Clandestine departures from France to Palestine

The networks from France

After the war, the Zionist movement developed an important activity both on the political level and in the assistance given to the institutions of the Jewish National Home which, in clandestinity, were preparing for the advent of the State of Israel.

In the French Jewish community, the trial of persecution did not cause a significant flow of migration towards Eretz Israel. However, the population and its representatives show resolute solidarity with the Jews who live there. The CRIF, but also the Israelite Consistory and even the Universal Israelite Alliance publicly express their support for the Zionist cause. For clandestine work, the Palestinian organizations will rely on those who were the fighters of the Jewish Resistance during the war.

In December 1944, the Jewish Army, created in January 1942, decides to self-dissolve to be reborn as two organizations, one official, the Association of Veterans and Resistance Fighters Jews of France, and the other clandestine who serves the Zionist movement and the Haganah in particular, for the organization of a vast illegal emigration to Eretz Israel. Moreover, from the arrival of the delegate of the Jewish Agency in Paris, the activists of the AJ constitute the core of the Alyah Beth. The AJ will receive individual help from many former comrades of the Resistance, notably those from the Sixth, code name of the clandestine rescue organization of the EIF (Éclaireurs Israélites de France), the MJS (Zionist Youth Movement) and Hachomer Hatzaïr (Jewish youth movement created in Galicia in 1913).

Public opinion

Winning France over to Zionism, government and public opinion, already figured in May 1945 as one of the priority objectives defined by David Ben Gourion, president of the Jewish Agency and principal leader of the Yishuv.

Among the Gaullists, the Zionists can claim to have been among the first to recognize the Free France movement and to have maintained a link throughout the war, thanks to the presence of the writer Albert Cohen in London. But the most important network of complicity was established with the SFIO (French Section of the Workers' International), existing before the war and reinforced during the war, thanks to Marc Jarblum, leader of the Zionist movement in France. Léon Blum, former Chairman of the Board, André Blumel, lawyer and former chief of staff of Léon Blum, Cletta Mayer are all important allies, both for informal and official procedures. In the inner circle, among the new recruits are ministers and former ministers, Jules Moch, Daniel Mayer, Edouard Depreux, Christian Pineau, André Philip, all close to Léon Blum.

The French League for Free Palestine, created in December 1946 and attached to the theses of the Irgun (Jewish nationalist armed organization in Mandatory Palestine, born in 1931 from a split in the Haganah, and led from 1943 by Menahem Begin), is an organization that brings together, apart from the parties, the disparate supporters of a Jewish state. She participates in the creation of a climate of sympathy within public opinion and succeeds in rallying a very large number of intellectuals from all sides, including Jean Paul Sartre. In "La Riposte", the newspaper of the League, the names of Léon Jouhaux, former secretary general of the CGT, Simone de Beauvoir, Raymond Aron, Pierre Mendès-France and the Gaullist Jacques Soustelle.

This sympathy facilitates the task of Zionist organizations. The Haganah and the Irgun set up their headquarters in France, the authorities are benevolent and sometimes complicit in illegal immigration, they tolerate the purchase and transfer of weapons from France, hundreds of young Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and members of Zionist organizations receive military training in camps made available to Palestinian organizations by the French authorities, a maritime navigation and air pilotage course is held freely for young recruits.

Exodus

At the end of the year 1946, the Haganah buys in Baltimore, in the United States, a river steamer in bad condition, President Warfield. Flying the flag of Honduras, he sailed for France with a crew of American volunteers, supplemented by some officers from the Yishuv who had belonged to the Jewish Brigade. The boat arrives in Marseille on June 12, then sets sail for Sète. At the same time, an unprecedented operation is undertaken by the Alyah Beth to transport, in the space of a week, more than 4,000 people from the camps for displaced persons who will make up the bulk of the passengers on this boat. 175 trucks cross Europe and reach France where the passengers receive visas issued by the Colombian consul in Marseille, General Delano. The French authorities and notably Edouard Depreux, Minister of the Interior, agree to close their eyes on the authenticity of the visas. While waiting for the departure, emigrants are welcomed in accommodation centres belonging to the ORT (Organisation Reconstruction and Work). Informed of the situation, the British authorities try to put pressure on the Quai d'Orsay which is less favorable to this illegal immigration and especially wants to avoid displeasing its Arab and British allies. On July 10, 1947, President Warfield set sail for Palestine and was renamed Exodus. But on July 18, the boat is boarded by the Royal Navy which attacks causing significant damage, and the death of three passengers. Due to the lack of space in the camps in Cyprus, but also in order to deter illegal emigrants, the passengers are then transferred to three cages boats and sent back to France. On July 29, the boats arrive at Port de Bouc near Marseille. They are welcomed by hundreds of journalists and a delegation from the French government which offers political asylum to the passengers but refuses to have them disembark forcibly, as requested by the English. The living conditions on board, which are extremely difficult due to both the climate and overcrowding, are rocking the French public opinion moved by the fate of these camp survivors. Demonstrations are organized in their favor and the policy of the British government is strongly criticized both by political parties and by the French press. But on 21 August, the Foreign Office issued an ultimatum to the passengers of the Exodus ordering them to disembark before 22 August at 6 p.m. The number of passengers disembarking does not exceed one hundred and thirty. At the appointed time, the cage boats set sail for Hamburg in Germany where the passengers were forcibly disembarked using batons and tear gas then transferred by train to camps for displaced persons in the British occupation zone.

Members of the Haganah in the region of Marseille welcoming candidates for departure to Palestine.
© Coll. Jean-Michel Vecchiet.

The passengers of the Exodus embark under the gaze of the French authorities.
© D.R.

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