Presentation of the exhibition

On the occasion of the anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel (14 May 1948), the exhibition Alyah Beth organized by the Shoah Memorial from 6 May to 5 October 2008 evokes the clandestine departures of Jews from France towards Eretz Israel (Hebrew name of Palestine) between 1945 and 1948. Alyah is a Hebrew term for Jewish emigration to the Holy Land.

As Europe celebrates its victory over Nazism, nearly 40% of the world’s Jewish population has been exterminated. The few survivors of the camps are gradually returning to their countries of origin. Many Jewish survivors refuse to return to Central and Eastern Europe because of the virulent anti-Semitism that often rages there, as in Poland, but also because their original community has been wiped out.

In Germany and Austria mainly, they joined the camps of "displaced persons" organized by the British and the Americans.

It is from these camps that the clandestine exodus of Jews to Palestine flows: from 1945 to 1948, 70,000 emigrants manage to enter despite the British blockade.

The exhibition highlights the particular role played by France during the Liberation, which provided concrete support for a vast network of illegal immigration to Palestine and spared no international support for the birth of the State of Israel.

Public opinion and the benevolence of the French authorities hinder British policy regarding the entry of Jews into Palestine, the epic of the ship Exodus during the summer of 1947 remaining in this regard the most emblematic episode.

From 6 May to 5 October 2008
Location: Tier 1
Free entry
Every day except Saturday from 10am to 6pm,
on Thursdays until 10 p.m.

L'Haganah Ship Exodus 1947 accoste dans le port de Ha�fa