforms.
The uniforms usually had each prisoner’s number stitched onto front left-hand side of the uniform, as well as a triangle to show the category of prisoner to which they had been classified.
“Jewish Sciesopoli Memorial Museum – Children’s home of Selvino“
