Exodus 1947

B. Yes they absolutely began as they President Warfield. They flagship of a Obey line. Which used to run between Baltimore and Norfolk in the old days and she carried Maryland with her all the way to the shores of Palestine. Out of Palestine comes the camera story of the Exodus the Jewish immigrant ship that highlights new violence in the Holy Land. With a cock off four and a half thousand refugees. The exodus is the largest ship never to attempt to run the actual British naval blockade. The British drag this ship into.

It looks like a matchbox that had been crushed by a nut cracker. The ship was chaos the ship was off. What a mess the ship was I mean a torn up ripped up people wanted. It was 1947 the war was over. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball. The Chicago mobster Al Capone's died. Britain's young Princess Elizabeth married the Duke of Edinburgh. And in the south of France. Forty five hundred Jewish refugees were crammed

aboard a Chesapeake Bay steamer. These refugees survivors of the Holocaust chose to leave the ashes of Europe behind and sailed for Palestine. Their ship was called Exodus 1947. Exodus failed in its attempt to land its cargo in British controlled Palestine. But the aborted voyage caught the world's attention. Exodus became a symbol. An American ship built for pleasure cruises on the Chesapeake has been described as a ship that launched a nation. It's an accident. The biggest best seller since Gone With The Wind. The name Exodus and the events surrounding it were irresistible. First the book then the movie the one I think that.

Neither had much to do with the facts. The true story of Exodus is at least as dramatic a small group of ordinary Americans. Conspired. To change world history. The Americans who financed and crew the ship had no experience in politics or diplomacy yet they took on the best of the British Foreign Office and they won of course broke the blockade. We broke the mandate. And I think we damn near broke the British Navy. The crew came from Brooklyn and the Bronx. Cincinnati and San Francisco some were as young as 16. The number had just returned from fighting in World War Two. It was not an easy thing to tell parents that they'd be sailing

halfway around the world on a dangerous mission. I said Mom. I've got to go away for six months and I can tell you we're going. I've often said they can't try that. Parents and I didn't tell my parents anything. I didn't tell my parents anything I was going on an extended vacation. This was a very very quiet thing. I was 20 years old at the time. My mother asked me Where are you going. I said well I'll be writing you. If my son said that to me when they were 20. Different story. And finally I told her what I was about to do and her reaction was probably not very different from that of many other Jewish mothers probably not different from many other mothers in general. And her reaction was Why does my son have to do it. Why doesn't somebody else's son do it.

And for a 19 year old I think was pretty good. My answer was because there is nobody else. The world opinion another shipload of refugees from Europe find a new home. Only fifteen hundred Jewish immigrants a month. My now in Palestine in the wake of disagreements over the Palestine question came first controversy on complex. Friend of Palestine must now remain on the world's agenda. In 1947 Palestine was as much of a minefield as it is today. The Jews wanted to open the gates to the hundreds of thousands of survivors of the Holocaust. The British and the Arabs said no. Britain was in the driver's seat. Having seized control of Palestine in 1979. For three decades the British had tried to mediate. The fragile peace

between Palestinian Arabs and the expanding Jewish population. By 1939 the rise of Hitler placed hundreds of thousands of European Jews in peril. Britain could have allowed Palestine to become a refuge. But fearing the anger of Arab states she chose not to. Every Jew that I've attended Time is one more pick and just watch out if that was done to take one more unit to walk on it so that it is impossible for the app. But he got the next day and if you many. Have to be maintained in the Arab states so that Great Britain would be assured of an oil supply to

fuel planes and tanks and ships in the coming battle. Took on the Arab oil of London produced in 1939 a white paper. But strike the limited emigration into Palestine. The British phased out Jewish immigration. At the time it was most needed. It was in this grim hell that the Nazis piled up bodies on their victims like common cordwood. Don't turn away look unbelievable. Yet here a mere handful were found alive when the Americans around the area. War is not a pretty thing at best.

