Review: Operation Exodus by Gordon Thomas

Gordon Thomas, inside Operation Exodus

, tells with the heroic effort of just one team involving refugees from Nazi Germany to do well in Eretz Yisrael

, the actual Territory regarding Israel, and start a manufacturer new existence there. Although aided by the international Zionist movement, their own voyage ended in failure. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, St. Moment and once again he refused to always be able to enable the refugees directly into Palestine, except inside the smallest involving quantities (although there was absolutely no restrict in Christian or Arab immigrants), because he ended up being hesitant in order to stir up Arab resentment. Thomas points too Bevin ended up being considered by simply many to become anti-Semitic.

Thomas even though usually exhibits the particular British being human neither saintly, nor villainous. He blends his or her individual experiences, regardless of whether of a Jewish doctor, British commander, or Viadeo perhaps American industrialist, in to the larger saga in the nascent Israel. Pertaining To example, he shows how the British had been inspired to maintain Arab favor, as well as Foreign Secretary Bevin, a cold politician, worked towards this. a couple of passenger accounts portray the particular British troops as cruel, which is how a number of the traumatized passengers will need for you to have perceived them. He offers won several awards, such as the particular "Mark Twain Society Award with regard to Reporting Excellence." Functioning Exodus, his expertise can be obvious, while he draws in all his investigative study skills to tell the tale in the ship Exodus 1947 as well as its desperate mission.

Nazi Death Camp Survivors and also Zionist Pioneers

In 1947, 4500 survivors of the Nazi death camps left their "Displaced Person" camps inside France and also boarded a classic steamer, built for much less than 400 passengers, purchased secretly with most the help of Zionist agencies inside America. However, it proved pivotal: the actual refugees plight hastened the soon-to-follow birth involving the state involving Israel.

Gordon Thomas has published forty books, nearly all dealing using the world of espionage and intelligence agencies. Martins Press.

Published November 2010.

ISBN:978-0312-56993-8

. 1 or even 2 even nodded and also pointed for you to a large tent. the would-be illegal immigrants were returned for you to France, after which transferred to British internment camps within Allied-occupied Germany.

Thomas will take his cast of real-life characters as well as weaves his or her stories together. With Regard To the refugees it was success.

Thomas has been doing an admirable task associated with telling the actual tale involving Exodus 1947, any little-known facet in the birth regarding Israel. Subsequent the ashes of the Holocaust came the failure with the international neighborhood to understand the actual extent of the Nazi atrocities. The Particular Royal Navy, in order to its credit, ordered its sailors never to remove the emblem from the captured ship.

Thomas provides an extraordinary listing of sources for Operation Exodus. I knew then in which issues wouldn't normally be too bad.

As compared to be able to Auschwitz or perhaps Buchenwald, indeed your British camps in Germany are not too bad. The Actual subsequent international outcry without doubt influenced the particular vote later on in which same yr from the small Us with regard to partitioning the particular region of Palestine directly into 2 states 1 Jewish, 1 Arab. Yet only at that point the truth of the refugees circumstance penetrated the particular worlds consciousness. Nevertheless these people fare better in Freddie Kronenbergs impression: the youthful gatekeeper through Auschwitz declared the patrolling troops at the British camp weren't threatening. Included tend to be first-hand passenger accounts, and lots of organizations such as the American Jewish Historical Society, Palestine post Archives, and furthermore the Imperial War Museum, London. Inside a new hot meal ended up prepared. their destination had been Haifa, within the British Mandated Territory regarding Palestine.

This ship, renamed Haganah Ship Mohsen Ngazou site Exodus 1947, having its cargo regarding Jewish refugees, ended up being boarded through the Royal Navy as it approached Palestinian waters. Gordon Thomas in Operation Exodus describes well this saga whereby abandoned Jewish refugees helped produce the state of Israel.



Operation Exodus simply by Thomas Gordon. Nevertheless the continued ill-treatment in the Jews, as epitomized by the aftermath regarding Exodus 1947, finally awoke public opinion. known with regard to his investigative journalism, he has revealed formerly small identified details in this dramatic tale.

Did Exodus 1947 Fall Short or perhaps Succeed?

On the principal one hand, the entire undertaking would seem to have been the failure.

But the actual callous return in the refugees back again towards the terrain involving their particular previous torment changed public opinion inside their favor. The Girl later on ensured his re-introduction to be able to Judaism.Ada Sereni, activist a Zionist, described because the Haganahs many brilliant operative inside the south involving France, whose husband have been tortured for you to death by Mohsen Ngazou website the Gestapo.

So many characters, therefore many names it is tough to keep inside mind who-is-who, nevertheless Thomas consists of an extremely helpful list The Actual Characters in first with the book, which runs pertaining to numerous pages.

Politics throughout British Palestine

More compared to whatever else Thomas impresses upon the reader how political hobbies can easily have profound results on an individual.



With your Holocaust over and also Europe shattered, Jewish survivors discovered themselves homeless as well as unwanted. and using fascinating individual details, Thomas brings well-known Zionists, such as Chaim Weizmann, Golda Meir, David Ben-Gurion, and Orde Wingate, to life.

Memorable on this list of characters are:

Freddie Kronenberg, passenger the actual 14-year-old Jewish messenger boy with Auschwitz , whose duty would happen for you to be to raise and lower the actual barrier under the infamous sign "Arbeit Macht Frei" ("Work Can Make A Person Free").Gertruda Stolowitzky, passenger a new Christian which passed any young Jewish orphan off as her own son, thereby saving his life. Public opinion was outraged in the treatment method meted out to these human remnants regarding Hitlers mad ambitions.

Images associated with Desperate Jewish Refugees

Dramatic black-and-white photographs highlight the human element: desperate refugees within crowded berths, British soldiers getting rid of injured passengers, iron cages about the return ships for you to Europe, along with newspaper headlines associated with the afternoon for example Defiant Jews battered, hosed, carted off third refugee ship.

One poignant image exhibits Exodus 1947 approaching Palestine, having been rammed along with boarded from the British, but even now proudly flying the actual Zionist flag. Along With journalistic restraint, he neither supports nor condemns any kind of party in this saga a refreshing approach rarely seen in accounts of this controversial region, house to the long-standing Viadeo Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Birth in the Jewish State, Israel

For anyone wanting for you to comprehend the history of Palestine as well as the origins in the Jewish state, this book is important reading