[Page 160]

Map of Italy

The Jewish Brigade was deployed in Italy. As the British troops fought their way from Southern to Northern Italy, the Palestinian Haganah gave the order to the Jewish Brigade to be on the lookout for Italian Jewish survivors. Italy had a Jewish population of about 46,000 Jews prior to World War II. It is estimated that about 30,000 Italian Jews and 6,000 non–Italian Jews survived the war in Italy.^[1] These survivors, seeing the Star of David on the Jewish Brigade soldiers' shoulders, came out of hiding, ragged, hungry and desperate. The Jewish soldiers provided help and began to organize support systems, everything from small dispensaries to soup kitchens, all using British supplies and facilities. As was mentioned previously, many survivors were not Italian Jews and were now classified as D.P.s and placed in camps under UNRRA administration. They were soon joined by Jewish D.P. refugees who came from Germany and Austria led by the Brichah. By the summer of 1945, after the war's end in Europe, refugee figures were already changing drastically. From June to mid–August, 1945, 13,000–15,000 Jewish Displaced Persons, the so–called new refugees of Baltic and Polish origin arrived in Italy. Their number kept growing in spite of British objections. Britain considered every illegal Jew in Italy a potential immigrant to Palestine. The “blind eye” practice of the Italian border guards ensured that immigration of Jewish refugees continued. The Italian government knew that the refugees did not intend to stay in Italy. In 1945, about 15,000 Jewish refugees entered Italy. Between the late summer of 1945 and 1948, a total of about 50,000 refugees passed through the country. By the summer of 1950, there were only 2,000 Jewish D.P.s left in Italy.

The Italian government remained officially neutral while its officials in fact favored emigration to Palestine. To a large degree, humanitarian concerns seem to have dominated the Italian attitudes, a fact that partly explains why Italy became an open country for refugees. The humanitarian concerns may also explain the illegal immigration from Italy to Palestine, known by the Hebrew term Aliyah Bet, and perhaps also why the refugees tended to remember Italy in such a favorable light. Although Italy was in reality controlled by the Allied Commission, the British were so dominant that they could exert considerable pressure on the Italian authorities. Italians were warned of criminals among the refugees. Yet, despite the lip service paid to the importance of maintaining public order in Italy, all the British pressure was ultimately connected to the illegal immigration from Italy to Palestine, and the Italian government was requested to prevent Palestine–bound ships from leaving Italian shores and keep the refugees in Italy. In the same vein, Italy was pressed to pass legislation enabling the prosecution of Italian nationals who helped illegal immigrants and the departure of vessels from Italy.

The first conference of Jewish Displaced Persons in Italy took place in Rome as early as November, 1945, following elections that had been held in every part of Italy where Jewish refugees resided. A total of 140 delegates were elected. The practical aim of the conference was to establish a democratically elected committee in Rome with subcommittees in Milan, Florence, Rome and Bari. This committee would be in constant contact with relief agencies and had already started publishing the Yiddish weekly Baderech. The conference decided to survey the present situation of the approximately 15,000 Jewish D.P.s in Italy with the aim of speeding up the rehabilitation and emigration processes. Since refugee leaders sought to promote rehabilitation before emigration to Palestine, emphasis was placed on reeducation, training and cultural activities.

Meanwhile the Jewish Brigade continued to smuggle Jewish D.P.s to Italy. It also helped Jewish Italian institutions. The Palestinian Haganah now ordered the Brigade to move Jewish refugees from Northern Italy to the South where they would be able to board ships and head to Palestine. The Brigade was helped in this endeavor by the Mossad office headed by Shaul Avigur. The Jewish Brigade kept a close watch over the Jewish refugees and helped the Italian Jews to reestablish their communities.

