Exodus (ship)
 The 1947 Exodus in the port of Haifa
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The 1947 Exodus was a pleasure boat entered service on the east coast of the United States in 1928 under the name President Warfield . During the Second World War , the ship was first used by the British and then by US forces as a troop transport. The ship became famous worldwide as the Jewish refugee ship Exodus 1947 (with its full name actually Exodus from Europe 1947 , but often just called Exodus for short ).
Pleasure ship
The President Warfield was built in 1927 by the Pusey & Jones Corporation, Wilmington , Delaware , for the parcel service Baltimore Steam Packet Co. and operated from 1928 to 1940 as a pleasure boat on the east coast of the USA, mainly in the Chesapeake Bay . She was named after the president of the railroad company Seaboard Air Line Railroad and the Continental Trust Company in Baltimore , Solomon Davies Warfield. Warfield was an uncle of Bessie Wallis Warfield , the wife of Edward VIII. The ship was designed for 400 passengers and had 200 cabins. The dance halls and bars were luxuriously furnished.
War effort
In 1942 she was requisitioned for military service and converted into a four-deck troop transport in St. John's , Newfoundland , for use in the British Navy. On September 21, 1942, the President Warfield left Newfoundland in a convoy that was attacked by a German submarine in the Atlantic on September 25. The President Warfield remained undamaged. In the further course of the war, President Warfield's convoys had several enemy contacts, all of which the ship survived unscathed. On May 21, 1944, the ship was transferred to the US Navy and was used as USS President Warfield (IX-169) . As such, the ship was also used on the Allied landing in Normandy . Heavily worn by the war effort, the ship was retired on November 14, 1945 and anchored in a ship graveyard in Baltimore.
Exodus 1947
prehistory
Many of the European Jews who survived the Holocaust wished to emigrate to Palestine ; this was especially true for Jewish displaced persons (DPs) in Germany. The Holocaust survivors wishing to leave the country also included people who later became known as passengers of the Exodus . Immigration to the British mandate was rejected by the military administration, as it would have fueled the conflict between Jews and Arabs and destabilized the situation in the British mandate. Immigrants picked up were interned in DP camps, initially in Palestine, and then from August 1946 as part of Operation Igloo in Cyprus .
From November 1945 the British navy set up a sea blockade off the coast of Palestine, which became increasingly effective and made the success of the refugee ships more and more hopeless. The arrested refugees faced further imprisonment for an indefinite period of time. Nevertheless, the flow of refugees was continued by the Mossad le Alija Bet . The risk of being picked up was consciously accepted, on the one hand to tie up British forces through a large number of interned Jews, and on the other hand to draw the world's attention to the unsolved Jewish problem.
Purchase and preparation
The Mossad le Alija Bet became aware of the President Warfield , who had been anchored in the ship graveyard for almost a year. A particular advantage of the river ship was the shallow draft of only 2.4 meters, which would make it possible to travel closer to the coast than any British warship and thus to avoid possible access. On November 9, 1946, the ship was purchased for $ 60,000 from the Potomac Shipwrecking Co. , Washington DC, acting as agent for the Hagana . From January onwards, renovation work was initiated in order to be able to accommodate the largest possible number of refugees. On February 18, 1947, the President Warfield was registered under the flag of Honduras . On February 24, the ship left Baltimore for Europe, but the next day the ship was damaged in a severe storm and had to be towed to the port of Norfolk (Virginia) . As a result, the local press and, consequently, the British secret service first became aware of the ship and recognized the intended use for the ship. The British government put pressure on Honduras through diplomatic channels to withdraw the registration of President Warfield . But before the government of Honduras could give in to the pressure, the damage to the President Warfield had been repaired, lost equipment replaced, and the ship was on its way to Europe. From the stopover in Norfolk, the ship was permanently monitored by the British secret service. Another observer was the Methodist pastor and reporter John Grauel of the pro-Zionist American Christian Palestine Committee on board the President Warfield .
On March 22nd, fuel was stowed in Paulsboro, New Jersey, and Captain Ike Aronowicz took over the command of the ship. Then the ship continued the crossing via Philadelphia (March 29), Ponta Delgada (April 5) and Gibraltar to Marseille , where it arrived on April 10 without further incident. The British secret service showed a demonstrative presence there, so that it was feared that President Warfield could be prevented from leaving. Therefore, the ship was first moved to Port-de-Bouc and shortly afterwards to Porto Venere for the rest of the renovation work . For the largest possible number of passengers, the accommodations were built very closely. The bunks for the passengers were only 45 cm wide and 60 cm high. In this way, the ship, which was originally designed for 400 passengers, was prepared for 5000 refugees during the seven-week layover. During this time, Jossi Harel was enlisted by Schaul Avigur as commanding officer and came on board the President Warfield .
