'Exodus' ship survivors sought, 60 years after tragic voyage
Sixty years ago this summer, the Exodus 1947 sailed from Marseilles, France, with 4,500 passengers, most survivors of the Holocaust, and began another horrific chapter in Holocaust-era history.
The refugees were bound for Palestine, then a British territory, and, a few miles from shore, the British Royal Navy boarded the ship and eventually deported the passengers to France. When they arrived back in Marseilles, the refugees refused to disembark. They went on a hunger strike and ended up in displaced-persons camps in Germany. It wasn't until 1948, and the creation of Israel, that some passengers made the journey they had started.
Yesterday the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum announced that it was returning to the Exodus story. The ship had no passenger manifest, so the museum, along with the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem and other agencies, is trying to compile a complete list of passengers from survivors and their families.
"The project is about honoring the survivors," said Michael Haley Goldman, acting director of the museum's Registry of Holocaust Survivors.
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The refugees were bound for Palestine, then a British territory, and, a few miles from shore, the British Royal Navy boarded the ship and eventually deported the passengers to France. When they arrived back in Marseilles, the refugees refused to disembark. They went on a hunger strike and ended up in displaced-persons camps in Germany. It wasn't until 1948, and the creation of Israel, that some passengers made the journey they had started.
Yesterday the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum announced that it was returning to the Exodus story. The ship had no passenger manifest, so the museum, along with the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem and other agencies, is trying to compile a complete list of passengers from survivors and their families.
"The project is about honoring the survivors," said Michael Haley Goldman, acting director of the museum's Registry of Holocaust Survivors.