No words can express the world's disgust at Germany's organized carnage. The world may have been shocked that sympathy brought little relief to the more than 200000 survivors of the death camps. A new species was. Displaced Persons. Nobody wanted him. The United States did not want him. Britain France nobody wanted them. Sell the alley. There was only one place Palestine was ready to accept and. President Truman called for the immediate admission of 100000 Jewish immigrants to Palestine. British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin replied. That the Jews had waited 2000 years to return to the Holy Land. And they could wait a little longer.

Baron made that statement to me and he added to it another statement that I have not made a very good thing right of the head of a family that didn't have ma'am a very good nature when they were bad. Despite Jewish protests Britain refused to raise the immigration quota above fifteen hundred a month. Jews who landed in Palestine illegally were arrested and deported to camps in Cyprus. Palestine tensions escalate. As extremists blow up the offices and. Demanding an end to British occupation underground Jewish militias. The air gun the Stern Gang and. That of the British for self-rule.

The extreme groups are rounded up and an arm searches conducted suspects are taken to. Six thousand additional troops are placed on duty on the streets of a holy city camp. In Palestine. An impasse. The hug led by David Ben-Gurion came to realize that it could not be seasoned British troops on the streets of Palestine. That they could defeat the British. The important battle for world opinion. Then going on ordered an end to armed insurgency and organized that a campaign to bring in more than a hundred and twenty thousand refugees illegally.

After World War 2 the decision was made that illegal immigration would have a dual purpose one to rescue remaining Jewish populations in Europe get them out because they wanted out. And number two is an instrument of resistance. Of Jewish resistance against British rule as a route to statehood. And it really appealed to the Jewish leadership in Palestine at that time because it was resistance not by killing people. By rescuing people. One. Large ships were needed. The shipping fleets of post-war Europe had been devastated by the war. But America had a bonanza of rusting ships very much a

buyer's market. One of the rust buckets was the president Warfield rotting drab rat ridden She'd was live a very glamorous life. Yes the exodus began as they President Warfield. They flagship of the Old Bailey line. Which used to run between Baltimore and Norfolk. And the old days. And lawyers and deeds day it came to me I suppose of luxury travel on the Chesapeake Bay. And she ran for 11 years from the pier the light tree wharf. Down. Past here almost every other night on our way to Norfolk. And on board for all the accommodations for those down for Virginia Beach and Florida and all the rest dancing good for the. Wonderful Life on board that ship.

That Wonderful Life on the Chesapeake was cut short by war. In 1942. She was drafted for military transport duty. She participated in the Allied invasion of Normandy. After the war president Warfield was sold for scrap. The end of the line for the gallant old steamer that event six thousand miles away would save her from the scrap heap. 945 David Ben-Gurion came to America. And. Asked that a group of men. Be brought to New York so that he could discuss the creation of the American army about going on. The purpose of this was to buy and outfit these ships to get the refugees out of the DP camps and over to Palestine.

Then Gori OG's message was unequivocal. American Jews must now help the decimated remnants of European Jewry to get to Palestine. When I got involved based attend these meetings and it was a very moving thing to see people coming from all over the country most many of them bring in just plain cash. The president Warfield was saved from the scrap yard with $40000. Held to a dry dock in Baltimore and refitted. Lumber blankets medical supplies and forty five hundred life jackets were needed checks for tens hundreds thousands of dollars poured in from Jewish communities across America in support of on the object. And just as important with a group of conspirators plotting the end of British Palestine they were doing things that would lead to a quote unquote illegal action when they would try to run the blockade and the

English have been asking the American authorities to please crack down on this. They called it illegal. We call that Ali I bet. Back. Baltimore December 1946 a handful of volunteers arrived at a deserted snow covered pier on Lancaster street. They got their first look at the less than a handsome ship that would carry them to the shores of Palestine. Up. 23 year old Bill Bernstein chronicled his experiences in home movies and letters to his brother. Dear moe I'm writing this letter from ship board. Ship like none I've seen before. There's so much to describe that I'd I don't know where to begin. But the crew because we have everything aboard except sailors. Everyone has a

different reason for making the voyage. Those reasons include adventure idealism Zionism and most of all the horrors of the German death camps. I can only talk about myself and I wanted to say to people that's why I came aboard. But I would bet it was a secret society. How do you enlist went into a drugstore pulled out a phone book and looked under J. Jewish called a Jewish Agency. The official line from Jewish Relief agencies was they knew nothing about the OB bet but I'm officially steered young American volunteers to the ships. I'd like to get on a ship that's carrying immigrants to Palestine and they also don't know a thing about us. And then one man says come over what's your name Who are you.

