By the Fall of 1945, things were getting back to normal in America. The war was won, the “boys” were coming home, and the Depression was a fading memory. Murray Greenfield, who had served in the Merchant Marine, was planning to attend Hunter College in New York City. But something more important came along for Murray and about 240 other young North American men, Jews and gentiles alike: the chance to help some of the 150,000-plus displaced persons in Europe emigrate to Palestine to build the Jewish state!

Murray’s excellent book, “The Jews’ Secret Fleet”, co-written with Joseph M. Hochstein, has recently been published in a revised edition. From the viewpoint of one of the young participants, the book tells the dramatic story of the rescue of Jews from Europe after World War II by idealistic volunteers. The book includes a brilliant introduction by Sir Martin Gilbert, the official biographer of Winston Churchill and author of numerous books on history and geography. “The Jews’ Secret Fleet” is also the basis for a fascinating documentary film by Alan Rosenthal, entitled Waves of Freedom. “The Jews’ Secret Fleet” is the only authentic book that covers the full participation of 240 volunteers. These men sailed from the USA bringing some 35,000 survivors of the Holocaust to Eretz Israel on 10 rickety ships. The book details their remarkable journey, a story that was unforgettably told in “Exodus”, the epic novel by Leon Uris of Israel’s struggle for independence. “The Jews’ Secret Fleet” and the DVD “Waves of Freedom” are available from Gefen Publishing House. [www.gefenpublishing.com]

“In late 1946, word had gone out in the streets of U.S. cities such as New York and Chicago that young Jewish men with sailing experience were needed to help smuggle Holocaust survivors across the Mediterranean to Palestine. The mission was to be top secret because the British had declared such immigration illegal and created a blockade to stop the effort.” [www.jewishreview.org] Murray made his snap decision to join the clandestine movement to expedite illegal immigration to Palestine - known as Aliyah Bet - despite hearing that he might be hanged by the British if he were caught and that there was no pay involved for his efforts. The latter fact clinched it for Murray. He figured that no remuneration meant that the operation must be worthwhile! Murray’s mother was mollified by his decision not to attend college by the fact that, as he told her, he was doing something to help the Jewish people. Another shipmate, Harold Katz, just disappeared from Harvard Law School one day and didn’t show up for a year – his parents also didn’t know where he was or exactly what he was doing.

The young men had become part of the operation known as the “Bricha” (escape in Hebrew). After its victory in WWI and its takeover of the formerly Ottoman Turk province of Palestine, Britain decided to drastically limit the influx of Jews to Palestine. The decision was a pragmatic, political one, based on the fact that there were millions of Arabs to placate compared to far fewer Jews. Besides, the Arabs were sitting on top of a fortune of oil which Britain coveted. Therefore, the British backpedaled from their responsibilities in fulfilling the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine of 1922, barely waiting for the ink to dry on the document.

The Balfour Declaration, promulgated in 1917 to call for the establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine, was de-emphasized, Jewish immigration to Palestine was severely curtailed, and Arab immigration from North Africa and Arabia was welcomed. As the Nazis gained power in Europe, the limitations on legal Jewish immigration became particularly intolerable for the Jews.

The effort to bring Jewish immigrants to Palestine, both legally and illegally, predated WWII and continued after its end. Part of the post-war effort to bring Jews to Palestine is depicted in the film “Waves of Freedom”, the wonderful documentary by Alan Rosenthal, an Anglo-Israeli with more than forty films to his credit. In his book, Murray relates how, by hook or by crook, a fleet of 10 ramshackle ships were purchased as war surplus from American “boneyards, to be manned by the “American Jew-runners,” as at least one British naval officer called them. These adventurous young men, many not Jewish, were part of the “Machal”, non-Israeli fighters for Israel’s independence. Organized and assisted by Israeli members of a Jewish para-military group, Haganah, the intrepid crews sailed the ships to various locations outside of the US for retrofitting. Murray’s ship, the Tradewinds (later renamed Hatikvah), first set sail in Miami, was repaired in Charleston and Baltimore, eventually refueled in the Azores Islands (a lucky connection with a local Jew provided fuel after it was unobtainable from the usual sources), then made its way to Lisbon. There it was retrofitted to hold more than 1,400 refugees, packed like sardines in cubbyholes below deck. The workers who reconfigured the ship were told that the boat would be carrying tropical fruit.

Though the crew tried to keep their mission a secret, the captain felt it best to leave Lisbon hurriedly, so quickly in fact that they left port with their anchor still underwater, pulling up electric cables as they went! Finally, in Italy the Tradewinds took on its “cargo” of displaced persons, most of whom had entered Italy on foot via the snow-covered Austrian Alps. While on the last leg to Palestine, the crew took down the flag of Panama, the ship’s country of registry, replacing it with a “Jewish flag” and renaming the ship Hatikvah.

Of the more than approximately 70,000 "illegal immigrants" transported from European ports to Palestine between 1946 and 1948, about half came on the ten American ships. But there were problems: “Only a handful of ships - not [including] one U.S. vessel - penetrated the British air and sea blockade deployed to prevent any arrivals in Palestine. The blockade, backed up by an assortment of economic and diplomatic obstacles, extended from the Palestine coast through the Mediterranean, to the chancelleries of Western and Eastern Europe, and even to the U.S. Upon reaching the Palestine coast, the ships were routinely apprehended by the Royal Navy. Many of their passengers were transported to prison camps on Cyprus that had been [originally] constructed to house German prisoners of war.” Others were sent to Atlit, a British camp for detainees built on the Mediterranean coast below Haifa. [www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org]

The Hatikvah was eventually apprehended and its passengers and crew were interred for the next fourteen months on Cyprus at a hot and crowded displaced persons camp, which was not dissimilar from the concentration camps the refugees knew from Europe. Some of the prisoners were lucky and soon got into Palestine in a “legal” manner, but most of the men and women who were of fighting age were kept on Cyprus by the British until the War of Independence for Israel had ended in 1949. Though the total of those who succeeded to immigrate to Israel on Bricha ships was small, compared to the huge influx of newcomers who arrived from European and Arab countries in other ways, their spirit and hopefulness were highly significant and symbolic of the exhaustive effort to build the modern state of Israel.

Reading “The Jews’ Secret Fleet” is an excellent and exciting depiction of one of the most thrilling and successful undertakings to build the State of Israel. Steve Kramer is an expert in touring Israel and he also blogs for Travelujah. Order his new book at http://www.comteqpublishing.com/book_detail.php?19 People can learn, plan and share their Holy Land tour and travel experiences on Travelujah.