Runnymede Park
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The Runnymede Park was a Canadian cargo ship built in 1944 . It became known as the deportation ship for Operation Igloo and Operation Oasis .
history
Troop transport
The Runnymede Park was one of 25 Park - ships that from 1943 to 1944 at the United Shipyards in Montreal , Canada, for the Canadian government for transport purposes in World War II were built. All park ships were named after Canadian parks. Runnymede Park is located in Toronto . United Shipyards was a makeshift shipyard established as a joint venture between Dominion Bridge Company and Fraser, Bruce Ltd. Founded. Steel processing companies that were not otherwise active in shipbuilding built ships in emergency shipyards to meet the high demand for new ships caused by the war. In addition to the 25 park ships, United Shipyards also built 20 fort ships for the Ministry of War Transport , named after various military forts in Canada. Were planned another nine landing ships for the Royal Navy , but were canceled.
Deportation ship
The Runnymede Park became internationally known as a deportation ship with which illegal Jewish immigrants were deported to Palestine to internment camps in Cyprus and - in the case of Operation Igloo - to Germany . For this purpose, the cargo ship was temporarily converted into a prisoner transporter. Their first use as deportation ship had the Runnymede Park on May 25, 1947, when it the 1457 from Italy originating passengers of Agha Orietta to the No.. 55 in Karaolos brought.
Several journeys between Palestine and Cyprus followed, and as part of Operation Igloo from July to September 1947, a journey via France to Germany . 1,409 passengers of the Exodus were accommodated on the Runnymede Park . It was crowded, many passengers had no beds available and slept on the floor. According to contemporary witnesses, the conditions were inhumane, so that there was talk of a "floating Auschwitz ". The commandant of the Jews in Runnymede Park was Morenci Rosman, who was described as energetic to fanatical. Because of his management, the British had the most problems with the passengers at Runnymede Park . After arriving in Hamburg, around 300 British soldiers were required to evacuate the ship by force.
In 1957 the ship was sold to Greece and renamed Karaostasi . The ship was badly damaged by a severe fire in 1967 and subsequently scrapped.
Web links
Footnotes
- ^ A b United Shipyards, Montreal QC ( Memento of May 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) .