Archimidis
 The United Nations on the Nahariya coast , January 1, 1948
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The Archimidis was an Italian sailing ship that was used as a training ship and coast guard during World War II . It became known as the Jewish refugee ship United Nations .
prehistory
After the end of the Second World War, the Mossad le Alija Bet , an organization of the Hagana , and the Palyam organized the immigration of Jewish Holocaust survivors and displaced persons to Palestine . After the British Mandate Government, under pressure from Arab uprisings, continued to reduce the entry quota for Jews in the 1930s, immigration called Aliyah Bet took place illegally. In order to counter the immigration pressure, the British set up a sea blockade and deported immigrants who had been seized to camps. After the camp in Atlit was overcrowded and mass escapes were organized by several attacks by the Palmach , the British brought arrested illegal immigrants to internment camps in Cyprus from August 1946 . The official basis for this was the government declaration of August 13, 1946 .
The wave of immigration was not affected. With the division resolution of the UN General Assembly on November 29, 1947 and the prospect of the establishment of a Jewish state, the number of immigrants continued to rise.
United Nations refugee ship
At the end of November 1947, the sailing ship Archimidis was chartered by the Hagana and converted into an immigrant ship by Palyamniks in Porto Venere . It was able to take in a total of 537 immigrants in Civitavecchia and set off on December 14th for Palestine. Based on the recently decided division of Palestine into a Jewish and a Palestinian state, the Archimidis received the Hagana code name United Nations .
At the same time the Aliyah Bet ships Pan York and Pan Crescent from Bulgaria were on their way to Palestine. These much larger ships, each with over 7000 immigrants on board, had already been discovered by the British and distracted the British Navy from the United Nations . This allowed her to sail unhindered to Palestine on a more southerly route. In order to shorten the crossing, the United States was instructed to land in Tel Aviv instead of the originally planned destination near Nahariya . The landing was to take place on January 1, 1948, on the assumption that the British would then be on low alert because of their New Year celebrations .
The Palyam commander of the United Nations , David Maimon , decided on his own responsibility to still head for Nahariya. Around noon on January 1, the United Nations reached the coast undetected and was aground about 80 m from the shore. Within three hours, all immigrants were disembarked and placed in Nahariya and other settlements nearby. A few hours later, the British searched the area and were able to arrest some immigrants. However, after the intervention of the Jewish Agency and tough negotiations, the arrested immigrants were released.
The United Nations was the last Alija Bet immigrant ship to break the British naval blockade. All subsequent refugee ships were seized by the British and the immigrants were deported to Cyprus until the blockade was lifted on May 15, 1948 and the camps closed.
Web links
- Ha'apala Ships at palmach.org.il (Eng.)
- Palyam.org (Eng.)