The ship was also monitored by the British secret service in Italy. In addition, an Italian gunboat patrolled in front of the harbor and thus arrested the President Warfield . On June 11, 1947, Aronowicz was able to steer the President Warfield out of the harbor in an unobserved moment and escape towards France. The Italian gunboat pursued the President Warfield as long as she was in Italian territorial waters, but otherwise remained neutral. In Port-de-Bouc, the President Warfield was checked on June 14th by the port authorities for her seaworthiness. She passed the inspection without any complaints and was issued the required certificate.
On July 9, the President Warfield arrived in the port of Sète , where she took in the refugees who were brought there at short notice and as unnoticed as possible.
The trip to Palestine
On the night of July 9th to 10th, around 170 trucks hurriedly picked up 4,515 Jewish refugees from the assembly camps around Marseille and brought them on board the ship by noon on July 10th. These included 655 or 955 children, mostly orphans , depending on the source . On the same day, British Foreign Secretary Bevin arrived in Paris to increase pressure on the French government not to allow the ship to sail. Fearing that the ship could be blocked, Avigur ordered the departure for July 11th morning, regardless of whether there was a permit or not. The French officer Laurent Leboutet gave permission to sail at 1 a.m. A pilot should come on board around 2 a.m. But when he still didn't show up at 3:30 a.m., Aronowicz decided to take off on his own. On the voyage from the port of Sète through the canals to the Mediterranean, the President Warfield ran aground and it took half an hour to get the ship free again. It then reached the open sea without further incident.
The crossing of the President Warfield with 4515 passengers and 39 men crew under the command of Jossi Harel was from the beginning and always within sight of the ship by several British destroyers (including the HMS Charity , Checkers , Chieftain and Childers ) under the command of the light cruiser HMS Ajax constantly tracked. The passenger Michael Weill recalls: “We slept alternately lying down, sitting down, standing up. The sanitary conditions were appalling, many died. "
With the intention of being sighted by as many other ships as possible and thus drawing the world's attention to the fate of the refugee ship, Aronowicz steered President Warfield on a more southerly course into the busy waters off Egypt and the Suez Canal . On the way the convoy got into heavier weather, the President Warfield , constructed as a river steamer and overloaded with refugees, rolled up to an incline of 25 degrees.
From Egypt the ship turned north and sailed along the Sinai coast towards Gaza. Harel's plan was to turn off all lights at night and stop the President Warfield so that the surprised British destroyers would have to drive past the refugee ship. Then the President Warfield should head straight for the coast with extreme force. But the British escort ships were too numerous, so that Harel did not pursue the plan for security reasons. Instead, precautions were taken on the ship to make boarding as difficult as possible for the British. All entrances to the ship were barred, and objects to be thrown such as tin cans, bottles and potatoes were laid out for resistance.
In a solemn ceremony on July 17th, the ship was renamed Exodus 1947 , the flag of Honduras was lowered and the white and blue flag with the Star of David - the later flag of Israel - was hoisted instead . The ceremony was broadcast to Palestine and broadcast on the radio there. During the broadcast, John Grauel addressed a special message in English to the UNSCOP members who were meeting in Haifa at the time.
In the meantime, the British were studying the structure of the Exodus and making arrangements for boarding the British warships: ramps were built at bridge height to reach the upper decks of the Exodus . An ultimatum addressed to the crew at 2 a.m. on July 18 to break off the voyage to Palestine and stop the ship was ignored by Harel and Aronowicz. When the refugee ship crossed an imaginary line, the British abruptly embarked on the boarding attack. The first direct attempt at boarding took place at 02:42 a.m., around 3 a.m. the Exodus was rammed at the bow. Twenty attempts at boarding were made by 5:30 a.m., with the British and the Jews' resistance becoming increasingly hard. In the course of the takeover battles, there were numerous injuries (various sources name between 146 and over 200) and four fatalities: a British soldier and, on the side of the Exodus, the boatswain William Bernstein, and the passengers Mordechai Boimsteing and the 15-year-old Zwi Jakubowitz . When the British began to use their firearms, Harel ordered the resistance to cease to avoid further casualties. He later received severe criticism for this decision, because only then did the British gain control of the refugee ship.
The almost four-hour takeover battle on the Exodus was radioed by the radio operator to the Hagana headquarters and broadcast live from there via radio to the mandate area. When the Exodus reached Haifa around 4 p.m., accompanied by the British warships, thousands of people mobilized via the radio had already gathered at the port, including members of the UNSCOP and its chairman. While the Exodus was in port, the song haTikwa (later the national anthem of Israel) was broadcast over the on-board speakers. 28 injured Jews were disembarked in the port and transported to hospitals in Haifa, the remaining Exodus passengers were transferred directly to the three waiting deportation ships Ocean Vigor , Runnymede Park and Empire Rival . Some of the crew and the Palmach companions, including Captain Aronowicz and Commander Harel, were able to hide in prepared hiding places on board the Exodus and later escape undetected.
