Exodus (ship) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Exodus 1947 was a ship that carried Jewish emigrants, that left France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

on July 11, 1947, with the intent of taking its passengers to the British mandate for Palestine. Most of the emigrants were Holocaust survivor refugees, who had no legal immigration certificates to Palestine. Following wide media coverage, the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

seized the ship, and deported all its passengers back to Europe.

The ship was formerly the packet steamer SS President Warfield for the Baltimore Steam Packet Company
Baltimore Steam Packet Company
The Baltimore Steam Packet Company, which was also known as the , was an American steamship line from 1840 to 1962, providing overnight steamboat service on the Chesapeake Bay, primarily between Baltimore, Maryland, and Norfolk, Virginia...

, carrying passengers and freight between Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

, and Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, from the ship's launch in 1928 until 1942. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, it served both the Royal Navy and the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

; for the latter as USS President Warfield (IX-169).

Early history
The ship was built in 1927 by Pusey and Jones
Pusey and Jones
The Pusey and Jones Corporation was a major ship and equipment manufacturer from 1846 to 1959. Ship building was the primary focus from 1853 until the end of World War II, when the company converted the shipyard to production of paper manufacturing machinery...

Corp., Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...

, for the Baltimore Steam Packet Company
Baltimore Steam Packet Company
The Baltimore Steam Packet Company, which was also known as the , was an American steamship line from 1840 to 1962, providing overnight steamboat service on the Chesapeake Bay, primarily between Baltimore, Maryland, and Norfolk, Virginia...

. Initially named President Warfield, for Baltimore Steam Packet Company president S. Davies Warfield

S. Davies Warfield

S. Davies Warfield was an American railroad executive and banker. He is primarily remembered for extending the Seaboard Air Line Railway into South Florida in the 1920s and for connecting the east and west coasts of Florida by rail...

(the uncle of the Duchess of Windsor), it carried passengers and freight on the Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...

between Baltimore, Maryland and Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

from 1928 until July 12, 1942, when the ship was acquired by the War Shipping Administration

War Shipping Administration

The War Shipping Administration was a World War II emergency war agency of the US Government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the US needed for fighting the war....

(WSA) and converted to a transport craft for the British Ministry of War Transport.

Manned by a British merchant crew led by Capt. J. R. Williams, it departed St. John’s, Newfoundland on September 21, 1942, along with other small passenger steamers bound for the United Kingdom. Attacked by a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

submarine

Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

800 nautical miles (1,481.6 km) west of Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

on September 25, the ship evaded one torpedo, and, after the scattering of its convoy, reached Belfast

Belfast

Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

, Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

. In Britain, it served as a barracks and training ship on the River Torridge

River Torridge

The River Torridge is a river in Devon in England. It was the home of Tarka the Otter in Henry Williamson's book. The Torridge local government district is named after the river....

at Instow

Instow

Instow is a village in north Devon, England. It is on the estuary where the rivers Taw and Torridge meet, between the villages of Westleigh and Yelland and on the opposite bank of Appledore....

Returned by Britain, it joined the U.S. Navy as President Warfield on May 21, 1944. In July it served as a station and accommodations ship at Omaha Beach
Omaha Beach
Omaha Beach is the code name for one of the five sectors of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during World War II...

at Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...

. Following duty in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

and on the Seine River, it arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, July 25, 1945, and left active Navy service September 13. President Warfield was struck from the U.S. Naval Vessel Register
Naval Vessel Register
The Naval Vessel Register is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from the time a vessel is authorized through its life cycle and...

on October 11 and returned to the War Shipping Administration on November 14.

Voyage history
On November 9, 1946 the WSA sold President Warfield to the Potomac Shipwrecking Co. of Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, who were acting as an agent of the Jewish political group Haganah
Haganah
Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...

