Exodus (ship)

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Exodus 1947 after British takeover (note damage to makeshift barricades). Banner says: "Haganah Ship Exodus 1947".
Exodus 1947 after British takeover (note damage to makeshift barricades). Banner says: "Haganah Ship Exodus 1947".

Exodus 1947 was a ship carrying Jewish emigrants, that left France on July 11, 1947 with the intent of taking its passengers to Palestine, then controlled by the British. Most of the emigrants were Holocaust survivor refugees, who had no legal immigration certificates to Palestine. Following wide media coverage, the British Royal Navy seized the ship, and deported all its passengers back to Europe.

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[edit] Early history

The ship was built in 1928 by Pussey and Jones Corp., Wilmington, Delaware, for the Baltimore Steam Packet Co.. Initially named President Warfield, it was intended to carry passengers and freight. On 12 June 1942 the ship was acquired by the War Shipping Administration, converted to transport and on 21 September transferred to the United Kingdom. After return to the US, it was commissioned by the US Navy as USS President Warfield (IX-169) on 21 May 1944. On 11 October 1945 President Warfield was removed from the Naval Vessel Register and on 14 November returned to the War Shipping Administration.[1]

[edit] Voyage history

On 9 November 1946 the ship was purchased from the War Shipping Administration by Potomac Shipwrecking Co. of Washington, D.C., eventually ending up with Hamossad Le'aliyah Bet — the underground Jewish organization in Palestine intent on helping illegal Jewish immigrants enter Palestine. It was renamed Exodus 1947 after the biblical Jewish exodus from Egypt to Canaan.

The ship sailed with 4,515 passengers from a small port outside Marseille on July 11, 1947 and arrived at Palestine shores on July 18. The British Royal Navy trailed the ship from very early in its voyage, and finally boarded it some 20 nautical miles (40 kilometers) from shore. The boarding was challenged by the passengers (the ship was in international waters where the Royal Navy had no jurisdiction), and so the British soldiers used force. Three shipmates, including 1st mate William Bernstein, a U.S. sailor from San Francisco, died as a result of bludgeoning and several dozen others were injured before the ship was overtaken. The British then sailed the ship into Haifa port, where its passengers were forcefully removed to three deportation ships.

Due to the high profile of the Exodus 1947 emigration ship, it was decided by the British government that the emigrants were to be deported back to France. Foreign Secretary Bevin suggested this, and the request was relayed to General Sir Alan Cunningham, High Commissioner for Palestine,[2] who agreed with the plan after consulting the Navy.[3] . Before then, captured illegal immigrants were placed in fenced and guarded detention centers in Cyprus. This new policy was meant to be a signal to both the Jewish community and the European countries which assisted illegal immigration that whatever they sent to Palestine would be sent back to them.

Not only should it clearly establish the principle of REFOULEMENT as applies to a complete shipload of immigrants, but it will be most discouraging to the organisers of this traffic if the immigrants... end up by returning whence they came.[4]

Upon the ship's arrival in Haifa on July 18 the passengers were transferred to three more seaworthy ships. These ships, and the President Warfield, left Haifa harbour on July 19th for Port-de-Bouc. Foreign Secretary Bevin insisted that the French get their ship back as well as its passengers.[5]

When the deportation ships arrived at Port-de-Bouc near Marseilles on August 2, the emigrants refused to disembark, and the French refused to cooperate with British attempts at forced disembarkation. Realizing that they were not bound for Cyprus, the emigrants conducted a 24-hour hunger strike, refusing to cooperate with the British authorities.

In protest, DPs from Exodus aboard Runnymede Park prison ship bound to Germany painted a swastika on a Union Jack flag. This photo by Ruth Gruber became the Life magazine photo of the week
In protest, DPs from Exodus aboard Runnymede Park prison ship bound to Germany painted a swastika on a Union Jack flag. This photo by Ruth Gruber became the Life magazine photo of the week

During this time, media coverage of the human ordeal intensified and the British became pressed to find a solution. The matter also got the attention of the UNSCOP members who had been deliberating in Geneva. After three weeks, the ships were sailed to Hamburg, Germany which was then in the British occupation zone and where the emigrants could be forced off the ships and back to DP camps in Lübeck-Pöppendorf. Although most of the women and children disembarked voluntarily, the men had to be carried off by force.

Within a year, over half of the original Exodus 1947 passengers had made another attempt at emigrating to Palestine and were detained in camps in Cyprus. When the State of Israel was established in May 1948, all surviving passengers made aliyah.

Then Lt. John Donaldson ([1]), who served in the British 6th Airborne Division that sent a detachment to escort the deported immigrants, is quoted (Maariv, October 17, 2005) as saying that the escorting soldiers never returned to their units in Palestine. Apparently, the ordeal had such an emotional impact on them that a near mutiny erupted among them. The British army decided not to file any charges and closed the matter quietly, in order to prevent a political uproar in the UK.

[edit] Historical importance

The ship's ordeals were widely covered by international media, and caused the British government much public embarrassment, especially after the refugees were forced to disembark in Germany. It is said that the events convinced the US government that the British mandate of Palestine was incapable of handling the Jewish refugees problem, and that a United Nations-brokered solution needs to be found. The US government then intensified its pressures on the British government to return its mandate to the UN, and the British in turn were more than willing to accept this.

The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) also covered the events. Some of its members were even present at Haifa port when the emigrants were forcefully removed from their ship onto the deportation ships, and later commented that this strong image helped them press for an immediate solution for Jewish immigration and the question of Palestine.

[edit] Cultural impact

  • In 1958, the book Exodus by Leon Uris, based partly on the story of the ship, was published.
  • In 1960, the film Exodus directed by Otto Preminger and starring Paul Newman, based on the above novel, was screened. It was filmed mostly in Israel and increased Israel's popularity worldwide.

In 1997, the documentary film, Exodus 1947, directed by Elizabeth Rodgers and Robby Henson and narrated by Morley Safer, was broadcast nationally on PBS. For more information, go to info@exodus1947.com

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ President Warfield at US Naval Historical Center website.
  2. ^ "Secretary of State to High Commissioner for Palestine 14.7.47" in Alan Cunningham Collection, box 2 folder 1, Middle East Centre Archives, St. Antony's College, Oxford.
  3. ^ "High Commissioner for Palestine to Secretary of State 15.7.47" in Alan Cunningham Collection, box 2 folder 1, Middle East Centre Archives, St. Antony's College, Oxford.
  4. ^ "Secretary of State to High Commissioner for Palestine 14.7.47" in Alan Cunningham Collection, box 2 folder 1, Middle East Centre Archives, St. Antony's College, Oxford.
  5. ^ "Secretary of State to High Commissioner for Palestine 14.7.47" in Alan Cunningham Collection, box 2 folder 1, Middle East Centre Archives, St. Antony's College, Oxford.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

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