Very few of the crew had any sailing experience. Had never been to see my life before. When the next time I go to Tucson. I climbed the ladder. And who was the Greek maid but a priest. With a big cross on his chest and the clergy collar. This is John Stanley Grohl. Tall blonde and Methodist. The Reverend John Stanley graue was hitching a ride on the president Warfield as an official observer for the American Christian Palestine Committee. But I said to myself and Janish. If a doctor says I you fish if was stated to him I thought this is Jewish of course. What's a Christian doing here. Shit.

What does she mean. Shoes Shh don't say anything. Silence that's what you should means. The Hagana agents who arrived in Baltimore from Palestine to supervise the voyage were called show their control over the ship was strictly hush hush. Only 22 at the time. Ike Aronowitz was considered the head Shushi. Soon after his arrival the American crew was sworn in as members of hug another subject a hug and I was disciplined and its code of secrecy with the outfitting of a 40 ton ship by a handful of foreigners and Jewish-Americans was hard to keep secret. It was an open secret. People knew the Baltimore Sun asked in the paper why is the ship here. It has Mediterranean charts and yet it's supposed to be going to China. On February 25. The Baltimore Shipping News reported that the president Warfield registered in Honduras had departed bound

for Hong Kong. We did leave in February. And bang o hit a real full gale. Storm much on. The superstructure was moved. We had a wooden superstructure the superstructure began to spin with every roll to sway two or three inches. It felt like two or three feet. We were beginning to understand why we took it out of the scrap yard. Parts of the ship were in water waist high and the captain who is not Jewish decided that we were going to abandon ship. The alarms didn't work and I couldn't want to abandon ship. And they sent them to the water.

And they kept and panicked and he called the cardboards who came with us but never even touched when we went back to Norfolk. Barely 75 miles from shore the president Warfield turned around and limped back into Norfolk. The trial run had been a disaster. Novice crewman forgot to plug the anchor chain ports bilge pumps had failed and seasickness struck down all but six of the forty two man crew. Right or wrong the blame fell on the American captain for hire and he was promptly fired. Some of the crew. Doubtful of the old steamboat seaworthiness abandon ship. Some people back out and they're not mentioned anymore. Press scrutiny intensified the Warfield was labeled a mystery a mystery. The British easily song to keep the war field in port the British Embassy pressured the Honduran government to revoke her registry.

On March 20 9th the Honduran consul general arrived at the dock to pull her papers and flag to lay. The hunger knot was a half step ahead and the Warfield was steaming fast for open water. A. This beat up old ship and her amateur crew lively into the. What was known. Was that the British blockade. Was impenetrable. A blockade runner was beached legal immigrants against the naval boarding party. Of February 27 the same day the Warfield nearly sank on her trial run.

The British Navy captured the highest. While the president Warfield was in transit eight ships tried to run the British blockade all failed. 8000 refugees were sent to camps in Cyprus. The odds against the Warfield succeeding were huge. These are only a few of the thousands who dashed themselves against the iron clad. But on the war field so far it was just a pleasant carefree crew. No thought of politics or war. Bill Bernstein wrote to his brother. Your mail arrive safely in post to Delgado as the island of San Miguel. Weather coming over was a good trip was uneventful. The crew was finally molded into a good working bunch of seamen. I've eaten in the crew's mess hall on many a ship but in all the time I've spent at sea I have never heard the kind of talk I've heard here. The conversation of the average ship stems from the subject of