. The ship eventually ended up with Hamossad Le'aliyah Bet—the underground Jewish organization in Palestine intent on helping underground Jewish immigrants enter Palestine. It was renamed Exodus 1947 after the biblical Jewish exodus

The Exodus

The Exodus is the story of the departure of the Israelites from ancient Egypt described in the Hebrew Bible.Narrowly defined, the term refers only to the departure from Egypt described in the Book of Exodus; more widely, it takes in the subsequent law-givings and wanderings in the wilderness...

from Egypt to Canaan.

The ship was deliberately chosen because of its derelict condition. It was risky to put passengers on it, but it was felt this would compel the British to let it pass blockade because of this danger or put the British in a bad light internationally. The President Warfield left Baltimore February 25, 1947 and headed for the Mediterranean. With Palmach

Palmach

The Palmach was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv during the period of the British Mandate of Palestine. The Palmach was established on May 15, 1941...

(Haganah's military wing) skipper Ike Aronowicz

Ike Aronowicz

Yitzhak "Ike" Aronowicz was the captain of the immigrant ship SS Exodus, which unsuccessfully tried to dock in British-occupied Palestine with Holocaust survivors on July 11, 1947, after the end of World War II...

as captain, and supervised by Haganah commissioner Yossi Harel

Yossi Harel

Yossi Harel , born Yosef Hamburger was the supervisor of the Exodus 1947 operation and a leading member of the Israeli intelligence community.-Biography:...

as the operation's commander, it sailed under false orders and left at night with 4,515 passengers from the port of Sète

Sète

Sète is a commune in the Hérault department in Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France. Its inhabitants are called Sétois....

, France, on July 11, 1947, and arrived at Palestine's shores on July 18. The British Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

cruiser Ajax

HMS Ajax (22)

HMS Ajax was a Leander class light cruiser which served with the British Royal Navy during World War II. She became famous for her part in the Battle of the River Plate, the Battle of Crete, the Battle of Malta and as a supply escort in the Siege of Tobruk. This ship was the eighth in the Royal...

and a convoy of destroyers trailed the ship from very early in its voyage, and finally boarded it some 20 nautical miles (37 km) from shore. The Exodus had been purposely refitted to make boarding impossible with barriers and barbed wire along the top decks and steam hoses hooked to the boilers fitted for defense. Attempts had been made by the British to keep the Exodus from leaving France and interception at sea was decided upon as the ship was unseaworthy and presented the continual danger of sinking. The boarding by the British was difficult and had to be managed from the bridges of the destroyers and was challenged by the passengers and Haganah members on board. Two passengers and one of the crew, 1st mate William Bernstein, a U.S. sailor from San Francisco, died as a result of bludgeoning and several dozen others were injured before the ship was taken over.

Due to the high profile of the Exodus 1947 emigration ship, it was decided by the British government that the emigrants were to be deported back to France. Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin

Ernest Bevin

Ernest Bevin was a British trade union leader and Labour politician. He served as general secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union from 1922 to 1945, as Minister of Labour in the war-time coalition government, and as Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour Government.-Early...

suggested this, and the request was relayed to General Sir Alan Cunningham, High Commissioner for Palestine, who agreed with the plan after consulting the Navy. Before then, intercepted would-be immigrants were placed in internment camps on Cyprus, which was at the time a British colony

Cyprus internment camps

Cyprus internment camps were camps run by the British government for internment of Jews who had immigrated or attempted to immigrate to Mandatory Palestine in violation of British policy...

. This new policy was meant to be a signal to both the Jewish community and the European countries which assisted immigration that whatever they sent to Palestine would be sent back to them.

Not only should it clearly establish the principle of REFOULEMENT as applies to a complete shipload of immigrants, but it will be most discouraging to the organisers of this traffic if the immigrants... end up by returning whence they came.

The damaged former President Warfield remained moored to a breakwater at Haifa harbour as a derelict until it burned to the waterline August 26, 1952. Later towed to Shemen Beach, Haifa, it was raised in 1963 and scrapped by an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

firm.

