Ruth Gruber 09/30/11 —

Born in Brooklyn, NY.

A Jewish-American photojournalist, Ruth Gruber was 36 and working for the New York Herald Tribune in 1947, when she was sent to palestine to document the Exodus of 4,500 Jewish refugees from Nazi Concentration Camps seeking safety in the historic homeland of the Jewish people, Israel. The 'Exodus' was a last-gasp effort by the world's Jewish community to find a homeland for Europe's survivors of the Holocaust. British ships maintained a blockade along the coastline of palestine. They attempted to force the Exodus back to Europe and in the end, after stiff opposition by the Exodus crew and a watchful world press, rammed the Exodus and towed it to port in Haifa where they loaded the 4,500 refugees on three ships which were sent back to Europe. Ruth Gruber's photographs and news stories documenting that attempted landing in Haifa, helped focus the world's attention on the plight of these and other survivors of the camps and on the efforts of Jews to settle in palestine.

The State of Israel came into being on May 14, 1948. Am Israel Chai!

Dr. Gruber is the author of 19 books, including: The Ship that Launched the Nation; Exodus 1947; and, The Exodus of the Ethiopian Jews and Destination Palestine. Recipient of several awards and honors, including: the National Jewish Book Award; Distinguished Humanitarian and Journalism Prize; winner of the TCG American Spirit Award; and, the Cornell Capa Award - among hundreds of additional alcolades. She wrote: "We cannot forget what human beings can do to other human beings, and we have to prevent that."

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE EXODUS 1947:

Following World War II, Britain continued to limit Jewish immigration to Palestine. The Zionist factions united and conducted an underground war against the British, as well as applying pressure on the British government through the United States. In June of 1947, the British rammed the Jewish illegal immigrant ship Exodus 1947 (formerly "President Warfield") as it attempted to land in Haifa and towed it into port.

The ship was deliberately chosen because of its derelict condition. It was risky to put passengers on it. It had been felt this would compel the British to let it pass blockade. The President Warfield left Baltimore February 25, 1947 and headed for the Mediterranean. With Palmach (Haganah's military wing) skipper Ike Aronowicz as captain, and supervised by Haganah commissioner Yossi Harel as the operation's commander, it sailed under false orders and left at night with 4,515 passengers from the port of Sète, France, on July 11, 1947, and arrived at Palestine's shores on July 18. The British Royal Navy cruiser Ajax and a convoy of destroyers trailed the ship from very early in its voyage, and finally boarded it some 20 nautical miles (40 km) from shore. The Exodus had been purposely refitted to make boarding impossible with barriers and barbed wire along the top decks and steam hoses hooked to the boilers fitted for defense. Attempts had been made by the British to keep the Exodus from leaving France in the first instance and interception at sea was decided upon. The boarding by the British was difficult and had to be managed from the bridges of the destroyers and was challenged by the passengers and Haganah members on board. Two passengers and one of the crew, 1st mate William Bernstein, a U.S. sailor from San Francisco, died as a result of bludgeoning and several dozen others were injured before the ship was taken over.

In the end, the British rammed the Exodus and towed it to Haifa where it was the subject of extensive publicity, generating public sympathy for the Zionist cause. Once in the port of Haifa, its passengers were transferred to three more seaworthy deportation ships, Runnymede Park, Ocean Vigour and Empire Rival and these ships turned back to Europe, first to France. When the ships arrived at Port-de-Bouc near Marseilles on August 2, the French Government said it would allow disembarkation of the passengers only if it was voluntary on their part; the passengers would not disembark. The French refused to cooperate with British attempts at forced disembarkation. This left the British with the best option of returning the passengers to Germany.

The refugees were in a defiant mood. When they first set out on their historic quest, they had believed they were days away from arriving at a Jewish homeland. The prospect of being sent to camps in Germany represented a pitiful failure of their original mission and for many of the Holocaust survivors, it was almost impossible to bear. The British identified one of the ships, the Runnymede Park (the photograph in a Stitch in Jewish Time), as the vessel most likely to cause them trouble and indeed members of the Haganah on the Runnymede Park fought the British. The passengers of the three ships were eventually disembarked in Hamburg on August 22, which was then in the British occupation zone. Once in Hamburg, they were housed in Poppendorf and Am Stau camps, manned (once again) by Germans. At the camps, the treatment of the refugees caused an international outcry after it was claimed that the conditions could be likened to German concentration camps.

The incident set world opinion, and particularly US opinion against the British, and caused the British to intern illegal immigrants thereafter in Cyprus, rather than attempting to return them to Europe.

A full account of Exodus - 1947 can be found here:

http://www.zionism-israel.com/brief_zionism_history.htm.

When in Israel, one should make a visit to the Museum of the Illegal Immigration within Haifa's Marine Museum. The illegal immigration had begun in the 1930's and is an important chapter in the establishment of the modern State of Israel.

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