Shaul Avigur, head of the Mossad or illegal aliyah to Palestine

Yehuda Arazi, Mossad representative in Italy

Shimshon Lang in a British uniform

Brichah activists meet in Tarvisio, Italy

By 1947, the Jewish D.P.s in Germany, Austria and Italy numbered 250,000. Between 1945 and 1950, around 40,000 Jewish Displaced Persons passed through the Italian peninsula. The precise number is difficult to estimate due to continuous new arrivals and departures, as Italy developed into a major assembly center for refugee emigration (both legal and clandestine) to Palestine. The majority of refugees entered Italy from the northeast border through the mountain passes (mainly the Brenner Pass), where they arrived with the help of the Brichah. The illegal departures for Palestine were then organized by the Italian section of Mossad. Between 1945 and May 1948, 34 illegal ships sailed from Italian shores to Palestine.

The main refugee resettlement center was located in Via Unione in Milan. This center was created with the support of Raffaele Cantoni, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, and it functioned from 1945 to 1947. From Via Unione, refugees were redirected to the various DP camps in Italy.

Bari Transit camp in Italy
Bagnoli
Bari
Barletta
Bologna
Casere
Chiari
Cinecitta'
Cremona
Genova
Grugliasco
Fermo
Jesi
Meran
Milano
Modena
Palese
Pontebba
Reggio Emilia
Rivoli
Santa Cesarea
Santa Maria al Bagno
Santa Maria di Leuca
Senigallia
Tricase
Trani

The D.P. camps were both “mixed camps,” where Jewish D.P.s cohabited with refugees from various nationalities, and separate Jewish camps. Many refugees also lived in “kibbutzim” or communal groups and training farms for potential farmers in Palestine of which there were more than 60 in Italy. Approximately 5,000 refugees were labeled as “out of camp D.P.s” and lived in private homes in the main cities. In addition, a few children's homes were created for orphans, such as the well–known Selvino D.P. camp for children.

The brigade at work

D.P. camps located near the Adriatic seaport of Bari were an important stage in illegal emigration to Palestine. ORT conducted extended activities in a number of camps in the area – including the Bari Transit Camp, Barletta, Palese and Andria. The Bari Transit Camp in Southern Italy opened in 1946. It was a large D.P. center with up to 1,500 inhabitants. The camp was known for its bad living conditions with significant shortages of food and living space. Resulting from a lack of appropriate premises, the first ORT classes established in Bari in January, 1948, were held in wooden sheds and buildings. In 1948, they were attended by over 100 students. Courses included cutting out of men's and women's clothes, shirt making, leather work and locksmith training.

A very important ORT school was established in 1947 in a large D.P. camp located near the city of Barletta. In 1948, eight training courses with 276 students were in operation in the camp. The trades taught included cutting, shirt making, mechanical knitting, auto mechanics, cutting of shoe uppers and leather goods. There was also a school for mechanical agriculture that by mid–1948 trained 187 agricultural mechanics. In a children's workshop, a group of 37 children from the local Jewish school was preparing for agriculture education by learning basic gardening, poultry rearing and rabbit breeding. From 1949, Barletta remained the last camp for Jewish D.P.s and the center of ORTs work with displaced persons.

Food line at Bari camp in Italy

Bari transit camp New Year card

Barrietta was a transit D.P. that handled the overflow of other Jewish D.P. camps.

The D.P. camp in Cremona, in northern Italy, was one of the largest centers for displaced persons in Italy. It housed over 1,000 refugees, the majority of whom were Jewish, many of them getting into the camp after illegally crossing the Austrian border. The refugee center was located in former school housing and was badly overcrowded. The vocational school in Cremona was one of the first post–war ORT establishments in Italy, opening in late 1946. Despite difficult living conditions in the camp, the school was known to be particularly successful. In February, 1948, it trained 108 students who attended courses in dressmaking, locksmith training, carpentry, electrical installation and radio technology. The camp closed in March, 1947, and the school was moved to southern Italy.

Cremona Jewish DP school

The first Jewish DP camp in Italy after the war.[5]The camp was soon closed since there was no room. The camp was near the border and Jews arrived constantly from Austria.

