This is a photograph of European Jews escaping to pre-State Israel in 1945 with the Ha'Bricha organisation. The photograph shows eight people, presumably Jews, of all different ages, walking uphill in single file in a dense forest. They are all dressed in clothing that looks warm but not necessarily suitable for walking in a forest. Some are carrying suitcases or bags, while others are holding hands to help each other.
From the origin of this photograph collection we know that these are Jews escaping from Nazi-occupied Europe. Throughout World War II, Jews attempted to escape their fate under the Nazis and reach neutral countries such as Spain and Switzerland or countries that had not yet been captured by the Nazis. The borders to these countries were, however, closed to the Jews, and crossings took place clandestinely on foot, across dangerous paths, and often without suitable clothing or equipment.
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Ha’Bricha – Ha’Bricha ( “The Escape” in Hebrew) was an underground network set up in 1944 by the Mossad L’Aliyah Bet (a branch of the Haganah that helped Jews to immigrate illegally to Israel at the time of the British Mandate). Its goal was to help Holocaust survivors and displaced persons reach safety in Israel. Initially Ha’Bricha smuggled thousands of Jews across the Polish borders with Czechoslovakia and Hungary to Prague and Budapest. Later, the organisation helped Holocaust survivors from DP camps immigrate to Israel. Ha’Bricha became the main conduit for Jews immigrating to Israel, assisted by the Jewish Brigade, a Jewish unit of the British Army, and the Haganah, an underground movement set up to fight the British Mandate in pre-state Israel. Between August 1945 and June 1946, over 48,000 Jews left Poland with the help of the Ha’Bricha movement. At least 90,000 more are believed to have left after July 1946. About 150,000 Jews arrived in DP camps with the help of Ha’Bricha.
Aliyah Bet – Aliyah Bet refers to the clandestine movement to bring immigrants from Europe to British Mandate Palestine from 1934 until the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. In the years leading up to, during, and after the Holocaust, Jews in Europe sought to escape the Nazis by immigrating to Israel. At the same time, the British Mandate authorities restricted Jewish immigration due to their concern that large-scale immigration to Israel would disturb the delicate status quo between the Jewish and Arab populations. The situation became even more dire when the British issued the White Paper in 1939, restricting immigration to 75,000 over five years.”. The British quota denied thousands of fleeing Jews the right to immigrate legally to Israel, thus denying them a much-needed safe haven. The so-called illegal immigrants were called ma’apilim, and they were brought to Israel by organisations such as the Jewish Agency, the Haganah and Betar who chartered ships and organised clandestine illegal voyages to Israel. The British intercepted many of the ships and detained the refugees in detention camps in Cyprus and Atlit. In total, more than 70,000 Jews arrived during the Aliyah Bet on 100 ships. Another 50,000 immigrants did not succeed and were detained by the British, to be released only with the establishment of the State of Israel.
Aliyah — The Hebrew term “aliyah” refers to the act of moving to the Land of Israel. Jews have made aliyah throughout the course of Jewish history, but the concept of aliyah was revamped in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There were five initial waves of aliyah that began in 1882 and ended when the State of Israel was established in 1948. After 1948, there were major waves of aliyah including Holocaust survivors fleeing post-war Europe and Jews escaping persecution in Arab countries. Within three and a half years, the population of Israel had doubled. In 1949 alone, around 250,000 people arrived in Israel – the largest number of immigrants until today. Many arrived from displaced persons (DP) camps and from British detention camps in Cyprus. The immigrants from Arab countries mostly arrived as part of special operations evacuating communities that were in grave danger, such as Operation Magic Carpet from Yemen (1949–1950) and Operation Ezra and Nehemia from Iraq (1951–1952). Today, Jews make aliyah from countries all over the world with the help of various agencies and organisations.
