​This is a black and white photograph of a group of Jews who are attempting to leave Europe in 1945. The group is made up of men, women, and children, and they all seem quite young. Some are standing and some are sitting, and their possessions, in suitcases or bundles, are scattered around them. A little girl is sitting on a suitcase in the centre of the photograph. Many of the men are wearing caps and jackets. Garments or sheets are hanging on fences next to the group. In the background is a house and an open field.

This group of people were part of the Bricha movement who were trying to leave Europe and immigrate to pre-state Israel after the Holocaust.

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Bricha Movement – Bricha (literally meaning “escape”) refers to the organised underground efforts to help hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors immigrate to Israel. The British, who governed Israel at the time, had instituted strict quotas which allowed the immigration of only 18,000 Jews a year. Those who could not get official certificates allowing them to enter legally attempted to enter secretly. Some were successful in landing in Israel without detection, but most of the ships were intercepted and the passengers were interned in detention camps in Cyprus or in Atlit. This was a time when Jews were not only prevented from legally immigrating to Israel but also prevented from leaving Eastern and Central European countries. Led by Abba Kovner and financed by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Bricha managed to smuggle more than 250,000 survivors from Eastern Europe to DP camps and from there to Israel on the clandestine Aliyah Bet ships.