The Brichah established the camp to receive the overflow of Jewish D.P.s from other Italian D.P. camps

Milan was a post World War II displaced person camp in the city of Milan, one of the few such camps in a major Italian city. The city also served as the administrative center for refugees in northern Italy. .The camp housed 1,100 Jewish refugees, many of whom came from Austria along the illegal emigration routes organized by the Bricha. Milan placed more emphasis on education than the nearby Adriatica camp, setting up a secular school and a yeshiva religious school, and sharing kosher beef with the camp at Cremona .

Camps around Rome constituted the administrative center of D.P. life in Italy. ORT conducted extensive work in the area with a number of large schools in the Italian capital and the surrounding camps. Work was also conducted in many training farms around the city.

Rome was the city with the largest Jewish community in Italy and the administrative center of Jewish refugees in Italy. In order to best fulfill the needs of the local population, ORT's courses in Rome were aimed at both D.P.s and Italian Jews. In 1948, the ORT trade school in the city had 253 students and ran courses in knitting, embroidery, sewing, tailoring and dress cutting. Training for mechanics, television technicians, secretaries and salesmen was conducted in the building in Via San Francisco di Sales. A school for radio technology was organized in collaboration with the state school for radio technology. A very successful ladies' hairdressing course was run at Via Sistina. An important undertaking was a school for needle trade that was attended by 50 girls aged 13 onwards. Alongside vocational training, pupils from this school received instruction in general subjects such as mathematics, Hebrew, Italian and Jewish history. Most of the students were orphans or came from very poor Italian–Jewish families. ORT schools in Rome also ran examinations for D.P.s who were educated before the war and needed appropriate certificates to undertake professional work. In July, 1948, ORT reported from Rome about the development of the course in mechanical knitting:

“This school, which has one of the first institutions in this area, is now (April, 1947) rapidly approaching its end. The students of the fifth course are now in the last stages of their training, and will undergo examinations at the end of June.

“Good news was received from former students of the school, who could successfully resettle as independent artisans in Italy, Australia, Paraguay, and France. During the last two months, 31 students have received their diplomas. The 12 machines at our disposal permitted training of three student groups divided into three shifts of three hours each. The necessary wool for practical exercises was mainly furnished by IRO, for which many items such as pullovers, women's caps, scarves etc. have been manufactured. The course in knitted confection is about to start training a third group of pupils. It is interesting to notice that the pupils of this course are mainly wives or sisters of the students of the mechanical knitting course. Many of these family groups will certainly resettle as independent artisans in the countries to which they will emigrate.”

Outside Rome, ORT worked primarily in two large camps. The D.P. camp in Cinecitta, located in the film studios complex in southeast Rome, was the administrative capital for D.P.s in Italy and the largest Jewish D.P. community in the country. The ORT school in Cinecitta had, in early 1948, an enrollment of 167 students who trained in cutting men's and women's garments, dressmaking, machine knitting, knitting, confectionery and building trades.

ORT's work in the camp in Grottaferrata, a small town near Rome, started in 1947. Its many vocational schools and training workshops ran courses in mechanical knitting, dressmaking, dental mechanics, leather works, watch–making and building. There was also a workshop for the manufacturing of knitted garments established especially to train girls and women from the families of students training in mechanical knitting. The school was attended by, on average, 200 students.

Cinecittá Jewish refugee camp in Rome, Italy Circumcision ceremony of a non–Italian Jewish boy. Holding the child is Reuben B. Resnik, director of the JDC in Italy in 1945. (Yad Vashem Archives)

ORT's school in the community of Anzio, 50 kilometers south of Rome, was training 70 students in maritime trades. There was also an agricultural school as well as carpentry, mechanical and electric installation courses. The school was liquidated in September, 1948, after all its students had graduated. ORT's operation in Ladispoli near Rome started in the summer of 1947. In February, 1948, the school trained 16 students as plumbers.

In the summer of 1947, ORT started operating in Nemi, southeast of Rome, a training workshop for dressmaking with 24 students from the Hashomer Hatzair kibbutz. The school in Ostia trained 15 students in February, 1948, in cutting out men's garments and 11 students in cutting out women's garments.

