Former inmates of Nazi concentration camps - Holocaust Survivors - orphaned children and youth from Sweden were after recuperation in Sweden imprisoned again on Cyprus.

The youngest Maapilim in British detention camp on Cyprus.

Graphics between WWII

In 1946 the British government decided to deport illegal Jewish immigrants caught trying to make their way to the British-ruled Eretz Israel. Most of the Maapilim were Holocaust survivors just liberated from Nazi concentration camps. sending them to detention camps in Cyprus, British-controlled island.

Over the next three years, 52,000 Jews, trying to enter Eretz Israel were sent in 39 prison ships to Cyprus, where internment camps were operated jointly by the British Foreign Office, the Colonial Office, the Mandatory Government and the British Army.

During the period of detention, 2,200 babies were born to families interned in the camps.

Słowo Młodych, pismo młodzieży gordonistycznej z 1942 i 1947 roku - Czerwiec 1942. Niechaj pamięta młodzież żydowska ze albo jest ostatnim pokoleniem wymierających Wędrowców Pustyni albo Pierwszym Pokoleniem Odrodzonego Narodu Żydowskiego w Erec Izrael.

Okładka: Słowo Młodych - pismo młodzieży gordonistycznej z ilustrowana kopią strony tytułowej z 1942 roku. Ta starsza to z czerwca 1942 roku czyli jeszcze przed Gross aktion. Z Archiwum Ringelbluma.

Niechaj pamięta młodzież żydowska że albo jest ostatnim pokoleniem wymierających Wędrowców Pustyni albo Pierwszym Pokoleniem Odrodzonego Narodu Żydowskiego w Erec Izrael.

Jewish Brigade

Unknown artist

Jews Want to Fight As Jews

Palestine, ca. 1940

From the very beginning of World War II, Jews from the Land of Israel sought permission from British military authorities to organize a Jewish military unit and to be allowed to participate in the fight against the Nazis. Fearing that a Jewish military unit fighting under the Jewish flag would undermine Great Britain’s anti-Zionist policy in Palestine, the British resisted the formation of such a unit. After years of prolonged negotiations, and as more and more information came to light over the fate of European Jewry, the British government finally relented and agreed to the establishment of the Jewish Brigade in 1944.

"The voice of your brother's blood is calling out to you: Volunteer!" At the top of the poster one can see Jews marked with the yellow badge of shame. Jews throughout Nazi-occupied Europe were forced to wear a badge in the form of a Yellow or Blue Star as a means of identification.

Among the posters I recently studied, I found this recruitment poster for British Army and the Jewish Brigade. The Jewish Brigade was a military formation of the British Army in World War II. The brigade, formed in late 1944, was recruited among Jews from Mandatory Palestine and commanded by Anglo-Jewish officers. It served also in Europe in the later stages of the Italian Campaign.

After the war, they supported orphanages in Italy (Selvino children) and in France. Jewish Brigade members assisted Holocaust survivors to emigrate to Eretz Israel as part of Aliyah Beth and were active in DP-camps with paramilitary training.
"The voice of your brother's blood is calling out to you: Volunteer!"

The Jewish brigade then was when in Europe, stationed in Tarvisio, near the border triangle of Italy, Yugoslavia, and Austria, where it played a key role in the Berihah's efforts to help Jews escape Europe for Palestine, a role many of its members would continue after the brigade was disbanded. Among its projects was the education and care of the Selvino children.

About when Swedish children joined Italien children in Selvino. Story about young Holocaust survivors on the way to Eretz Israel.

Hachszara - Bericha - Emisariusze - Powrót Żydów do Ziemi Izraela

 

Cukierman 1945. Ruiny Getta Warszawskiego.

