The Exodus 1947 was a Haganah ship that sailed from Sete,
France in July 1947 with survivors of the Holocaust as passengers for Haifa,
which was at that time a port city in Palestine. These survivors were displaced
persons who had not been able to go back to their own countries when they were
freed from the concentration camps, and lived in camps in Germany and Austria
after the war.
When returning to their hometowns they were threatened with
death by the local population who did not want them back in their midst taking
up the jobs or professions again which they had been forced to leave.
The British Government which controlled Palestine did not
allow Jewish immigration and sent its Navy to the Mediterranean to stop the
ship. A fight broke out on board when British sailors and Marines boarded the
ship forcefully and took it under escort to Haifa. The passengers were
transferred to British transport ships and taken to Hamburg, Germany where
British soldiers armed with clubs dragged the people off the transports and
incarcerated them in Poppendorf and Amstau, two former concentration camps.
The history of the Exodus had great influence on world
opinion and contributed greatly to the United Nations resolution in November
1947 to partition Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. This Jewish state
became the homeland for the Jewish refugees who had been lingering in the DP
camps in Europe, because just as in the thirties no country was opening its
borders for these unfortunate people.
On May 15, 1948, the State of Israel was officially founded,
and seven Arab nations immediately attacked it with the intent of wiping it off
the map. While some of them are still at it they have not succeeded.
"Exodus 1947" became a documentary you will find multiple references about on a Google search. A very complete history is on WikiPedia.
View interesting related YouTubes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0-ohjXwScg Look at the ones on the side. This will make a good round of info for the viewer.
"Exodus 1947" became a documentary you will find multiple references about on a Google search. A very complete history is on WikiPedia.
View interesting related YouTubes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0-ohjXwScg Look at the ones on the side. This will make a good round of info for the viewer.
There has been a recent [10 years ago?] re-issue of the book EXODUS 1947 by David C. Holly. It was published by the Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland. Before it became the Exodus the ship was known as the SS President Warfield which had ferried between Baltimore and Norfolk. The crew of the Exodus donated a replica of the ship to the Smithonian in Washington where it is on display