The return transport of the passengers
At the time of the Exodus voyage, Operation Igloo had been underway for eleven months, but this did not lead to the effect the British wanted, namely a reduction in illegal immigration to Palestine. Instead, there was already a shortage of space in the internment camps in Cyprus. As a measure to counter the situation in the Cypriot camps and to send an even stronger signal to stop the ongoing immigration, Operation Oasis decided to return illegal immigrants to the countries from which the refugee ships had left. In the port of Haifa , the exhausted passengers of the Exodus were loaded onto the three prisoner ships Ocean Vigor , Runnymede Park and Empire Rival and sent back to France, where they arrived on July 29th. France issued an ultimatum and offered asylum to those who would leave the ship. Although the situation on board was inhumane, most of the passengers refused to leave the ships for three weeks. After the deadline, only 130 (other sources mention 60 and 103 respectively), predominantly old and frail people, had accepted the offer of asylum and left the ships. Meier Schwarz succeeded in smuggling his way into the Ocean Vigor as an officer of the Haganah in Marseille while the coal was being taken up . In order to break the resistance, the British administration threatened to bring the passengers to Germany. Since this measure was also unsuccessful, the ships set sail again on August 22nd. As the pressure on the British government increased and they wanted to discuss the decision to deport them to Germany again, the ships made a five-day stopover in Gibraltar at the end of August . On August 30th they drove on.
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They reached the port of Hamburg on September 8, 1947 . There, in front of the eyes of the international press, the passengers were forcibly removed from the deck by around 300 British occupation soldiers, unless they left the ship voluntarily. They were pushed into trucks and railroad cars and taken to the " Camp Pöppendorf " and "Am Stau" near Lübeck , where they were interned. These camps had previously served to supply members of the armed forces and displaced persons . To intern the Exodus passengers, they were built into prisons with barbed wire and watchtowers. The former Exodus passengers were then transferred to camps in Emden and Wilhelmshaven. The international reactions to this way of dealing with the Holocaust victims were devastating. Even US President Harry S. Truman stepped in to get the British government to rethink. Resistance continued within the camps as well, which the administration punished, among other things, by reducing food rations.
At the end of September 1947, Britain's Colonial Minister Arthur Creech Jones (1891–1964) announced the end of the mandate for Palestine. The entrance to the port of Haifa was free. Finally, on October 6th, the guards withdrew from the camps and released the Exodus passengers. Many of them made their way to southern France again and from there drove again to Palestine. Their stubborn resistance had helped to turn international opinion against an ongoing British UN mandate over Palestine, thus spurring the establishment of the State of Israel .
Known passengers
The passengers who started the journey to Palestine on the Exodus included:
- Gertruda Bablinska (1902–1995) with her foster son Michał Stołowicki (* 1936)
- Noah Klieger (1925-2018)
- Meier Black (* 1926)
Further whereabouts
Even after the Israeli War of Independence, the ship remained largely unnoticed in the port of Haifa. In 1950 the Mayor of Haifa initiated the restoration of the ship in order to keep it as a floating museum for illegal immigration. During the work on August 26, 1952 a fire broke out on the ship due to an unexplained accident, which burned down to the waterline. The wreck was then sunk north of the mouth of the Kishon off Shemen Beach. On August 2, 1964, an attempt was made to lift the ship's hull and scrap it. The recovery failed, however, the hull broke in two and sank again. In a further attempt in 1974 the hull parts could be lifted and towed a bit towards the Kishon estuary, but these efforts also ultimately failed. For the next 30 years or so, the remains of the ship lying under water could be seen, then they were built over by the new container quay when the port was expanded.
Presumably instead of the Exodus , the Af-Al-Pi-Chen is now in the Museum of Illegal Immigration in Haifa.
Cultural meaning
novel
The story of the Exodus and the resistance of its passengers was processed by Leon Uris in the novel of the same name in 1958 .
The German-Jewish writer Edgar Hilsenrath also fictionally describes the crossing of the Exodus from France to Palestine in his satirical novel Der Nazi & der Friseur .
Movie
The novel by Leon Uris was filmed in 1960 by Otto Preminger with Paul Newman in the leading role, with Leon Uris himself participating in the script. The film Exodus has received multiple awards. However, neither the novel nor its film adaptation strictly adhere to historical facts.
Documentaries
In the Arte documentary Erez Israel, heim ins promte Land , the involvement of American volunteers in bringing Jewish refugees to Palestine in 1947 was thematized and, among other things, the Odyssey of the Exodus in 1947 was presented.