Właśnie piszę o tych wszystkich którzy przyczynili się do powstania Izraela. M.in. o emisariuszach z Izraela (wtedy Palestyny) którzy w Europie organizowali "przerzuty" do Eretz Israel. Również ze Szwecji. W wielu krajach Europy i w Skandynawii był ruch zwany Hachszara - Przygotowanie powiązany z HeChaluc. Po wojnie Hachszara byla swojego rodzaju platforma dla Bericha. Hachszara działała w Szwecji i w Danii.
Członkowie HeChaluc zobowiązani byli działać zgodnie z czterema zasadami: Być członkami Światowej Federacji Syjonistycznej, uczyć się języka i kultury hebrajskiej, przygotowywać się w diasporze do pracy fizycznej w zawodach potrzebnych w Erec Izrael (m.in. w rolnictwie) i przygotowywać się do wyjazdu do Eretz Israel, w sposób legalny lub nielegalny.
W Polsce przededniu wybuchu II wojny światowej było ok. 360 kibuców Hachszara, w których znajdowało się ok. 12 500 uczestników.
W Getcie w Warszawie znany był wszystkim Kibuc na ul. Dzielnej 34. Tam realizowana była tam działalność kulturalna, oświatowa, jak jadłodajnię oraz gimnazjum „Dror”.
Na Dzielnej 34 wykładał Korczak i Wilczynska. Tam miały swoje występy dzieci z Domu Sierot.


Cywia Lubetkin opisuje to następująco: Na Dzielnej znalazłam wielu kolegów z różnych kibuców i już w pierwszych dniach poczułam, że życie toczy się tu w inny sposób. … nasz ruch cały czas działał jako kolektyw, wzajemnie się wspierając. Ten fakt bardzo nas podnosił na duchu, dzięki temu Dzielna stała się samotną wyspą, stojącą w jaskrawej sprzeczności z realiami getta… Udzielano tu nie tylko pomocy materialnej. Dzielna była również centrum dla młodzieży żydowskiej… Tu pojawiły się pierwsze myśli o nowej drodze dla Żydów w tych czasach.
Zastępca Mordechaja Anielewicza - Icchak Cukierman był jednym z tych którzy juz w 1944 roku organizowali akcje przemycania do Kraju (Eretz Israel). Dzięki Cukiermanowi (z Dzielnej 34) - odbyła się najwieksza emigracja powojenna Żydów z Polski w 1946 roku. Ponad 175 000. Przeglądalem ostatnio zdjęcia z 1947 roku - 4 rocznica Powstania w Getcie. To co było uderzające to liczba młodzieżowych organizacji żydowskich reprezentowana w pochodzie. Dla wielu, tak jak dla Haliny Birenbaum była to ich ostatnia demonstracja. Halina i inni byli juz wtedy w drodze do Izraela. Halina wyjechała w1947 r. Bericha (Bricha), była podziemnym zorganizowanym przedsięwzięciem, które pomogło Żydom ocalałym z Holokaustu dostac się z Europy po II wojnie światowej do Eretz Israel. Na zdjęciu delegacja chaluców z Ha-Szomer ha-Cair idąca ul. Sienną, zbliża się do budynku byłego Szpitala Dziecięcego Bersohnów i Baumanów na ulicy Siennej.

Numer 1 "Kibbutz Atid" (now called Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan).

Numer 2. "Kibbutz Atid" (now called Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan).

Numer 3 - Plugah Baderech – ”Grupa W Drodze” w Hälsinggård.

6 Kadimah pierwszy zwiazek zydowskich studentów w Austrii.

Achdut amerykanska organizacja 

Chanah Senech Szenes czlonek Palmach zamordowana przez Gestapo 1944

The last photo and the message before leaving Sweden for Eretz Israel on Haganah and Bet Aliyah ship S/S Ulua.

The Holocaust survivors that came to Sweden with White boats, White buses and trains declared thet after recovering in Sweden they want to leave Sweden. Most of the survivors wanted to go to Eretz Israel (British Mandate of Palestine) or to home countries if they had families there that survived the Holocaust or to the America.

This story is to uncover still hidden information about the lives of the Holocaust survivors, in this case the contingent of 550 mostly women who came to Eretz Israel from Sweden in 1947. All of the 550 women and about 94 men were brought to Sweden from the concentration camps in the so called White Boats and White Buses at the end of the WWII (April-July 1945).