Return to France
The British sailed the commandeered ship into Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...

port, where its passengers were transferred to three more seaworthy deportation ships, Runnymede Park, Ocean Vigour

Ocean Vigour

HMT Ocean Vigour was a British freighter which had been converted into a caged prison ship used to deport illegal Jewish immigrants who had attempted to enter the Mandate Palestine back to Europe and to prison camps in Cyprus...

and Empire Rival. The event was witnessed by members of UNSCOP. These ships left Haifa harbour on July 19 for Port-de-Bouc. Foreign Secretary Bevin insisted that the French get their ship back as well as its passengers.

When the ships arrived at Port-de-Bouc

Port-de-Bouc

Port-de-Bouc is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France.-Population:-References:*...

near Marseilles on August 2, the French Government said it would allow disembarkation of the passengers only if it was voluntary on their part. Haganah agents, both on board the ships and using launches with loudspeakers encouraged the passengers not to disembark. Thus the emigrants refused to disembark, and the French refused to cooperate with British attempts at forced disembarkation. This left the British with the best option of returning the passengers to Germany. Realizing that they were not bound for Cyprus, the emigrants conducted a 24-hour hunger strike, refusing to cooperate with the British authorities.

Meier Schwarz

Meier Schwarz

Meier Schwarz is an Israeli former plant physiologist.Schwarz is the child of Jewish parents. His father, Ludwig Schwarz, merchant, born in Egenhausen/Ansbach, was a German army officer in the First World War, and was highly decorated. Ludwig Schwarz was board member of the Orthodox Jewish Adas...

managed to sneak into the Ocean Vigour

Ocean Vigour

as an Haganah

Haganah

Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...

officer.

But the British government had no intention of backing down or relaxing its policy.
During this time, Jewish agents continually goaded the passengers to make trouble for the British and blame them for all sorts of imagined insults. They skillfully managed media coverage of the contest of wills and the British became pressed to find a solution. The matter also came to the attention of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine

United Nations Special Committee on Palestine

The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine was formed in May 1947 in response to a United Kingdom government request that the General Assembly "make recommendations under article 10 of the Charter, concerning the future government of Palestine"...

(UNSCOP) members who had been deliberating in Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

. After three weeks, during which the prisoners on the ships held steady in difficult conditions, rejecting offers of alternative destinations, the ships were sailed to Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

, Germany

Germany

, which was then in the British occupation zone.

Allied Occupation Zones in Germany

The Allied powers who defeated Nazi Germany in World War II divided the country west of the Oder-Neisse line into four occupation zones for administrative purposes during 1945–49. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, US forces had pushed beyond the previously agreed boundaries for the...

Operation Oasis

Documents released from the British archives show that after much soul-searching, the British concluded that the only place they could send the Jews was to the British-controlled zone of post-war Germany, where the Jews could be placed in camps and screened for extremists; the decision to land the Jews in Germany had been made because it was the only suitable territory under British control that could handle so many people at short notice.

Britain's impossible position was later summed up by John Coulson, a diplomat at the British Embassy in Paris by a coded warning to the Foreign Office in London in August 1947 in which he said:

“You will realize that an announcement of decision to send immigrants back to Germany will produce violent hostile outburst in the press.” He pointed out: "The pros and cons of keeping the Exodus immigrants in camps ... there is one point that should be kept in mind. Our opponents in France, and I dare say in other countries, have made great play with the fact that these immigrants were being kept behind barbed wire, in concentration camps and guarded by Germans."

"If we decide it is convenient not to keep them in camps any longer, I suggest that we should make some play that we are releasing them from all restraint of this kind in accordance with their wishes and that they were only put in such accommodation for the preliminary necessities of screening and maintenance."

Disembarkation

On August 22 a Foreign Office cable warned diplomats that they should be ready to emphatically deny that the Jews were to be housed in former concentration camps after they were offloaded in Germany, that German guards will not be used to keep the Jews in the refugee camps and, further, added that British guards will be withdrawn once the Jews have been screened.

