On July 18, 1947, the ship Exodus 1947 arrived on the Palestine shoreline after its voyage from France. The ship carried over 4,500 Jewish refugees, many of them Holocaust survivors, who were hoping to illegally immigrate to Palestine. Haganah, a paramilitary organization that preceded the Israeli Defense Forces, had bought the American-made ship for the voyage despite its poor condition in hopes that safety and public relations concerns would help immigrants gain entry to British-controlled Palestine. However, in part because of a 1939 policy that sharply limited Jewish immigration, after a skirmish British troops forcibly removed the refugees from the ship and ultimately deported them back to France and then to a displaced persons camp in Germany. This incident provoked international fury, and helped garner widespread support for the independent state of Israel, which came into existence after the British Mandate in Palestine ended in 1948.
Jewish refugees are guarded by British troops as they leave a train at Kuechnitz, Germany, before entering a displaced persons camp in July 1947. Image courtesy of Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, University of Southern California
Through Opening History, you can see other photos in the Los Angeles Examiner Collection, 1920-1961 from the University of Southern California that shed light on the history of Jewish immigration in the 1940s. Significant Documents Illuminating the American Jewish Experience is also an important resource available through the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives.
Sowing Culture 