For my dearest, one and only cousin, Sali, before my departure to Palestine.

Lola,
I feel your fate and your future so deeply in my heart and I wish that you will come to believe that I will still see you so happy and joyful about life like me in this picture and in reality. Full of happiness and joy I will come toward you.

Metody Korczakowskie po wojnie - Lublin 1945 - Mina Kapłan-Halberstadt - Korczaks methods in work with children carrying severe trauma.

 

Marysia Lotersztajn
4-5 years old from Karkuszów. The parents deported from Końska Wola to Treblinka. The Mother left the child for the care of a peasant. He took her to the forest. There she was found by the partisans who brought her back to the village. The village community kept the child until the arrival of the Soviets. For two years the child went from house to house, spending 8 days in each.
Marysia is well-formed for her age. She suffers from nasal catarrh. To differentiate her from the other Marysia, the children would call her "snotty Marysia". The child is disheveled and careless. She does not notice that her shoes are untied and she doe not care. I think that once her nose problem is resolved (she is under the doctor's observation, she will care more about hygiene. Marysia has a "heart of gold". She loves her Pani director. She worries when she is sick and she brings whatever she can find to her.

Metody Korczakowskie po wojnie - Lublin 1945.
Mina Kapłan-Halberstadt was an educator in the orphanage for children, Holocaust survivors in Lublin. She wrote a diary dated, June 26 - December 24, 1945. She wrote in Polish and in Hebrew.
Lublin was liberated already on July 1944. Mina wrote in her diary that she used Janusz Korczaks methods in her work with children carrying severe trauma.

724 days in Sweden - A brief stop for Kinderheim Children from Bergen-Belsen on their way to Eretz Israel

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

On April 15 1945 numerous children in this classroom were inmates in the concentration Camp Bergen-Belsen. After the liberation, they spent 3 months at the hospital and DP-camp there. They arrived in Sweden from Lübeck in Germany during the last day of the UNRRA White Boat mission, July 26 1945. In the photo, the children are gathered at an orphanage/school in Lövsättra or Billesholm during their first winter (1945-1946) in Sweden. Teacher, Yehudit Bergmann, at the blackboard Mirjam Stern (born 1937 in Piotrków), the boy looking into the camera Sewek Goldhersz (born 1934 in Piotrków), the laughing girl Blanka Margulies (born 1934 in Warszawa). Miriam Stern was just 2 years old when the ghetto in Piotrków was created on October 8, 1939, shortly after the town was occupied by the Wehrmacht on September 5, 1939. It was the first Nazi ghetto in occupied Europe.  

DP-2 card of Mirjam Stern (born 1937 in Piotrków) mentioned in the previous photo. Her card issued in Lübeck is signed by her using three crosses. Mirjam was liberated in Bergen-Belsen together with her mother Nacha and her cousin Teodor Zajdman (Seidman) who was born 1933 or 1937 as stated in different documents. In December 1942 Teodor was, together with his father Abram sent from Piotrków to the concentration camp Buchenwald. Later he was transferred to Bergen-Belsen where he was liberated in April 1945. Teodor's mother was sent to Ravensbrück.

  DP-2 card of Sewek Goldhersz (born 1934 in Piotrków) "the boy looking into the camera" on the top picture.

724 days in Sweden Margolis Blanka again on the same ship S/S Kastelholm on the way to Calais. 

On November 5, 1947, SS Kedma קדמה sailed from Pellestrina (Italy), commanded by an Italian Captain and 8 Italian crew members, carrying 794 passengers, Holocaust Survivors. Among them numerous children from Kinderheim in Bergen-Belsen that were previously brought to Sweden by UNRRA mission White Boats. After 2 years in Sweden, the group of children and other Holocaust survivors left Sweden.  It was planned to transfer the passengers from SS Kadema on another ship, Albertina before approaching Eretz Israel, but the plan was abandoned because there were problems with radio communication.