The Exodus 1947 passengers were successfully taken off the vessels in Germany. Relations between the British personnel on the ships and the passengers was said by the passengers, afterwards, to have been mostly amicable, Everyone realized there was going to be trouble at the forced disembarkation before hand and some of the Jewish passengers even apologized in advance for this. A number were injured in confrontations with British troops that involved the use of batons and fire hoses. The would-be immigrants were sent back to DP camps

Displaced persons camp

A displaced persons camp or DP camp is a temporary facility for displaced persons coerced into forced migration. The term is mainly used for camps established after World War II in West Germany and in Austria, as well as in the United Kingdom, primarily for refugees from Eastern Europe and for the...

in Am Stau near Lübeck

Lübeck

The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...

and Pöppendorf. Although most of the women and children disembarked voluntarily, the men had to be carried off by force.

By the time they had docked at Hamburg

Hamburg

, many of the refugees were in a defiant mood. When they first set out on their historic quest, they had believed they were days away from arriving at a Jewish homeland. The prospect of being sent to camps in Germany represented a pitiful failure of their original mission and for many of the Holocaust survivors, it was almost impossible to bear. The British had identified one of the ships, the Runnymede Park, as the vessel most likely to cause them trouble. A confidential report of the time noted:

"It was known that the Jews on the Runnymede Park were under the leadership of a young, capable and energetic fanatic, Morenci Miry Rosman, and throughout the operation it had been realised that this ship might give trouble."

One hundred military police and 200 soldiers of the Sherwood Foresters

Sherwood Foresters

The Sherwood Foresters was formed during the Childers Reforms in 1881 from the amalgamation of the 45th Regiment of Foot and the 95th Regiment of Foot...

were ordered to board the ship and eject the Jewish immigrants.

The officer in charge of the operation, Lt. Col. Gregson, later gave a very frank assessment of the success of the storming of the ship, which, according to a secret minute, left up to 33 Jews, including four women, injured in the fighting. Sixty-eight Jews were held in custody to be put on trial for unruly behaviour. Only three soldiers were hurt. But it could have been a lot worse. Gregson later admitted that he had considered using tear gas against the immigrants. He concluded:

"The Jew is liable to panic and 800-900 Jews fighting to get up a stairway to escape tear smoke could have produced a deplorable business." He added: "It is a very frightening thing to go into the hold full of yelling maniacs when outnumbered six or eight to one." Describing the assault, the officer wrote to his superiors: "After a very short pause, with a lot of yelling and female screams, every available weapon up to a biscuit and bulks of timber was hurled at the soldiers. They withstood it admirably and very stoically till the Jews assaulted and in the first rush several soldiers were downed with half a dozen Jews on top kicking and tearing ... No other troops could have done it as well and as humanely as these British ones did." He concluded: "It should be borne in mind that the guiding factor in most of the actions of the Jews is to gain the sympathy of the world press."

One of the official observers who witnessed the violence was Dr. Noah Barou, secretary of the British section of the World Jewish Congress, who had 35 years experience of reporting. He gave the Jewish side of the fighting.

He described young soldiers beating Holocaust survivors as a "terrible mental picture".

"They went into the operation as a football match ... and it seemed evident that they had not had it explained to them that they were dealing with people who had suffered a lot and who are resisting in accordance with their convictions." He noted: "People were usually hit in the stomach and this in my opinion explains that many people who did not show any signs of injury were staggering and moving very slowly along the staircase giving the impression that they were half-starved and beaten up."

"When the people walked off the ship, many of them, especially younger people, were shouting to the troops 'Hitler commandos', 'gentleman fascists', 'sadists'."

Dr Barou was "especially impressed" by one young girl who "came to the top of the stairs and shouted to the soldiers, 'I am from Dachau.' And when they did not react she shouted 'Hitler commandos'."

While the British could find no evidence of excessive force, they conceded that in one case a Jew "was dragged down the gangway by the feet with his head bumping on the wooden slats".

Security fears seemed justified after the Jews were removed when homemade bomb with a timed fuse was found on the Empire Rival. It was apparently rigged to detonate after the Jews had been removed, the cables indicate.

