The Story Of Captain Of The Exodus 1947 And The Ultimate Fate Of The Historic Ship

Photo Credit: Saul Jay Singer

The basic story of the Exodus 1947 – also known as Yetziat Europa (“the exodus from Europe”) – is well known. Not as well known, however, is the fascinating story of its captain.

The Exodus, an old ferry boat originally called the President Warfield, became a symbol of Aliyah Bet (illegal immigration) – not to be confused with the Second Aliyah – as its famous voyage was designed to call the world’s attention to the plight of the hundreds of thousands of Jews left homeless in the aftermath of the Holocaust. In desperation, the Haganah paid for a dilapidated ship ready for the scrapheap that had been dormant for four years after sailing the waters between Baltimore and Norfolk.

The vessel sailed from the port of Sète (near Marseilles) on July 11, 1947, with 41 crew members (almost all American) and 4,515 passengers, mostly Holocaust survivors, aboard a ship designed to hold 400. On July 18, a veritable British armada rammed the ship in international waters just outside Eretz Yisrael and boarded her. The Jews mounted a spirited defense, but to no avail; two passengers and a crewman were killed, thirty were wounded, and the Exodus was towed to Haifa, where the passengers were forced onto deportation ships bound for France.

At Port-de-Bouc, the passengers remained in the ship’s holds for 24 days refusing to disembark despite a heat wave, a hunger strike, inhumane crowding, and abominable sanitary conditions. When the French government refused to force them off the boat, the loathsome British foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, in what proved to be a public relations catastrophe, decided to return the Jews to Germany, “the Land of the Final Solution” or, as one American newspaper headline fittingly characterized it, “Return to the Death Land.” On August 22, 1947, the ship left for Hamburg, where the Jews aboard were forcibly taken off the boat and transported to two DP camps.

Exhibited below is a very rare original Exodus 1947 Certificate issued in the Poppendorf, Germany exile camp. The interior reads

Holder of this No. _____ is a Maapil of “Exodus 1947;” he/she was brought by force to Germany from Haifa, and is in exile on his way back to Eretz-Israel.

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The fate of the Exodus and its crew commanded international attention, and journalists who covered the dramatic struggle described to the entire world the brutality of the British. Exhibited here is a stunning rarity, an original press telegram sent to the Daily Press in London by “Ginsburg,” an English journalist, upon the arrival of the Exodus in Haifa port:

Haifa refugee ship president Warfield renamed per refugees quote Exodus 1947 unquote was chased at finally boarded per units ex royal navy early morning [stop] when steaming into Haifa harbor at 1620 part of 4500 repeat 4500 immigrants stood on densely crowded upper deck singing Jewish national anthem [stop] Wooden superstructure had been heavily damaged during boarding when refugees resisted fiercely and suffered inflicted casualties to sailors but none fatal [stop] shortly after began transshipment to libership Ocean Vigour [note: one of the deportation ships to which deportees were transferred in Haifa port] one woman had died during journey per childbirth seemingly only fatal casualty [note: this was incorrect – there were three casualties – but the new-born son lived] between 1600 men 1300 women 1600 youngsters [stop] when transshipment was in full swing judge president exunscop at yougoslav (sic) representative quote Simich unquote [note: Stanoje Simich, Yugoslavian Foreign Minister] arrived to watch disembarkation which now proceeding smoothly more Ginsburg.

Broad public outrage later forced the British to change their policy, world condemnation forced them to turn the “Palestine question” over to the U.N., and the plight of the Exodus undoubtedly contributed to the U.N. vote in favor of partitioning of Eretz Yisrael and the birth of a Jewish state. Though many of refugees aboard the Exodus could not make aliyah until after the establishment of the State of Israel, most of them ultimately settled there.

