Aliyah Bet was the effort to bring Jews by sea to the country despite British immigration restrictions. From 1945 to 1948, Jewish organizations helped Holocaust survivors and other displaced Jews travel from Europe, but British forces intercepted most of the ships. The Exodus 1947 became the best-known case when its passengers were forcibly returned to Germany.
Why refugees sailed
After the Holocaust, hundreds of thousands of Jewish survivors remained displaced in Europe. Britain continued to enforce immigration limits, and the United States and other countries also maintained restrictive entry policies. The Brihah network moved Jews from eastern Europe to Allied zones and displaced-persons camps; Haganah organizers arranged many sea voyages. The USHMM history of Aliyah Bet notes that Britain intercepted more than 90 percent of refugee ships and held over 50,000 refugees in Cyprus camps by 1948.
What happened to the Exodus
In July 1947, over 4,500 Jewish refugees sailed from Sète, France, aboard the ship renamed Exodus 1947. British destroyers intercepted it before it reached the coast. On July 18, passengers resisted the boarding; a Jewish crew member and two passengers were killed, and dozens were injured. British forces took the passengers to Haifa and transferred them to ships bound for France. When French officials would not force them ashore, Britain transported them to Hamburg and interned them in camps in its German zone administered by Britain. The USHMM account of the Exodus documents the voyage and return. The incident drew international attention to the plight of Jewish refugees, as the museum’s postwar refugee history explains.
The ships operated amid the 1939 restrictions described in the White Paper account.