The SS Exodus. Photo: Wikipedia
The SS exodus
july, 1947
The SS Exodus was the most famous effort of the Aliyah Bet operation to bring Jewish refugees to Palestine. The ship was a decommissioned American war vessel crewed by Jewish volunteers. The Exodus took on 4500 passengers in France, the single largest haul of any ship in the entire Aliyah Bet operation. On July 18 the British boarded the ship near Haifa and a fight broke out. Three Jews were killed and several soldiers wounded. The British sent everyone right back to France and eventually the ship and its passengers ended up in Germany. The Haganah later smuggled most the Jews to Palestine anyway. But the incident garnered global sympathy for the plight of Jewish refugees, and became known as “the ship that launched a nation.”