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This broadside, intended only for Haganah members, explains that:

There is no doubt that the Mufti will try to use the Arab terror when he finds it prudent… [The Arabs] intend to create a situation of tension and riots… they want to ignite a fire of street brawls between Arabs and Jews to create a provocation that will sweep the country into bloody riots… in this situation, the Jewish community must act decisively, wisely, and with strict internal discipline. Do not allow criminals among the Arabs to commit crimes. But let’s not follow the provocation. Any act of blind revenge and injury, without discrimination, to peaceful Arab residents may only increase the fire and pour fuel on the fire… the first duty imposed on the Hebrew settlement is to increase security… Every Hebrew settlement – large and small – city, colony, and village should mobilize to fulfill the duty of guarding. Jewish honor, the security of the community, and the peace of the country depend on this…

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At the bottom of page 3 and continuing to page 4 (see exhibit), the broadside turns to the Exodus and extols the important contribution of the 4,500 Jewish refugees aboard the ship:

The Center of Our Struggle

There is no place in Europe for the Holocaust survivor… The standing of the illegal immigrants of the Exodus is central at this stage.

The British government intended to smash one of the main tools of the Zionist struggle – the clandestine immigration. Britain tried to prove that there is a place for Jews in Europe and that, given no choice, the Jews are willing to stay and take root there.

It tried to stop the flow of illegal immigrants through a shocking, severe, and decisive deportation. However, the heroic resistance of the 4,500 illegal immigrants [aboard the Exodus] has thwarted, at least for now, the government’s evil conspiracies for the Exodus and proved that the rest of the refugees know what their chances are in Europe. The 4,500 immigrants proved once again that the Jews have another origin – the Land of Israel, and so long as their souls remain within them, they will fight for their right to make aliyah…

The heroic stand of the refugees aroused public opinion in France and the whole world and resulted in the gathering of sympathy and identification (an extremely rare occurrence in recent times). The resistance of the refugees once again revealed to the world the problem of the Jews, tarnished the cruel behavior of Britain, and proved once again that the will to live of the Jewish people, which leveled the aliyah path for them, is a political factor that must be considered. At this stage of the political campaign, it was a substantive political act… No display of military force would have served our cause at this time as the fact of the illegals standing their ground fearlessly.

We still don’t know what the end of the affair will be and where the British government will lead them, but a few things can already be summarized:

Once again, the world is aware that Jews must and want to make aliyah to Eretz Yisrael… to the extent that the flow of immigrants persists and increases, it will be difficult for the British government to find a place for them…

Our battlefront, of Zionism and the people, spans seas, rivers, oceans, and continents. At the moment, we are attacking one point, at Fort de Boque. At the moment, the enemy is throwing all his power against this active force: against the obstacles to the Exodus.

That is where the focal point of our struggle is at the moment.

*****

Shown here is an incredibly rare photograph of the Exodus inscribed by its captain on the upper right: “To Michael, son of my old friend Nelly, from Ike (Yitzchak Aronowitz)”

Born in Lodz, Poland, Aronowitz (1923-2009) moved with his family first to Danzig and then to Eretz Yisrael (1933). He became a seaman at age 17 when, wanting to fight the Nazis but unwilling to join the Jewish Brigade because “the British gave us lousy jobs,” he stowed away on a Histadrut-owned Solel Boneh ship to Odessa. He planned to join the Russian Army there, but he was caught and returned home. Desperate to sail and to help the Jewish people, he bribed a fellow named Perlman to arrange for him to board a Palestinian ship sailing from Haifa to Tobruk (northern Libya) and, after sailing on various ships, he took officers’ courses in London. Upon his return to Eretz Yisrael (1942), he learned that the Palmach had launched a naval division called Palyam and, eager to join, he persuaded his friend Yitzchak Sadeh – who happened to be the co-founder of the Palmach and its first commander – to intercede on his behalf.

