They lost everything. They lost their
families, they lost their homes, they lost
everything, and this was their hope to
start new lives.
The Exodus 1947 was to that date the
largest ship that was bringing what the
British deemed illegal immigrants to
Palestine. It began its life actually
very close to us in Baltimore.During
World War II it was sent of all things
to England and was a troopship. After the
war it was going to be gotten rid of as
junk and the Haganah bought it for the
purpose of bringing illegal immigrants
to Palestine. It was paid for by American
Jews, many of them from Baltimore, to try
to give the survivors a home. After
leaving Baltimore the ship sailed to
France, and that's where it picked up its
passengers. The sheer number of
passengers that were packed on the ship.
There were 4,500. They all went there out
of their free will. A woman whom I met
many years ago,
Giza Rozenblum. She was from a tiny
little place called Jamna. She met a
young man, and they married in '44, and
their young son was born in 1945. The
very moment this couple heard that there
is such a possibility of going to
Palestine, they took their two-year-old
son and volunteered. They were one family
among many. It was supposed to be a
secret to elude the British, but the
British found out very early on, and as
it got closer to the shores of Palestine,
a British flotilla surrounded it and said
"You're violating the blockade of
Palestine." They rammed the ship, and
a group of Marines boarded the ship.
There was a fight that ensued, but
the passengers didn't have weapons. It
was not an equal battle by any means.
There were lots of injuries but three
casualties. Among those killed was a
young American Jew named Bill Bernstein.
He was premed. His mother wanted him to
be a doctor and have a good life.
Instead he enlisted in the Merchant
Marine. After the war he was offered a
job teaching at the Naval Academy in
Annapolis, and again he turned it down
because he wanted to be part of this
amazing mission to bring DPs to
Palestine. In the past, a lot of other
ships had tried to make it to Palestine.
One or two were successful. The bulk were
picked up and the passengers sent to
Cyprus . . . But they were taken to France. The
British thought that if they did
something more dramatic, it would
dissuade other refugees from coming into
the country, but it had exactly the
reverse effect, and in DP camps
throughout there were mass protests, and
in the United States as well public
opinion turned against Britain. In Madison
Square Garden there was a demonstration
of 20,000 people, and they were holding
signs memorializing Bill Bernstein
because that really hit home. France was
willing to take them on condition that
they would volunteer to get off the ship,
but they were no volunteers, and they
were taken to Germany. So it brought
back all the worst nightmares of what they'd
endured. They did find peace, most of them.
Giza and Reuwen Wiernik and Alexander,
their son, indeed came in March
'48 in Jerusalem and settled there. This
July marks the 70th anniversary. And the
interesting part is naming the ship
Exodus. In Hebrew "Exodus from Europe."
Exodus is "Exodus from Egypt."
It is so symbolic that every year on Passover,
you know, we we celebrate the anniversary
of leaving Egypt from slavery to
statehood, to peoplehood, and I think
that they felt the very same way. It was
like a repetition of of the same story