women and various means of enjoying them. Not here if you don't know interval calculus at least one third of the conversation at the dinner table is lost even. If you don't know what Aristotle told his mother on his sixth birthday. And if God forbid you should know what opera played in Pittsburgh two years ago or worse yet how many calluses Heifetz has an index finger of his left hand. You are completely ignored. You might just as well not exist. Seriously though the crew is really catching on. Regards. The British had alerted the Portuguese authorities at the doors to the arrival of a Jewish blockade runner in Podger D'Agata it was an event. All the people came down to talk they want to see what i jus looks like. And they put a gang way out from a close attack. And John. Wall the minister blond hair blue wise was dressed in each clergy call collar with a spic force on his chest that people looked up at

him aghast. They all thought that thought that. Then the Shia had the quietly stacked comeback. He looked at them. And he blessed them he was a character actor by the way. From the stories the Warfield steamed on to its next star friends. The porter must say I. Meanwhile in Palestine British forces were facing the full fury of Jewish and Arab terror. British morale was extremely low. Tell us time then as now if the front pages. British authorities clamp down with martial law. The controversy which is constant high tension between the British Jewish and Arab populations is being taken up by the United Nations.

Exasperated by a no win situation in Palestine. Britain handed the problem off to the United Nations in April 1947 the UN created the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine and Scott and Scott would investigate and recommend solutions. While the Warfield took on supplies in southern France the UN's Cup committee assembled in Jerusalem. As fate would have it the committee's field trip would coincide with the arrival of the Warfield. In musée the chess match between the British and the hunter was eating up. British agents photographed and identified the American crew. And pressured local authorities to impound the Warfield for sanitary violations by say became too hot. The Warfield slipped away under cover of darkness. For

weeks the Warfield steamed from port to port. One step ahead of British intelligence looking for a safe haven where forty five hundred Holocaust survivors could be discreetly taken on board. In Italy the ship's stately ballroom was ripped out and converted into sleeping quarters. This was a ship that originally carried 400 people. By the time we got through putting beds on Actually they weren't beds they were racks. We had room for over 4000 people. From a tiny office in Paris to hug an orchestrated one of the largest mass migrations of modern times. In trucks trains on foot. Thousands of Holocaust survivors moved out of DP camps and were sent hundreds of miles across Europe to various Mediterranean ports. The way this thing worked was like the underground railroad during the Civil War.

How can our agents carried suitcases of cash to buy visas and bribe border guards. Well everything was so well organized. Can you imagine all these trucks came from different countries of Europe from different DP camps and they all run they booed at the same time the same morning and set. Set. To line one thousand forty seven. This is it. After working hiding and chasing all over Europe for months we finally cleared the way for a seven day voyage. Just after sunrise. The American crew comes face to face with survivors of the Holocaust. With sudden talks started arriving. And as far as you I can see it with trucks. And people thought it through. Getting out and they were getting out very orderly in groups with their

little knapsacks on their back. They were wearing three and four. Layers of clothing with the idea that it's easier to wear your luggage than the carrier. They were from Lithuania as they were from Poland. They were from Russia so I had no home so nobody said nothing that they were from Germany. They were from Italy. Most of them I would say and then within that number they were from from France. It took us all day to load the ship. We loaded four thousand five hundred fifty four people. When British foreign minister Ernest Bevin was alerted to the boarding he exhorted the

French to impound it was feeling bad and was determined. To break this blockade running business. The harbor at set was a maze of breakwaters making it all but impossible for the president Warfield to move without tugboats. We were supposed to get a tug boat to take us out and the British were putting pressure on the French not to give us a tug boat. We didn't get the tug boat. Time was running out. Forty five hundred people were crammed below deck. There was only food and water for a seven day voyage. If the Warfield did not escape during the night the voyage would be due. We had to leave port. I under our own power and twist and turn. Right to him. It was a very very narrow channels and it's very difficult to turn a ship 330 foot ship in those close quarters.