Aronowitz sailed as first mate aboard the President Warfield from Baltimore under a non-Jewish American captain who was paid off after crossing the Atlantic Ocean. A practiced seaman by Israeli standards – he had a whole eight months of sailing experience (!) – he was appointed captain of the Exodus at age 23 with Haganah codename “Ike.” After the ship set sail from France on July 11, 1947, the Haganah radioed the ship and ordered it to change its name to the “Exodus 1947.” Notwithstanding his lack of experience, Aronowitz proved to be a skilled and bold commander. Successfully avoiding detection by French authorities while sailing out of Marseille, he dangerously navigated through narrow channels at night and maneuvered in a port made for ships one tenth her size without the assistance of a tug (which the Exodus could not afford) and with no support from a heavily-bribed French pilot, who failed to appear.

Though Aronowitz had operational command of the Exodus, political command was under the Haganah’s man, Yossi Harel, whom Aronowitz, chafing under his interference, characterized as “a guy who didn’t even know what the inside of a ship looked like, let alone how it worked.” [Paul Newman’s character in the famous Otto Preminger movie was modeled after Harel.] The battle of leaders came to a head as the ship approached the coast of Eretz Yisrael and was cornered by the British navy. Harel urged surrender, but Aronowitz rebelled by, among other tactics, throwing cans of kosher corned beef at British seaman attempting to board. Three passengers were murdered, including an American crew member and a young Jew who was clubbed to death and died in Aronowitz’s bunk.

Aronowitz took control of the ship’s steering and planned to ground the Exodus at maximum speed on the soil of Eretz Yisrael and to free the refugees into the hands of Haganah fighters waiting for them. He explained how the ship was in no danger of sinking but Harel, who believed that the old hulk could not survive such a desperate maneuver, followed Ben-Gurion’s order to surrender, a decision that infuriated Captain Ike to his dying day. Aronowitz believed that Harel’s capitulation was the seminal event leading to the U.N. decision to divide Eretz Yisrael.

Within a year of the failed attempt by the Exodus to bring its Holocaust surviving passengers to their Jewish homeland, Aronowitz went on to captain another large illegal immigration ship called the Kibbutz Galuyot (“Ingathering of the Exiles”). After Israel’s War of Independence, he became a ship owner running lines to China, Singapore and Iran, continued to sail, and earned a master’s degree in business administration at Columbia University. From 1993 until his death, he lived in Zichron Yaakov, where his love of the sea manifested itself in the design of his home: he built a family residence shaped like a ship, including rooms in a row, a reproduction of a mast, and large windows offering a broad view of the Mediterranean.

Captain Ike strongly disapproved of Leon Uris’s famous novel which, though it became a legendary part of the founding mythology of Israel, was a fictionalized version that significantly altered important facts. When Uris was researching his novel (1956), he interviewed Aronowitz, who told him: “You’re a very gifted writer, but not a historian, and therefore it shouldn’t be you writing the history of the Exodus.” Uris was insulted but, as Aronowitz later told the press, “I turned out to be right” because “neither the book nor the movie had anything to do with reality… Exodus, shmexodus.”

The Exodus remained in Haifa harbor along with other refugee ships captured by the British until Abba Khoushi (born Schneller), the mayor of Haifa, figured out that he could promote broad interest in his city by turning the historic ship into a floating museum. However, as the commonly accepted story goes, it caught fire and burned shortly after (1952) – the cause disputed, but ultimately unknown – and the remaining shell was towed to Shemen Beach, where it was sunk; Aronowitz called it “the greatest tragedy of my life.”

On August 23, 1964, an Italian firm tried to retrieve the hulk of the ship for scrap metal, and a heart-rending photograph exists of Aronowitz watching the failed effort. In The Jews’ Secret Fleet (1987), authors Joseph M. Hochstein and Murray S. Greenfield report that soon after, a contractor to the Israel Port Authority raised the hulk and towed it to the River Kishon, where it was scrapped. According to an article by Brent Dibner, a respected Israeli Navy historian and philanthropist, some of the machinery of the Exodus was decomposing in Haifa’s municipal dump as late as 1975.