Camp conditions

At the camps, the treatment of the refugees caused an international outcry after it was claimed that the conditions could be likened to German concentration camps.

Dr Barou was once again on hand to witness events. He reported that conditions at Camp Poppendorf were poor and claimed that it was being run by a German camp commandant. That was denied by the British.

It turned out that Barou's reports had been only partially accurate. There was no German commandant or guards but there were German staff carrying out duties inside the camp, in accordance with the standard British military practice of using locally-employed civilians for non-security related duties.

But the Jewish allegations of cruel and insensitive treatment would not go away and, on 6 October 1947, the Foreign Office sent a telegram to the British commanders in the region demanding to know whether the camps really were surrounded with barbed wire and guarded by German staff.

Final destination

A telegram written by Jewish leaders of the camps on 20 October 1947 makes clear the wishes and determination of the refugees to find a home in Palestine.

"Nothing will deter us from Palestine. Which jail we go to is up to you (the British). We did not ask you to reduce our rations; we did not ask you to put us in Poppendorf and Am Stau."

The would-be immigrants to Palestine were housed in Nissen hut

Nissen hut

A Nissen hut is a prefabricated steel structure made from a half-cylindrical skin of corrugated steel, a variant of which was used extensively during World War II.-Description:...

s and tents at Poppendorf

Poppendorf

Poppendorf is a municipality in the Rostock district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.-References:...

and Am Stau (near Lübeck

Lübeck

) but inclement weather made the tentage unsuitable. The DPs were then moved in November 1947 to Sengwarden

Sengwarden

The village of Sengwarden lies north of Wilhelmshaven, Germany. The place was documented for the first time in 1168, was the site of a post World War II British sector displaced person camp, and since 1972 has been administratively attached to the city Wilhelmshaven. Previously, the municipality...

near Wilhelmshaven

Wilhelmshaven

Wilhelmshaven is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea.-History:...

and Emden. For many of the illegal immigrants this was only a transit point as the Brichah

Berihah

Bricha was the underground organized effort that helped Jewish Holocaust survivors escape post-World War II Europe to the British Mandate for Palestine in violation of the White Paper of 1939...

managed to smuggle most into the U.S. zone via which they reached Palestine before the Israeli declaration of independence. Of the 4,500 would-be immigrants to Palestine there were only 1,800 remaining in the two “Exodus” camps by April 1948.

Within a year, over half of the original Exodus 1947 passengers had made other attempts at emigrating to Palestine and were detained without trial in prison camps on Cyprus. Britain continued to hold the detainees in Cyprus

Cyprus internment camps

Cyprus internment camps were camps run by the British government for internment of Jews who had immigrated or attempted to immigrate to Mandatory Palestine in violation of British policy...

until January 1949 when it formally recognized the State of Israel and all surviving passengers made aliyah

Aliyah

Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...

Historical importance

The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine

United Nations Special Committee on Palestine

also covered the events. Some of its members were even present at Haifa port when the emigrants were removed from their ship onto the deportation ships, and later commented that this strong image helped them press for an immediate solution for Jewish immigration and the question of Palestine.

The ship's ordeals were widely covered by international media, and caused the British government much public embarrassment, especially after the refugees were forced to disembark in Germany.

The resting place of the Exodus

After the history making voyage 1947, the Exodus, as many of the Aliyah Bet ships were, was tied up in Haifa harbor and forgotten. The creation of the State of Israel in 1948 brought massive immigration of European Jewish refugees from the Displaced Persons camps into Israel. Almost simultaneously, 600,000 Jews arrived in the new state from Arab countries, where mass expulsions were being enacted. There was little time and money to focus on the meaning of the Exodus. Abba Koushi, the Mayor of Haifa, proposed in 1950 that the "Ship that Launched a Nation" should be restored and converted into a floating museum of the Aliyah Bet—the story of the clandestine or the illegal immigration of Jews to Palestine. During the process of restoring the ship that had been left decaying in the harbor, a mysterious accident occurred and the Exodus burned to the waterline. The hulk was towed and scuttled north of the Kishon River
Kishon River
The Kishon River is a river in Israel that flows into the Mediterranean Sea at the city of Haifa.- Course :The Kishon River is a 70-km-long perennial stream in Israel...

