Atlit

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Located on the Mediterranean coast, about 15 miles south of Haifa, Atlit served as a detention camp for Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe who arrived on Israel’s shores during the British Mandate. Established in the 1930s, the camp was set up by the British to appease the Arab population. Built with barbed wire, the men were separated from the women. They had to strip, were sprayed with DDT and entered showers, reminders of Europe. Many thousands of Jews were interned at Atlit, some staying for as long as two years.

In November 1940, the British decided to send 5000 “illegals” to Mauritius, an island on the southeast coast of Africa. A disaster ensued when a bomb placed by the Haganah in the hold of the ship Patria to keep it from sailing, proved to be too powerful when detonated. Two hundred and sixteen of the 1800 refugees on board drowned. The survivors were taken to Atlit and released a few months later. The camp was temporarily shut down between 1942 and 1945, when it was reopened to handle Holocaust survivors. In a raid planned by Yitzhak Rabin and implemented by the Palmach (the elite wing of the Haganah) on October 10, 1945, 200 detainees broke out of Atlit. From that point onward, the British sent the Jewish illegal immigrants to camps in Cyprus, which operated until the establishment of the State. At that point, Atlit was used as a detainee camp for Arabs and later for Egyptian POWs in 1967.

Today, on the site of the Atlit detention facility there is a museum which tells this dramatic story and features exhibits such as a model of the original camp, and a ship that is similar in size and appearance to one the illegal immigrants might have arrived on. This is a worthwhile stop next time you are in the Haifa area.

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