The NDR sent on 1 October 2017, the documentation The journey of "Exodus" and the dramatic end of Andreas Schmidt.
Play
The play Schiff ohne Hafen (Schipper naast God) by the Dutchman Jan de Hartog (German translation by Rolf Italiaander ) also deals with the theme of the Exodus .
Commemoration
In memory of the Exodus affair and the La Spezia affair , the Exodus Prize is awarded annually in La Spezia .
In 2005 a meeting of the former passengers of Meier Schwarz , the former commandant of the Ocean Vigor and today's head of AshkenazHouse, was arranged in Jerusalem in cooperation with the central archive of the Jewish Agency and a "Megillat Exodus" (memorial scroll) was created on the 800 former pioneers have signed. A memorial book was to be created from the list of signatures for the 60th anniversary of the events.
On July 18, 2017, a memorial commemorating the refugee ship was inaugurated in Haifa . The monument has the shape of an anchor, which is based on the contour of the State of Israel. There were also 150 Holocaust survivors who came to Israel with the Exodus.
See also
- Struma Bulgarian ship sunk in 1942
- Mefküre Turkish ship sunk in 1944
- Rudnitchar , refugee ship 1939/40
- History of the State of Israel
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.wertheimer.info
- ↑ http://www.paulsilverstone.com
- ↑ Quotation from the passenger and contemporary witness Michael Weill, contained in the article by Karin Walz: From a life on the flight. In: Südkurier of January 30, 2014, p. 24.
- ↑ Return to Germany, the Country Responsible for the Holocaust ( Memento from June 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ www.wertheimer.info
- ^ Paul Silverstone Naval Historian, Geneoplogy
- ↑ Eigel Wiese: "Exodus" - the bitter Odyssey. In: "Hamburger Abendblatt", September 2, 2017, p. 22.
- ↑ Eigel Wiese: "Exodus" - the bitter Odyssey. In: "Hamburger Abendblatt", September 2, 2017, p. 22.
- ↑ arte.tv: Erez Israel, home in the promised land ( memento of the original from January 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 7, 2008
- ↑ Online
- ↑ https://www.israelnetz.com/gesellschaft-kultur/gesellschaft/2017/07/19/anker-erinnert-an-fluechtlingsschiff-exodus , accessed on August 3, 2017
literature
- Peter Guttkuhn: Short German-Jewish history in Lübeck. From the beginning to the present. Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck 2004, ISBN 978-3-7950-7005-2 .
- Ruth Gruber: The odyssey of the Exodus (original title: Destination Palestine , 1999 translated by Natascha Afanassjew) Pendo, Zurich / Munich 2002, ISBN 3-85842-434-X
- Jan H. Fahlbusch u. a .: Pöppendorf instead of Palestine. Forced residence of the passengers of the "Exodus 1947" in Lübeck. Documentation of an exhibition. Dölling & Galitz, Hamburg, 1999, ISBN 3-933374-29-4
- Murray Greenfield : The Jews' Secret Fleet . Gefen, Jerusalem / New York, NY 1999, ISBN 965-229-023-8
- Aviva Halamish: The Exodus Affair: Holocaust Survivors and the Struggle for Palestine. Vallentine Mitchell, London 1998, ISBN 0-85303-347-1
- Aviva Halamish: Exodus. In: Dan Diner (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture (EJGK). Volume 2: Co-Ha. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-476-02502-9 , pp. 304-309.
- Yoram Kaniuk : And the sea parted. The Commander of the Exodus. From the Hebrew by Markus Lemke. List, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-471-79385-2
- David C. Holly: Exodus, 1947. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 1995, ISBN 1-55750-367-2
- Günther Schwarberg : The last ride of the Exodus. The ship that wasn't supposed to arrive. Steidl, Göttingen 1988, ISBN 3-88243-097-4 : as paperback: Steidl, Göttingen 1997, ISBN 3-88243-097-4 (= Steidl paperback , volume 82)
- Horst Siebecke: Operation Oasis: the true story of the "Exodus" . With a foreword by Schalom Ben-Chorin, List, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-471-78625-2 ; as a paperback: The fate of the "Exodus 47". A historical documentation, Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-596-24377-7
Web links
- Exhibition "Pöppendorf instead of Palestine"
- Conversation between Henryk M. Broder and Noah Kliger about his memories of Auschwitz and the trip on the "Exodus". At spiegel.de 2007
- Compare to engl. Wikipedia: sinking of the Patria on November 25, 1940 in Haifa (English)
- engl. Wikipedia: Troop carrier USS President Warfield (IX-169) (English)
- To the exhibition in English
- The journey of the Exodus on an interactive map