near Shemen Beach. In 1964 a salvage effort was made to raise her iron hull for scrap metal. The effort failed and she sank once again. In 1974, again an effort was made to raise the remains of the Exodus for salvage. The remains were refloated and were being towed toward the Kishon River when she sank again. Parts of the Exoduss hull remained visible as a home for fish and fisherman until the mid 2000s. Without fanfare or ceremony, the city of Haifa built its modern container ship quay extensions, enlarging the Port of Haifa

Port of Haifa

The Port of Haifa is the largest of Israel's three major international seaports, which include the Port of Ashdod, and the Port of Eilat. It has a natural deep water harbor which operates all year long, and serves both passenger and merchant ships. It is one of the largest ports in the eastern...

(32.820118°N 35.00448°W), on top of the remains of the Exodus. The quay area where the remains of the Exodus are buried is a security zone and is not accessible today.

Historical markers or plaques exist for the Exodus in France, Germany, Italy and the United States. There are no memorials or markers specific to the Exodus in Israel.

Cultural impact

In 1958, the book Exodus
Exodus (novel)
Exodus by American novelist Leon Uris is about the founding of the State of Israel. Published in 1958, it is based on the name of the 1947 immigration ship Exodus....

by Leon Uris
Leon Uris
Leon Marcus Uris was an American novelist, known for his historical fiction and the deep research that went into his novels. His two bestselling books were Exodus, published in 1958, and Trinity, in 1976.-Life:...

, based partly on the story of the ship, was published, though the ship Exodus in the book is not the same but a smaller one and the "real" Exodus has been renamed.
In 1960, the film Exodus
Exodus (film)
Exodus is a 1960 epic war film made by Alpha and Carlyle Productions and distributed by United Artists. Produced and directed by Otto Preminger, the film was based on the 1958 novel Exodus, by Leon Uris. The screenplay was written by Dalton Trumbo, which represented the breaking of the Hollywood...

directed by Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...

and starring Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...

, based on the above novel, was released.
In 1997, the documentary film, Exodus 1947, directed by Elizabeth Rodgers and Robby Henson
Robby Henson
-Biography:Robby Henson began his directing career at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Henson is now a skilled film and documentary maker. He writes and directs all his films, which are known for being character-driven. His work has attracted such acclaimed actors Billy Bob...

and narrated by Morley Safer
Morley Safer
Morley Safer is a Canadian reporter and correspondent for CBS News. He is best known for his long tenure on the newsmagazine 60 Minutes, which began in December 1970.-Life and career:...

, was broadcast nationally in the U.S. on PBS television.

External links

Exodus1947.com PBS Documentary Film focusing on the secret American involvement, narrated by Morley Safer
Voices on Antisemitism Interview with Ruth Gruber from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
exodus1947.org Hebrew website dedicated to the ship. Includes images and recordings.
Ships of the World: An Historical Encyclopedia - Exodus 1947
Pöppendorf instead of Palestine - Online Exhibition in German with an English translation on internment of the Exodus 1947 passengers in North Germany
PresidentWarfield.com English-language website dedicated to the President Warfield/Exodus
http://channels.isp.netscape.com/news/story.jsp?floc=FF-APO-1103&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20080504%2F1905460943.htm&sc=1103 Documents show UK post-World War II dilemma over Jewish refugees AP News
http://www.insideout.org/documentaries/exodus47/ Public radio documentary website
http://palyam.org Hebrew-English website dedicated to the history of the Palyam and the Aliyah Bet
http://palyam.org/Hahapala/Teur_haflagot/John_the_Priest.pdf Hebrew-English website of the Palyam Aliyah Bet Org. story of Rev. John Stanley Grauel, secret Haganah operative on the Exodus

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Early history

Voyage history

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