Clandestine departures from France to Palestine

Networks from France

After the war, the Zionist movement developed an important activity both on the political level and in helping the institutions of the Jewish National Home which, in hiding, prepared for the advent of the State of Israel.

In the French Jewish community, the ordeal of persecution did not provoke a significant flow of migration towards Eretz Israel. However, both 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 fighters of the Jewish Resistance during the war.

In December 1944, the Jewish Army, created in January 1942, decided to self-dissolve and revive itself as two organizations, one official, the Association of Veterans and Resistance 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, as soon as the delegate of the Jewish Agency arrived in Paris, the AJ activists formed the core of Alyah Beth. The AJ will receive individual help from many former comrades in 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 the Hachomer Hatzaïr. (Jewish youth movement created in Galicia in 1913).

Public opinion

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

Among the Gaullists, the Zionists can claim to have been among the first to recognize the Free French 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 President of the Council, 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 close 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 linked to the theses of the Irgun (a Jewish nationalist army organization in Mandatory Palestine, born in 1931 from a split in the Haganah, and led from 1943 by Menachem Begin), is an organization that brings together, outside the parties, the disparate supporters of a Jewish state. She participated in the creation of a climate of sympathy within public opinion and managed to rally a very large number of intellectuals of all stripes, including Jean Paul Sartre. In "La Riposte", the newspaper of the League, rub 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 makes the task of Zionist organizations easier. The Haganah and the Irgun set up their headquarters in France; the authorities were benevolent and sometimes complicit in illegal immigration; they tolerated the purchase and transfer of weapons from France. hundreds of young Jewish survivors of the Shoah and members of Zionist organizations receive military training in camps made available to Palestinian organizations by the French authorities, a course in maritime navigation and air pilotage is held freely for young recruits.

The Exodus

At the end of 1946, the Haganah bought in Baltimore, in the United States, a river steamer in bad condition, President Warfield. Flying the flag of Honduras, it 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 arrived in Marseille on 12 June, then set 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 displaced persons camps who will make up most of the passengers on this boat. 175 trucks cross Europe and arrive in France where the passengers receive visas issued by the consul of Colombia in Marseille, General Delano. The French authorities and notably Edouard Depreux, Minister of the Interior, agree to close their eyes to the authenticity of visas. While waiting for the departure, emigrants are accommodated in accommodation centers belonging to the ORT (Reconstruction and Labor Organization). 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 wants above all to avoid displeasing its Arab and British allies. On 10 July 1947, President Warfield set sail for Palestine and was renamed Exodus. But on 18 July, the ship was seized by the Royal Navy, which attacked and caused significant damage, killing three passengers. Due to lack of space in the camps in Cyprus, but also in order to deter illegal emigrants, the passengers were then transferred to three cages boats and sent back to France. On 29 July, the boats arrived at Port de Bouc near Marseille. They are greeted by hundreds of journalists and a delegation from the French government who offer political asylum to the passengers but refuse to make them disembark by force, as requested by the English. The living conditions on board, which are extremely difficult due to both the climate and the overcrowding, have turned the tide of French public opinion, moved by the plight of these camp survivors. Demonstrations were organized in their favor and the policy of the British government was 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 by 6 p.m. on 22 August. 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 passengers were forcibly disembarked using batons and tear gas and then transferred by train to camps for displaced persons in the British occupation zone.

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

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

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