  | ||
| Former passengers from the ship S/S Exodus relax on board the Romanian liner Transilvania on the way to Haifa. The description of the photo is: They were immigrating "legally" to Palestine with certificates provided by the Bricha. |
 |
| Romanian liner Transilvania in Haifa (?). |
 |
| Holocaust survivors at the Romanian liner Transilvania on the way to Haifa. |
 |
| Before WWII, the Liner Transylvania's main route was from Constanția in Romania to Alexandria in Egypt, with occasional longer voyages. Between 1941 and 1945, it was interned in neutral Turkey for protection. After WWII, the ship was used to transfer the Holocaust survivors to Haifa. |
 |
| The list of arrivals with the ship Transylvania on March 20th, 1948 included two categories of passengers marked with red dots. Category: Olim (Olim or “Olim Chadashim” is the Hebrew term for “New Immigrants.”) and Tourists (Hebrew word Tayerim). In Category Tourists (Tayerim) there are two names of persons who I described earlier (marked with blue dots), Number 5 is Leon Blum, and Number 12 is Moniek Dabrowski. Both originate from Piotrków Trybunalski in Poland. This list comes from ISA - Israel state archives |
The list of arrivals with the ship Transilvania on March 20th, 1948 included two categories of passengers marked with red dots. Category: Olim (Olim or “Olim Chadashim” is the Hebrew term for “New Immigrants.”) and Tourists (Hebrew word Tayerim). In Category Tourists (Tayarim) there are two names of persons who I described earlier on my blog (marked with blue dots), Number 5 is Leon Blum, and Number 12 is Moniek Dabrowski. Both were born in 1932 and originate from Piotrków Trybunalski in Poland. The address mentioned for both boys is the HaNoar HaZioni branch in Magdiel.
Described means, I investigated their lives since the start of WWII (and also before). Both Leon Blum and Moniek Dabrowski were imprisoned in the Piotrków ghetto that was created in Piotrków Trybunalski on October 8, 1939, shortly after the 1939 German Invasion of Poland in World War II. It was the first Nazi ghetto in occupied Europe. Later, in December 1944 they were transferred from Piotrków to the concentration camp Buchenwald. In January 1945 Dabrowski was thereafter transported to Bergen-Belsen where he was liberated on April 15th, 1945 while Leon Blum was liberated in Buchenwald on April 11th. Later, both boys were hospitalized in the emergency hospital in Bergen-Beksen. In July 1945 they came to Sweden with UNRRA action White Boats. One year later, in 1946 they left Sweden for France hoping to be further transferred to Eretz Israel. However, they arrived in Eretz Israel just a few weeks before the Declaration of Independence Issued at Tel Aviv on May 14, 1948.
There were three large groups of Holocaust survivors who left Sweden for Eretz Israel.
May, 13th, 1946
S/S Kastelholm did another trip with Jewish refugees, 100 of the youngest ones, born around 1930. This time to start with the French port of Calais. S/S Kastelholm left Helsingborg on May 13th, 1946. All of them likely had a permit to enter the Mandate of Palestine as this information was in the "Card for facilitating the passport control on departure from Sweden". They were supposed to go further to Eretz Israel but first after 1 year of stay/education in France according to Aliyah's office in Paris.
August 1946
Again, S/S Kastelholm who transported the first former concentration camp prisoners from Germany to Sweden (June-July, 1945) was the solution. The ship departed in August 1946 for Antwerpen and Aliyah Beth peoples in Sweden succeeded in getting 130 adults and 30 youths onboard. The idea was that another boat was taking them further to Israel. However, the group got stranded in Holland and left for Israel in April 1947.
January 24, 1947
It was Friday, just before Shabbat when the S/S Ulua ship departed from Trelleborg in Sweden. It was on January 24, 1947. After the horrors of the Holocaust and the brief period of recuperation in Sweden, S/S Ulua was to bring a group of 650 Holocaust survivors to their destination, Eretz Israel. 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. S/S Ulua reached Haifa but almost all passengers were imprisoned and taken to the detention camp in Cyprus.
July 20th, 1947
---------------------------------------
January 24, 1947
It was Friday, just before Shabbat when the S/S Ulua ship departed from Trelleborg in Sweden. It was on January 24, 1947. After the horrors of the Holocaust and the brief period of recuperation in Sweden, S/S Ulua was to bring a group of 650 Holocaust survivors to their destination, Eretz Israel. 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. S/S Ulua reached Haifa but almost all passengers were imprisoned and taken to the detention camp in Cyprus.