The camp was located near Travis. It was created by the Jewish Brigade to absorb the Jewish refugees from the East. The Brigade was located in the area and was familiar with the landscape and passage routes. They frequently led the Jewish refugees to the camp. They were then smuggled into the Modena D.P. camp.

Santa Maria del Bagno (Santa Maria al Bagno) was the largest D.P. camp in southern Italy. Established in 1943, the camp housed 2,300 Jewish refugees at its peak in early 1946. The exclusively Jewish camp was dispersed over three sites in requisitioned villas in the fishing village of di Bagni. Like other D.P. camps in southern Italy, di Bagni received an influx of Jewish refugees after UNRRA dissolved the illegal Betar group kibbutz, and introduced a highly organized and politically active subpopulation into the camp. Di Bagni's population rose from 771 in March, 1945, to 2,277 by January, 1946, making it the most influential of the southern Italian D.P. camps. As the administrative center for many illicit Israeli immigration schemes, on April 11, 1946, the camp committee organized a 2,000–person hunger strike in protest of British limitations on immigration to Palestine. “It is the foundation of rights of humanity for everybody to have the possibility and the right to return home,” the di Bagni committee wrote to British authorities. The camp committee disseminated information to D.P.s by posting a weekly World Bulletin, culled from American and British radio news that was distributed among the four southern Italian camps.

With 258 children aged 10 to 18, in March, 1946, Santa Maria di Bagni had a sizable youthpopulation, and two schools were established in the camp –– a semi–independent kefar ha–noar (youth village) hosted classes, sports, work and lectures solely for youth, achieving remarkable progress despite a lack of supplies, books and games. In addition, approximately 20 students attended nearby Italian schools. Adult education at di Bagni included classes in Hebrew and English, as well as training in tailoring, cutting and electrical science. The camp theater group performed “on a very high level” according to the Joint Distribution Committee, which praised the dramatic troupe as the model for other Italian D.P.s. The camp's Macabi sports team held several matches with Italian teams in nearby Lecce. A kosher kitchen accommodated the camp's Orthodox Jews, while the Joint Distribution Committee supplemented the rations provided by UNRRA and the IRO to make the refugees' diets adequate.

The only mixed (Jewish and non–Jewish) D.P. camp in Italy was located in the fishing and resort town of Santa Maria di Leuca. Even though the Joint Distribution Committee estimated the capacity of the camp to be 1,800 D.P.s, the population regularly exceeded that figure. The camp was split: half were unaffiliated D.P.s and half were members of the camp's kibbutzim, principally the separate community of Kibbutz Aviv. All the D.P.s lived in requisitioned villas that had been the summer homes of wealthy Italians. As in the nearby D.P. camp of Santa Maria di Bagni, di Leuca boasted an exceptional theater troupe and a children's school. Though vocational training was criticized at di Leuca for lagging behind other D.P. camps, the camp's soccer team acquired a good reputation in the southern Italian D.P. camps.

The village of Selvino in the Italian Alps housed approximately 800 Jewish children orphaned following the Shoah. The children lived in a large, former fascist children's home, Sciesopoli, where they were instructed in general education as well as in Jewish culture and Hebrew language. The initial group of the orphans was collected by Raffaele Cantoni, a prominent figure in the Italian pre–war community and his staff from Italian convents and monasteries where they were hiding during the war. Later, more children began to arrive, including the newly liberated children from the concentration camps and those who survived the war hiding in forests in Eastern Europe. Many of the children were smuggled through the border from D.P. camps by the Jewish Brigade. The school was overseen by Moshe Ze'iri. a member of the Jewish Brigade who ran it like a kibbutz with a strict set of rules.

The camp was maintained by UNRRA, the Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Agency of Palestine. Most members of the teaching staff were Palestinian soldiers. Many training programs were initiated at Selvino to provide the youngsters with some skills or trades.

