Darien II

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Darien II was the last ship to bring Aliya Bet refugees to Haifa (now in Israel), on March 19, 1941, during World War II.

Originally named the Pole Star, it was built in Glasgow, Scotland in 1892 for the Northern Lighthouse Board. After changing names and ownership several times it became the Sophia S in 1939. The ship was fitted with berths and latrines so as to become Aliya Bet ship. She was sent to Istanbul and from there to Romania in October 1940. The refugees from Cladova didn't arrive so they put aboard 800 refugees from Romania and Bulgaria. Days before the ship was to leave, word is received that it had been sold to the British. In March 1941 the ship arrived in Haifa. The British Mandate government requisitioned the ship and put the passengers in Athlith detainee camp for 18 months. The ship was renamed the Darien II.

After 1941 the Royal Navy turned the Darien II into cold storage ship and it supplied fresh food to Allied troops in besieged Tubruk & Malta also Sicily and Italy. Ultimately it was left to rot in Port Said and sent for scrap 1952.

The Darien Dilemma, a film that mixed a fictionalized retelling of the final Aliya Bet sailing with interviews of actual passengers, premiered at the Tel-Aviv International Documentary Film Festival in 2006.^[1]