Selected records from the State Archives of the Republic of Cyprus related to the Jewish emigration

Copyright Holder: Κρατικού Αρχείου The British occupied Cyprus became a strategic backwater until the early 1950s when it became Britain’s main Cold War military base in the eastern Mediterranean. Over 100,000 people attempted to illegally enter Palestine. There were 142 voyages by 120 ships. Over half were stopped by the British patrols. The Royal Navy had eight ships on station in Palestine, and additional ships were tasked with tracking suspicious vessels heading for Palestine. Most of the intercepted immigrants were sent to internment camps in Cyprus: (Karaolos near Famagusta, Nicosia, Dhekelia, and Xylotymbou). Some were sent to the Atlit detention camp in Palestine, and some to Mauritius. The British held as many as 50,000 people in these camps (see Jews in British camps on Cyprus). Over 1,600 drowned at sea. Only a few thousand actually entered Palestine. The pivotal event in the Ha'apala program was the incident of the SS Exodus in 1947. The Exodus was intercepted and boarded by a British patrol. Despite significant resistance from its passengers, Exodus was forcibly returned to Europe. Its passengers were eventually sent back to Germany. This was publicized, to the great embarrassment of the British government. One account of Aliyah Bet is given by journalist I. F. Stone in his 1946 book "Underground to Palestine", a first-person account of traveling with European displaced persons attempting to reach the Jewish homeland. Some 250 American veterans, including Murray Greenfield (of the ship Hatikva), from World War II volunteered to sail ten ships ("The Jews' Secret Fleet") from the United States to Europe to load 35,000 survivors of the Holocaust (half of the illegal immigrants to Palestine), only to be deported to detention camps on Cyprus. [Source: Wikipedia] Selected records of the British colonial administration of Cyprus related to the Jewish legal and illegal emigration to Cyprus, internment camps for Jews who had immigrated or attempted to immigrate to Mandatory Palestine in violation of British policy as well as other matters related to Jews, Polish and other refugees in Cyprus before, during and immediately after WWII. Includes passenger’s lists divided by particular SS ships (1934); a list of illegal Jewish emigrants on board of the Bulgarian SS Rudnichar (1940); registers and correspondence relating to acquisition of properties in Cyprus by Jews and Jewish companies; Italy Military records of the war crimes against British and Allied prisoners of war in Greece; Jewish immigration and settlement in Cyprus; lists of Jewish and Polish refugees evacuated from Cyprus; records on Jewish emigration to Palestine; the report of the Anglo-American Committee of inquiry regarding the problems of European Jewry and Palestine (1946); applications submitted to the Colonial Administration from Jewish entrepreneurs to open business in Cyprus; applications from displaced persons for assistance from UNRRA; correspondence re: food and other supplies for Jews interned in camps, illegal immigration of Jews, Jewish DP camps; trade with Israel, and civil aviation in Israel.