The original bell of the Exodus and an outstanding scale model of the vessel may be seen at the Maryland Jewish Museum in Baltimore; there is a marker to the ship at the city’s Inner Harbor promenade (dedicated 1997); and monuments to the ship may be found in other countries, including France, Italy, and even Germany. Incredibly, however, there was no memorial to the Exodus in Israel until July 18, 2017 (the 70^th anniversary of the British attack) when, through the efforts of Jerry Klinger, president of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, a monument was dedicated at Haifa port in a ceremony attended by some 150 Exodus passengers.

Klinger’s fascinating story begins with his effort to identify the precise location of Shemen Beach and to enlist support to erect a memorial to the ship there because, he believed, “the Exodus is too important a story to let simply slip beneath the waves.” However, after conducting extensive research, he was chagrined to discover that notwithstanding the iconic importance of the Exodus in Israel’s history and lore, no one could identify the location of the beach. (Klinger’s article on this subject, In Search of the Exodus, is a terrific read.)

Finally, after Klinger tracked down Brent Dibner, he was advised that Shemen Beach no longer exists due to landfill expansions in the Port of Haifa; that, in any case, the entire relevant coastline area is off limits to the public; and that a map he provided to Klinger marks the precise spot where the remains of the Exodus could be found. Klinger met with Ronen Zaretzky, an editor at Haaretz and a co-producer of The Sand and the Sea, a documentary about the reunion of two Israeli heroes, one of whom is Yitzchak “Ike” Aronowitz. In one of the final scenes of the film, Aronowitz stands at the bow of a small fishing boat sailing into Haifa harbor and, pointing to a pier, tells the helmsman, “It is there.”

After Aronowitz’s death, then-President Shimon Peres, noting that the Exodus set sail only because of Captain Ike’s leadership, courage, and tenacity, described him as not only the ship’s captain, but also as “its spirit” who “gave the voyage a special character” and who manifested great love for the Jewish people.

Finally, notwithstanding the failure of the Jewish refugees aboard the Exodus to gain entry to Eretz Yisrael, Jewish hopes and spirits remained undiminished. Exhibited here is the historic September 22, 1947 issue of Bamachaneh (“In the Military Camp”), which argues with great emotion that the failure of the Exodus to gain entry into Eretz Yisrael nonetheless advanced the interests of all refugee Jews seeking to make aliyah even in the face of British resistance and brutality.

The Exodus

The 4,500 of our Jewish brothers, the people of “the Exodus of Europe 1947” who today find themselves again in a German prison, were pushed back for now to their points of origin.

However, they are not an army or a military force that can make arrangements. True, the blow is hard, a long road of agony and efforts were experienced by the Exodus activists before they found themselves again behind the British barbed wire fences in Germany. But this matter does not loosen their hand and does not discourage them…

Our front is long, every Jew and every Jewish community around the world is part of it. This makes the campaign more difficult but, on the other hand, it guarantees our indomitable resilience. If we are also pushed back by a few points, it will only be a temporary retreat…

Our war will not be decided in one battle or several battles. Each of our steps, whether successful or repulsed, the second and third [attempts] will follow and on and on. Those who think that the conclusion of the Exodus struggle can only be summed up in the fact that the arrival of these immigrants to Eretz Yisrael was rudely rejected, they will still arrive, but for the time being they have given their strength to the clearing of the way, the way of aliyah to Eretz Yisrael, and in this their achievements are great and important…

All these are important steps, the real achievements and benefits. Except for the cruel fact that those 4,500 Jews were returned to their points of origin, the British government failed to gain any advantage in its latest “struggle.” Not a single Jew anywhere in the world will doubt whether to set out [to make aliyah] and no single voyage will be postponed because of this.

We have been repulsed in one section of our front – but the storm will emerge again from its trenches and go on the attack once again.

From the refugee camps in Germany, the path to aliyah to Eretz Yisrael will open again. The Exodus was indeed a cruel blow, but we achieved a political and moral victory…