The Schuberts were among approximately 4,550 Jewish
refugees from World War II aboard the ship Exodus 1947,
which sailed for British-controlled
Palestine from France on July 10, 1947. Britain had tightened the
Jewish
immigration quota for Palestine and was sending Jews who ran the
blockade
to internment camps in Cyprus. The camps were overflowing, and the
Exodus,
the largest refugee ship to date, was treated differently.
The British attacked the Exodus in the
Mediterranean and sent the refugees back to France on prison
ships. The refugees refused to disembark in Europe -- it was Eretz
Yisrael (the land of Israel) or nothing.
After three weeks, the British sailed the prison ships to Hamburg,
Germany,
and said they would force the refugees off the boats with tear gas
and bring
in troops if they had to. The refugees went ashore peacefully on
Sept. 8.
Around the world, public sympathy was with the Jewish
refugees,
and the British endured a storm of disapproval. Worldwide reaction
to the
plight of the Exodus refugees was instrumental in
persuading the
United Nations Special Committee on Palestine to recommend
partitioning
Palestine and establishing a Jewish state.
In Germany, the Exodus refugees were held in
Displaced
Persons camps in a British-occupied zone. A few at a time over the
course
of a year, the Exodus refugees left the camps and reached
Palestine,
some with legal immigration permits and some illicitly. Many of
them were
already in Israel on May 15, 1948, when the nation declared its
independence.
Destination Palestine, the story of the
Haganah ship, Exodus
by Ruth Gruber (New York: Current Books, 1948)
Exodus 1947
by David C. Holly (Boston: Little, Brown, 1969)