But we we managed to do it. Leaving the shores of France the excitement started. The silence was broken by laughing singing dancing. Everybody has hopes for a new life. Everybody was excited but at the same time scared. I mean branch teen age 15. The refugees fears were justified. As dawn broke a British man o' war loomed on the horizon. The minute we live side away I already had several ships British naval ships waiting for us and they were trailing us all along the way. My name is on a bottle I was on board it's a mist chicas as a lift and it was one of the lift up on board. We used to anchor off the truck up and down the coast missed

it not time. To go in the Sept. any illegal immigrant boats come in. The British Navy's plan was to trail the war field across the Mediterranean and board her. When she reached Palestinian waters. The British had successfully trailed captured and detained dozens of smaller ships. I mean for us it was just another ship like Alvin with a whole lot of Jewish images is a big one. OK end of story as well as we visit. The British ships broadcast warnings if the Warfield did not turn back the British would board and seize her. We had seen these guys they had been following us for four days five days and they had some big big vessels and these were warships. I was scared I was scared. Their MO chances are very slim as far as getting through the English are concerned

I don't know if I'll be able to Melanie Letterman exports so don't worry if you don't hear from me for a few weeks. Regards Bill. July 16th. Three more destroyers joined the chase. The Warfield received coded instructions from HUD at our headquarters in Palestine. Captain Ike briefed the group. They were instructed to out run the British escort and beach the ship in downtown Tel Aviv. The drill was that we were going to get as close to the shore as possible and run the ship up on the shore jump into what there was to show people b day and take care of you find a reason me. This is way I had the basic idea. We went south easterly direction too we came just north of the Egyptian coast.

In fact the British thought we were going on our mud bar down there and we came so close in. July 17 sunrise found the Warfield now steaming north towards Palestine trailed by the British escort. We try to keep. On the landward side of them. So that if they do make a dash for the beach we hit him. Get in there fast. The refugees and crew waited for a final showdown. We had been up for like 24 hours before all of us preparing. We had put barbed wire around the ship. Barbed wire barricades were put up to deter British boarding parties rocks from the

ballast potatoes and cans of kosher corned beef were stockpiled on deck. As ammunition. We didn't use firearms. We were told not to use firearms because the British could blow us out of the water. So these were the things we were doing and we were up for 24 hours. I was I was barely you know barely awake. Only hours from her destination trailed by six British warships. The president Warfield at last revealed her new name July 17 Thursday in one thousand forty seven. We put up the mug and Davide the Star of David. And the sign comes on the ship. Exodus 1947. The how going to change the beaching side to block. The exodus was to make the approach staying just outside territorial waters and then execute a fast dash for shore.

The how going to order the Paloma its armed wing to send 30000 men to but to get to the Exodus refugees before the British. The situation was critical. A firefight between the Palma and the British on the beaches of thought could be the spark to total war. The British Navy had no intention of letting the Exodus get to the beaches. Apparently. The British vocal cords and they knew exactly what we're planning so the side instead of fighting the fire into leaving the city. To take a ship at sea. And so the position was that the ship would be boarded. It was a very dark night and. Out of the night from two sides came two destroyers. But we were 25 miles off the coast of Gaza.

When the British attacked. Before we could do anything they hit us. They squeezed us from both sides. So that we couldn't maneuver. Searchlights played. Loudspeakers blared an ominous threat. You're in territorial waters you're under arrest. Stop your ship. We're going to board you. We decided to stand our ground and continue steaming and that's when they start at ramming us. Out of 245 we started boarding. And the British bird with the exodus with guns and tear gas. And the. Refugees for it back with tins of the. Potatoes. It was really a cold beef and potato.