724 days in Sweden.

It is of course about the group of small children and young people from Bergen-Belsen who came to Sweden with the very last White Boat from the "continent", from Lübeck. Among them were Mengele's twins from Auschwitz and children who knew nothing about themselves, what their parents' names were and where they were born.

A small part of the children was adopted in Sweden, some of the children with elder siblings left Sweden already in May 1946 using the same route for transfer to Eretz Israel. Only 6 months earlier, second big group of 650 persons left Sweden with the S/S Ulua ship (January 1947). 724-days group traveled almost in the same collective as they were in Bergen-Belsen, to Eretz Israel. The choice of the France as transit land was due to the fact that there was no boarders between Calais i north and Marseille in south. Another reason was that the chances to be spotted by the British Intelligence was smaller as in case of S/S Ulua.724-days group travel to Eretz Israel started on July 20, 1947. There are 96 names of children on the list from the Swedish authorities. Probably there is another document where accompanying persons are listed. Main part of children were born 1930-1933. That means 6-9 year old when WWII started. The group left Sweden for France actually on the same ship, S/S Kastelholm that was used in the UNRRA White Boat mission two years earlier. This time the boat was heading French port of Calais.

It is known that this particular group travelled further to Paris and thereafter south to the Chateaue Villete de Anton, run by Youth Aliya (a department of the World

Zionist Organization).  Former group from Sweden that left Sweden in May 1946 was placed at this spot earlier. 

Daily life at continued was similar to that in Sweden, however with increased emphasis to the study of Hebrew.

In March 1948 we were moved to a transit camp near Marseille and

from there we boarded the ship Kadema on her way to Haifa. We

arrived at our destination on April 3, six weeks before the Declaration of

the State of Israel on May 15, 1948.

On November 16, 1947, SS Kedma קדמה stopped 3/4 of a mile outside territorial waters, and requested assistance,.

The book, The Liberated 1945. White Boat Mission from Bergen-Belsen to Sweden (2020).

Ship, HMS Venus sent a boarding party across, arrested the passengers, and escorted her to Haifa, where the passengers were transferred to Cyprus.
 

Fuchs, Ajsik. The right birth date: 14 Sep 1938; Birth place: Tuszyn, PolandSource: Registry of Names of the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp Prisoners

Fuchs, Ajsik. The right birth date: 14 Sep 1938; Birthplace: Tuszyn, Poland Source: Registry of Names of the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp Prisoners

As mentioned above some of the children in Kinderheim in Bergen-Belsen came from the Buchenwald concentration camp. However, hundreds of children stayed in Buchenwald. The Buchenwald children were a group of approximately 1,000 Jewish child survivors found by American troops when they liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp on April 11, 1945. Most of the children were originally from Poland, though others came from Hungary, Slovenia, and Ruthenia. Unsure of what to do with the child survivors, American army chaplains, Rabbi Herschel Schacter and Rabbi Robert Marcus, contacted the offices of the OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants) Jewish children's relief organization in Geneva. They arranged to send 427 of the children to France, 280 to Switzerland, and 250 to England.After the liberation Group portrait of child survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp. The boys are dressed in outfits of German Hitler Jugend uniforms due to a clothing shortage. Among those pictured are the first row (left to right): Lolek Blum, David Perlmutter, Birenbaum, Joseph Schleifstein, unidentified, and Israel Meir Lau (middle row, far right). Middle row: Nathan Szwarc, Jack Neeman, Berek Silber, Jacques Finkel, unidentified, Marek Milstein (Milsztajn), and Salek Finkelsztein. Back row: Elek Grinbaum [or Grinberg], Chaim Finkelstajn [or Charles Finkel], Romek Wekselman [or Wajsman], and Abram Czapnik. I wonder if it is Marek Milstein on that photo as brothers Milsztajn were sent to Bergen-Belsen prior to liberation.

Numerous of the children from Buchenwald were sent through France to Eretz Israel.