Exodus 1947. With two camp certificates and two members cards, and a manuscript personal account.
[Judaica]. Exodus 1947. An historical narrative photographically told through a personal album.
String-tied album, 21.5 x 30 cm; 112 black and white photographs, 7 x 10.5 cm, 85 original and 27 copies; captions typed in Hebrew and pasted in.
Together with:
Two camp certificates and two member cards to the Confederation of General Zionisits in Germany, loosely inserted.
Certificates (15 x 21 cm) and member cards (12 x 16 cm), each with photograph, folded to make four sides, all sides printed, in Hebrew and English; the certificates are hand-numbered (133 and 134) and read as follows: “Holder of this No. [hand-written number] is a Maapil of ‘Exodus 1947’; he/she was brought by force to Germany from Haifa, and is in exile on his way back to Eretz-Israel. Issued in exile camp Poppendorf Date [hand-written 24/X.1947] Signature Camp Committee.” The Member Cards are printed in Hebrew only, and are hand-numbered (74 and 75) and hand-dated (1947).
Together with:
Autograph manuscript, a personal account of the Exodus 1947 ordeal, by an unidentified survivor, January 12, 1975, three legal leaves written on rectos only, in Yiddish, in blue ink.
All housed together in a specially built quarter-morocco slipcase.
These photographs and related materials document one of the turning points in the history of Israel’s founding. The story of the ship “Exodus 1947” garnered such worldwide sympathy that it forced Great Britain to reevaluate its policies on Palestine. While the story has since been told of the American Jewish patrons and Zionist secret agents who worked together smuggling Jewish war refugees into Palestine, these photographs tell the story from the point of view of those refugees caught in the middle of one of the great diplomatic crises of the century.
When World War II ended, Zionists began to bring surviving Jews to Palestine, despite England’s severe immigration restrictions. Their secret army, the Haganah, planned to flood Palestine with Jews, forcing Great Britain and the international community to respond to the dispossessed European Jews. Ships began to sneak out of France filled with these refugees, but often were caught landing in Israel and their refugee passengers were normally interred at Cyprus. Exodus 1947, or as she was originally called, President Warfield, was such ship.
President Warfield was built as a steamer for the Chesapeake Bay area, but was drafted into the war for use by both U.S. and England. After the war, the worn out, outdated ship was put up for sale by the U.S. navy, at which point the Haganah acquired it. Through an elaborate circle of front companies and South American registries, the ship was sold to a salvage company and was destined for Marseilles. After a number of false starts and dramatically close escapes from officials of a number of countries, the ship received 4,515 refugees at Sète, France. Its crew was an unexpected combination of American Jewish veterans, Haganah agents, and even an American Methodist minister, but the passengers were even further diversified: by nationality, age, class, political affiliation and religious orthodoxy.
From the moment Exodus 1947 left port, multiple British ships followed in its wake, but the elaborate escort was afraid to do more than tail the ship as long as it stayed in international waters. The Haganah devised detailed plans to disembark the refugees, in anticipation of a British attack upon their illegal entrance into Palestinian waters. However, though the Haganah agents were safely hidden aboard, the Admiralty decided it could not afford to allow the Jews to enter Palestine and further disrupt a volatile situation. Despite hesitations about attacking an unarmed ship of civilians, including children, they attempted to board before Exodus 1947 crossed into territorial waters. The crew had prepared defensive measures, but the British had both the plans of the ship and far superior fighting capabilities. A
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