A barrage at it could be a deadly tongue but the it's no joke. When the British sailors and marines started jumping on the ship I started chasing them you know trying to grab them and throw them over the side. While the Jewish immigrant was see it about to decapitate. One of the boarding party with an axe. I had the axe. If I served British man who needed a chopping he would get it. A 16 year old orphan by the name of Hershey up above its whose face was framed in a kind of behind you know a life raft and British sailor shot him in the face and killed him. And the British. Good thing the exodus. Of a border Marines and naval

personnel border and there's a raging battle over her decks. Over say to get control of the ship we have to talk to the beaches that's why we had to get her to the alehouse. Ten British Marines rushed to wheel house and they were met by second night. Bill Bernstein who refused to surrender the wheel to the British. He tried to hold them off with what a bloody. Fire extinguisher and he was clubbed. Bill Bernstein was clubbed unconscious and the British seized control. As dawn broke the back away the refugees and crew had been tear gassed clubbed and shot at. The wooden superstructure was breaking up having been rammed repeatedly and by six o'clock in the morning. The people were standing there like there was no bulkhead left

watching. We did have a responsibility for forty five hundred fifty people. We gave them a hell of a fight. We fought them for four hours a longest than any ship and ever fought the British. And that was it. We surrendered. The battle left the Exodus with 146 people injured. And three people dead. The ship limped into Haifa harbor. The forty five hundred refugees were allowed only a brief look at Palestine. I think I was very sorry for them and they've had a hell of a time in Europe during the war. And obviously a

soul. That aside as a lagoon land which they reckon was. No surprise some of them a lot of them tried to make it but they took incredible risks with all the ship's loot to get. Among the dead and dying was Bill Bernstein. He had been clubbed. And he died of a fractured skull. He was the least aggressive the most gentle person and a sweet heart. It just just so happened. He was at the wrong place at the wrong time. In his report the British commander wrote it has been made abundantly clear that the American crew took a leading part in the resistance of the ship and the fact that the first mate was killed and the second mate severely handled may

prove a deterrent for the Americans to do the same again. The American crew and the forty five hundred refugees were loaded onto three British prison ships in Haifa Harbor. British and Continental trouble transferring the refugees mostly the procedure is carried out in an orderly manner testing and even bringing their children with them. Dance education and speed as a precaution. Again kindness can be a knife. To the exodus of refugees. It seemed their last hope had been extinguished. But the hug and I soon realized that by losing the battle they just might win the war. Newsreels and newspapers sent images of the Exodus round the world. Those pictures were of powerful weapon in the struggle to create a Jewish state.

The British were slow to understand the symbolic significance of the Exodus. With the world watching. Foreign Minister Bevan elected to make the exodus a test case for harsher punishment. The refugees were sent back to Europe. Well this was the worst thing the British could have done in terms of their own image. I think it was the exodus episode and their handling of it that really finally broke their backs because all this was played out of newsreels front pages of newspapers really captured the compassion of the war weary immigrants illegal under the British Mandate were put aboard three present ships which took them back to France. Had the British sent the refugees to Cyprus. The story probably would have ended there.

That's begun the saga of homeless people carried from park to park. Luckily for us some newspaper people got on the ships. UPI Katie Lloyd is. Yeah I was in the news for weeks and this was going all over the world here were Jews whose only crime was trying to get to Palestine. OK. And on these goddamn ships like animals and displaced persons removed from the Exodus bound from Palestine the future land in France and are sent emergency food rations by friends and other relief agencies. While their fate is to be. French authorities the French authorities declared that they would accept only those refugees who volunteered to disembark. This is a struggle which bears neither age nor you. Struggle for with just chatting the world away. The solution. The hug and I was quick to seize the symbolic importance of the Exodus. How agents smuggled instructions to the refugees in Bibles

and food supplies brought on board. Your act of resistance will gain us a home that you do not come ashore. Yeah you're. The British wanted the people to get off the ships in France. OK. And we had some idea that if we stayed on the ships at least a handful of us stayed on the ships with the refugees to show that our lives as Americans carry and as Palestinians our lives were tied up with theirs. They would be much more apt to stay on the ships. The heat was stifling the sanitarium conditions were terrible and still the refugees refused for more than three weeks to come ashore in France. As images of the Exodus refugees were being axed in the minds of millions of people. The United Nations Special Committee on Tellus time was meeting to recommend a solution to the Palestine problem. The.

