Aliyah Bet

Aliyah Bet (, "Aliyah 'B" – bet being the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet) was the code name given to illegal immigration by Jews, many of whom were refugees escaping from Nazi Germany or other Nazi-controlled countries, and later Holocaust survivors, to Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and 1948, More than 70,000 Jews arrived in Palestine on more than 100 ships.

thumb|400px|The journey of Aliyah Bet Group 14

American sector camps imposed no restrictions on the movements out of the camps, and American, French, and Italian officials often turned a blind eye to the movements. Several UNRRA officials (in particular Elizabeth Robertson in Leipheim) acted as facilitators of the emigration. The British government vehemently opposed the movement, and restricted movement in and out of their camps. The British set up naval patrols to prevent immigrants from landing in Palestine.

History

thumb|250px|Olim from Poland aboard the [[SS Polonia (1910)|SS Polonia, c. 1937]]

Over 100,000 people attempted to illegally enter Mandatory Palestine. There were 142 voyages by 120 ships. Over half were stopped by the British patrols. The Royal Navy had eight ships on station in Palestine, and additional ships were tasked with tracking suspicious vessels heading for Palestine. Most of the intercepted immigrants were sent to internment camps in Cyprus: (Karaolos near Famagusta, Nicosia, Dhekelia, and Xylotymbou. Some were sent to the Atlit detention camp in Palestine, and some to Mauritius. The British held as many as 50,000 people in these camps (see Jews in British camps on Cyprus). Over 1,600 drowned at sea. Only a few thousand actually entered Palestine.

The pivotal event in Ha'apala program was the incident in 1947. Exodus was intercepted and boarded by a Royal Navy patrol. Despite significant resistance, passengers from Exodus were forcibly returned to Europe, and eventually put in camps in Germany. This was publicized, to the great embarrassment of the British government.

One account of Aliyah Bet is given by journalist I. F. Stone in his 1946 book Underground to Palestine, a first-person account of traveling from Europe with displaced persons attempting to reach the Jewish homeland.

More than 300 volunteers, most of them American World War II veterans, including Murray Greenfield (of the ship HaTikva), volunteered to sail ten ships ("The Jews' Secret Fleet") from the United States to Europe to load 35,000 survivors of the Holocaust (half of the illegal immigrants to Palestine), only to be deported to detention camps on Cyprus.

