Escort ship

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Ships of the Hagana were referred to as escort ships , which were involved in the illegal immigration of Jews to Palestine between 1946 and 1948 without, however , going to the coast of Palestine themselves .

prehistory

Illegal immigration of Jews has been around since the 1930s, when the British Mandate Government limited legal immigration of Jews under pressure from Arab uprisings . As a result of developments in Europe , especially under growing anti-Semitism , the number of Jews willing to enter increased. At the same time, the immigration quota of the mandate administration z. B. continuously reduced by the White Paper of 1939 , until after 1943 immigration was no longer planned without the express consent of the Arabs. This opposite situation led to illegal immigration (in the English-speaking world called clandestine immigration = secret immigration ). Since Erez Israel was surrounded by Arab states, most of the immigration took place by ship across the Mediterranean . Due to the outbreak of the Second World War , illegal immigration decreased during the war years, but with the end of the war, illegal immigration skyrocketed again. The reason was the large number of displaced persons and Holocaust survivors who were not welcome in their old homeland - in the first year after the war there were again increasingly violent anti-Semitic pogroms in Eastern Europe, including the Kielce pogrom . In addition, illegal immigration was professionally organized by the Hagana with the specially founded organization Mossad le Alija Bet , supported by the Jewish Agency , the Palmach and the Palyam .

Ship problem

The British responded to illegal immigration by imprisoning immigrants, Mossad members and ship's crews , and confiscating the ships used. A well-organized and effective sea ​​blockade was set up at the end of 1945 in order to discover the immigrant ships at an early stage. As a result, the Hagana with the confiscated ships lost large assets, and increasingly fewer ship owners and crews were willing to be recruited by the Hagana. However, the Hagana was dependent on the non-Jewish ship's crews, as there were hardly any trained and experienced Jewish seafarers available. In mid-1946, several measures were taken to address this issue. In addition to the increased training of Jewish seafarers and the purchase of their own (mostly scrap-ready) ships by Jewish straw companies , the principle of escort ships was introduced.

Principle of the escort ships

Two ships start at different ports in Europe with immigrants on board. About a day's journey from the Israeli coast, the immigrants switch from the smaller ship to the larger one. In return, the non-Jewish seamen and the Palmachniks, who are not necessary for the rest of the voyage, transfer to the smaller ship and sail back to Europe, while the larger ship heads for the coast and tries to break through the British naval blockade.

The advantages of this principle are:

  • No ship is overloaded for most of the crossing. The overcrowding during the last day's stage is easier to bear than a multi-day sea voyage in such cramped conditions.
  • The returning ship and the non-Jewish crews are sure to escape British confiscation and arrest, making the Hagana more successful in recruiting ships again.
  • Since some of the Jewish organizers and helpers of the immigrant ships also returned, they reliably escaped arrest.

Escort trips

The first implementation of this principle took place in June 1946 with the immigrant ship Haviva Rayik and the escort ship Rafi . The next time the Rafi served as an escort ship for the Henrietta Szold in August 1946 . The escort ship with the most trips was the Albertina , which undertook at least four escort trips: For the Palmach in September 1946, the Bracha Fuld in October 1946, for the Shabtai Luzinski in March 1947 and the She'ar Yeschuv in April 1947. In November the Albertina meet the Kadima , but the ships missed each other.

Due to unfavorable weather, a lack of experience and poor radio communication, there were several missed rendezvous between escort and immigrant ships : In addition to the rendezvous between Albertina and Kadima , Abba Berditschew and Knesset Israel , Habarak and Chaim Arlosoroff , Theodor Herzl and She'ar also missed each other Yeschuv and The 14 Fallen of Gesher Aziv and Shivat Zion . The Geula was intended as an escort ship for the Jewish State , but this project was abandoned due to the British observation of the two ships. In most cases, the escort ships continued to Palestine and tried to break through the blockade, but only the Albertina succeeded under the Hagana code name Aliya . The Habarak had to be abandoned due to irreparable engine damage , and the Abba Berditschev sank after a collision with a reef.

See also

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