UN committee members dressed in cool linen suits had been on the dock in Haifa when the badly battered Exodus arrived last time it's dark night tired and weary refugees are comes back to Britain. To members of the United Nations Committee on Palestine and silently look on in Haifa. The committee took testimony from the exodus a so-called impartial observer. The Reverend John Stanley growl the committee asked Grau to focus on two issues. Had the British boarded the ship in international waters yes they had growled testified. Had the refugees defended themselves with firearms. No they had not grow told the committee that nothing short of death would prevent Jewish refugees from coming to Palestine. Back in France the stalemate with the British entered the fourth week

and British patients was wary fent. The British were so angry. That we had put up this fight. That we didn't quit in France. They were so frustrated and so angry and so upset with these you know stiff necked Jews who wouldn't wouldn't take no for an answer. Enough was enough. Ernest Bevan gave the refugees 24 hours to disembark in France or they would be shipped back to Germany. Now we couldn't believe just couldn't believe that the British would do such a thing. OK Germany as far as I was concerned and as far as everybody was concerned was was just one big graveyard. Bevan believed the refugees were being manipulated by hunger not propaganda and that the refugees resistance would crumble when faced with the forced return

to the source of their destruction. Devon's deadline came and went. Only 21 refugees disembody on August 22nd at 6:22 p.m. the three prison ships boat anchor and headed for Germany. I stood on the dock with a young girl when the ship finally was taken out it was about six o'clock at night and we stood there weeping knowing they were taking these people back to Germany to the death land. And then this young girl said to me now you will see the birth. Of a Jewish day. Thanks in no small part to the hated British foreign secretary Ernest Bevan. If there is an Almighty who does these things he sent as has been. He. Gave us this

country silver plates. I think out of Germany come first pictures of the end of the voyage for the Exodus refugees. Six million of their followers died in the attempted extermination of an entire people in Hamburg. The refugees staged a sit down strike on one of the prison ships and were clubbed firehose and teargassed into detention camps. The British finally tried to block reporters from getting to the story but it was too late. The world was horrified. Britain was denounced by the international press. The gallant nation that had helped defeat the Nazis now seemed to be acting like them. And I think world opinion at that time turned against the British. More than 4000 Jews are once more back in the hated and dreaded country from which many of them began their long desperate trip to Palestine.

World leaders called for an end to British control of Palestine. In the fall of nine hundred forty seven events moved swiftly. On September 1st the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine recommended partitioning Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. On November 29 by a slim margin the U.N. voted to accept the partition plan ending British control and paving the way for the creation of the state of Israel. The hug and I started BET with the goal of ending British control. And they succeeded. The hunger not send 64 ships loaded with

60000 Holocaust survivors against the British ball. Few got through. But in the Exodus somehow turned into victory. The hunger not turned its attention from smugly emigrants to building an army. Arabs refused to accept the UN partition plan. And Palestine explode into the first of five wars. Some of the Exodus refugees never made it to Israel they settled in Europe or America. But the vast majority of those who had stood on the British prison ships and declared only in Palestine finally made it to Israel in the spring of 48. Oh. On July 25th. Bill Bernstein was eulogized in the memorial

service at Madison Square Park in New York City attended by 20000 mourners. Billed for a cause that he thought was good. And we all thought was. Worthwhile at the time. American crew members who took part in that are forever linked by the bar of those days. The crew members have a sort of a blood. Blinding her but we're told now we're not going to last much longer. I remember Ben said Ben foreman said that this is and this is the high point of our life. We're never going to achieve anything near this and I figured on bigger and better things. By thing never happened. And this this ship never dies. They keep coming back. Right. I hear you can't forget it because somebody reminds you of it.

As for the ship itself after her crippling battle with the British the exodus was left rusting and abandoned in Haifa Harbor. Then on August 26 1952 she called find. The president Warfield flagship of the Old Bay line. Known to the world as Exodus 1947. Slowly sank beneath the waves off shore of the new nation. She had helped create it.