 From Feliks (Shraga) Milsztajn's DP-2 card completed by a UNRRA official in French, we learn that Feliks was first in the ghetto in Piotrków Trybunalski, from where he was deported with his father Hillel and brother Marek to the Buchenwald concentration camp. There he was separated from his father and brother and taken to Bergen-Belsen. Rywka's mother (Regina) died after the liberation in Bergen-Belsen and her father died in Buchenwald. The UNRRA White Boat mission ship, S/S Kastelholm, and its departure date of July 25 from Lübeck are shown in red. |
 |
| Field Medical Cards of Felek Milstein (Feliks (Shraga) Milsztajn) and his brother Marek Milstein were issued at the Bergen-Belsen hospital after the end of WWII and brought to Sweden during UNRRA mission White Boats in July 1945. Usually, Field Medical Cards had a short story about soldier's health and wounds. |
 |
| On May, 13th, 1946, S/S Kastelholm left Helsingborg with 100 of the youngest Jewish refugees, born around 1930. This time to the French port of Calais. All Jewish refugees "likely" had a permit to enter the Mandate of Palestine as this information was in the "Card for facilitating the passport control on departure from Sweden". They were supposed to go further to Eretz Israel but first after 1 year of stay/learning in France according to Aliyah's office in Paris. Here is the back of the Swedish entry card with the information of whereabouts since the person came to Sweden with the UNRRA White Boat in July 1945. |
 |
| Magdiel in Israel, was established as a home and school for children who survived the Holocaust. Its location, Magdiel, was an agricultural village founded in 1924 by Jewish immigrants from Russia, Poland, and Lithuania, later joined by a group from the Netherlands. In the photo from 1948, there are several children from Piotrków Trybunalski who survived the Holocaust and were earlier brought to Sweden by UNRRA mission White Boats in June-July 1945. |
There were three large groups of Holocaust survivors who left Sweden for Eretz Israel.
May, 13th, 1946
S/S Kastelholm did another trip with Jewish refugees, 100 of the youngest ones, born around 1930. This time to start with the French port of Calais. S/S Kastelholm left Helsingborg on May 13th, 1946. All of them likely had a permit to enter the Mandate of Palestine as this information was in the "Card for facilitating the passport control on departure from Sweden". They were supposed to go further to Eretz Israel but first after 1 year of stay/education in France according to Aliyah's office in Paris.
August 1946
Again, S/S Kastelholm who transported the first former concentration camp prisoners from Germany to Sweden (June-July, 1945) was the solution. The ship departed in August 1946 for Antwerpen and Aliyah Beth peoples in Sweden succeeded in getting 130 adults and 30 youths onboard. The idea was that another boat was taking them further to Israel. However, the group got stranded in Holland and left for Israel in April 1947.
January 24, 1947
It was Friday, just before Shabbat when the S/S Ulua ship departed from Trelleborg in Sweden. It was on January 24, 1947. After the horrors of the Holocaust and the brief period of recuperation in Sweden, S/S Ulua was to bring a group of 650 Holocaust survivors to their destination, Eretz Israel. 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. S/S Ulua reached Haifa but almost all passengers were imprisoned and taken to the detention camp in Cyprus.
July 20th, 1947
 |
| The day we left Sweden - July 20th, 1947 on the way to Eretz. Ship S/S Kastelholm. |
 |
| Dabrowski Moniek card from Buchenwald after registration in Bergen-Belsen on January 7th, 1945. |
 In December 1944, the brothers Leon and Marian (Marianek) Blum were separated. Mom, Chana (Anna), and little Marianek, born in the ghetto in 1940, were deported to the Ravensbrück camp. Dad Salomon, with his older brother Leon, to the Buchenwald camp. On the above list of prisoners, their numbers are 11 6864 and 11 6865. |
ר.ע. 27 reish ainis acronym of Reshimat Olim.
A handwritten note at the top - "a group from Marseille" - .
List of Olim
Shraga Milshtein born on 14.3.1933 to Hillel and Rivka is listed as having arrived on 4.4.1948
January 24, 1947
It was Friday, just before Shabbat when the S/S Ulua ship departed from Trelleborg in Sweden. It was on January 24, 1947. After the horrors of the Holocaust and the brief period of recuperation in Sweden, S/S Ulua was to bring a group of 650 Holocaust survivors to their destination, Eretz Israel. 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. S/S Ulua reached Haifa but almost all passengers were imprisoned and taken to the detention camp in Cyprus.