Timeline

Before World War II

thumb|SS Parita aground off Tel Aviv, August 1939

thumb|SS Tiger Hill aground off Haifa, September 1, 1939

In 1934, the first attempt to bring in a large number of illegal immigrants by sea happened when some 350 Jews sailed on the Vallos, a chartered ship, without the permission of the Jewish Agency, who feared illegal immigration would cause the British to restrict legal immigration. She arrived off the coast of Palestine on 25 August, and the passengers disembarked with the help of the Haganah, which received special permission to assist them.
On 29 July 1939, the Colorado, flying under the Panamanian flag and carrying 378 Jewish refugees from Europe was intercepted by the British; the illegal immigrants were arrested and taken into Haifa.
On 19 August, the Aghios Nicolaus, a Greek owned ship, transferred 840 immigrants to smaller vessels off the coast and sent them to shore.
On 16 September, the Rudnitchan transferred 364 Jewish refugees into five lifeboats outside the territorial waters of the Mandate and sent them ashore as illegal immigrants. About 1,100 refugees were stranded there and came to be known as the Kladovo-Sabac Group. In May 1941, they were still in Yugoslavia, where 915 of them were caught and eventually killed by the invading Nazis. The 800 men were shot by Nazi soldiers in a farmer's field at Zasavica; after the war, the remains of the men were re-interred in a mass grave in the Belgrade Sephardi Cemetery. The women and children were imprisoned in the Sajmiste concentration camp where they perished from hunger, disease, exposure to the bitter cold winter weather, or gassed to death in a mobile gas truck.
On 18 May 1940 the old Italian paddle steamer Pencho sailed from Bratislava, with 514 passengers, mostly Betar members. The Pencho sailed down the Danube to the Black Sea and into the Aegean Sea. On 9 October, her engines failed and she was wrecked off Mytilene, in the Italian-ruled Dodecanese Islands. The Italians rescued the passengers and took them to Rhodes. All but two were then placed in an internment camp at Ferramonti di Tarsia in southern Italy. They were held there until Allied forces liberated the area in September 1943.
In October 1940, a large group of refugees were allowed to leave Vienna. The exodus was organized by Berthold Storfer, a Jewish businessman who worked under Adolf Eichmann. They took four river boats, Uranus, Schönbrunn, Helios, and Melk, down the Danube to Romania, where the Uranus passengers, about 1,000, boarded the , and sailed on 11 October 1940. They arrived at Haifa on 1 November, followed by the a few days later. The British transferred all the immigrants to the French liner to take them for internment to Mauritius. To stop the Patria from sailing, the Haganah smuggled a bomb aboard. The explosion holed her side, capsizing her and killing around 260 people. The British, by order of Winston Churchill, allowed the survivors to remain in Palestine.
In December 1940 the Salvador, a small Bulgarian schooner formerly named Tsar Krum, left Burgas with 327 refugees. On December 12 the Salvador was wrecked in a violent storm in the Sea of Marmara, near Istanbul. 223 persons, including 66 children, lost their lives. The survivors were taken to Istanbul. 125 survivors were deported back to Bulgaria, and the remaining 70 left on the Darien (No. 66).
On 11 December 1941, the sailed from Constanţa carrying between 760 and 790 refugees. Three days later she reached Istanbul, where Turkey detained her and her passengers for 10 weeks. On 23 February 1942, Turkish authorities towed her back into the Black Sea and cast her adrift. Early the next day the torpedoed and sank her. Between 767 and 791 people were killed, and there was only one survivor.
On 20 September 1942, the Europa sailed from Romania with 21 passengers. She was wrecked in the Bosphorus.
On 21 April 1944, the Belasitza sailed from Romania with 273 passengers including 120 children, who went from Istanbul to Palestine by sealed train.
On 5 August 1944, Bulbul, and Morino sailed from Constanţa carrying about 1,000 refugees between them. In the night the Soviet submarine sank Mefküre by torpedo and shellfire, and then machine-gunned survivors in the water. Between 289 and 394 refugees plus seven crew were aboard Mefküre; only the crew and five refugees survived. Bulbul rescued the few survivors and took them to Turkey.

After VE Day

thumb|150px|[[Yisrael Meir Lau (aged 8) and Elazar Schiff, survivors of Buchenwald concentration camp, arrive at Haifa, July 1945]]

On 28 August 1945 the Italian fishing vessel Dalin, made in Monopoli, carrying 35 immigrants, landed at Caesarea Maritima, disembarked its passengers, and returned to Italy.
On 20 July 1946, the Haganah, carrying 2,678 passengers, departed from France, and transferred 1,108 of its passengers to the small steamer Biriah west of Crete. The Biriah was intercepted by on 2 July. The Haganah picked up a new party of refugees at Bakar, Yugoslavia, and set sail for Palestine, this time also carrying 2,678 passengers total. She was found at sea with engines broken down and no electrical power, and was towed to Haifa by HMS Venus. Her passengers were arrested and interned.
On 11 August 1946, the Yagur, carrying 758 passengers, was intercepted by the destroyer , with passive resistance from the immigrants.
On 16 August 1946, the yawl Amiram Shochat, carrying 183 passengers, evaded the British blockade and landed near Caesarea Maritima.
On 9 March 1947, the Ben Hecht (597 passengers), the only ship sponsored by the Irgun, was captured without resistance by the destroyers HMS Chieftain, HMS Chevron and HMS Chivalrous.
On 28 July 1947, the 14 Halalei Gesher Haziv, carrying 685 Eastern European Jews was intercepted by HMS Rowena. The Shivat Zion, carrying 411 North African Jews, was intercepted without resistance by the minesweeper. .

References

External links

Aliyah Bet and Machal Virtual Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Aliyah Bet

Aliyah Bet Voyages Aliyah Bet Project Aliyah Bet Voyages includes pictures and details of the boats of Aliyah Bet, ports of origin, dates of sailing, dates of arrival in Palestine and the number of immigrants on board.

The background to Aliyah Bet