New Year card from Selvino

The Selvino dining room

ORT ran its courses in a number of camps in the region: in the large refugee camp in Rivoli, the Avigliana Home of Youth Aliyah, Nichelino, Lucento, Grugliasco and Trani. Turin was the first stop for many Jewish refugees who came from Austria. The camp was constantly over–populated, housing at times almost 2,000 D.P.s. Despite that, the camp was known for having one of the best–developed communities of all the camps in Italy. It was, for example, the only D.P. camp in Italy to have its own newspaper. In March, 1948, ORT established a successful trade school for building construction. In the field of construction, the inhabitants of the camp could also attend courses for plumbing and tinsmith training. They were attended by over 300 students. In the big children's workshop, some 100 children of camp inhabitants attended pre–vocational manual work after–school courses.

In the Grugliasco camp, ORT opened in February, 1948, a school that had 190 students and ran courses in dressmaking, mechanical knitting, corsetry, shirt making, upholstery, cutting out of men's garments and children's workshops for 40 students. Six months later, courses in welding, tinsmith training as well as dental mechanics were added to the curriculum. There was also an ORT building construction school and a children's workshop with boys working with cardboard and girls learning knitting and embroidery.

In 1948 a school for divers opened in the seaside camp of Trani. The students received full theoretical and practical training and were examined on their progress by Italian naval officers. They were later expected to serve in the Israeli Navy.

The Avigliana Home of Youth Aliyah, located in a small town near Turin, housed a large ORT training workshop which opened in late 1946. The school ran courses in metal work and joinery, which in February, 1948, were attended by 30 students. An agriculture school in Avigliana trained, in mid–1947, 25 pupils, members of Hahulatz movement. The school had eight hectares of land with a large garden and orchard. Students also trained in the neighboring vineyard. Varied activities included wheat and grain cultivation and truck gardening. The students learned dairy farming, as well as cattle, poultry and rabbit breeding.

There was also an ORT building construction school and a children's workshop with boys working with cardboard and girls learning knitting and embroidery.

Ships that left Italy illegally were:

August 28, 1945, the Italian fishing vessel Dalin left Italy carrying 35 immigrants and landed at Caesarea , Palestine.
September 4, 1945, the Natan left Italy carrying 79 immigrants and landed in Palestine. On its return trip to Italy, it carried seamen and radio operators from the Palmach and Jewish Agency emissaries to Italy.
September 9, 1945, the Gabriela left Italy carrying 40 passengers and arrived in Palestine.
September 17, 1945, the Peter left Italy carrying 168 immigrants and landed in Palestine.
October 1, 1945, the Natan again left Italy and landed in Palestine.
October 22, the Natan left Italy and landed in Palestine with 174 passengers.
November 23, 1945, the Berl Katznelson, carried 220 Jewish refugees to Palestine.
December 14, 1945, the Hannah Senesh, carried 252 passengers, to Palestine.
January 17, 1946, the Enzo Seren – carrying 908 passengers, was intercepted.
On March 13, 1946, the schooner Winga, carrying 248 passengers, was intercepted.
On March 27, 1946, the steamer Tel Hai, carrying 736 passengers, was intercepted.
On May 13, 1946, the ship Max Nordau, carrying 1,754 immigrants, was intercepted.
On May 13, 1946, the Dov Hos (675 passengers) landed with permits.
On May 13, 1946 Eliyahu Golomb (735 passengers) landed with permits. Both ships were involved in the La Spezia case.
On June 8, 1946, the Haviva Reik, carrying 462 passengers, was intercepted.
On August 11, 1946, the Yagur, carrying 758 passengers, was intercepted.
On August 12, 1946, the Henrietta Szold, carrying 536 passengers, was intercepted.
On August 13, 1946, the Katriel Jaffe with 604 passengers was intercepted.
On August 13, 1946, the Twenty Three with 790 passengers was intercepted.
On August 16, 1946, the yawl Amiram Shochat, carrying 183 passengers, landed in Palestine.
On September 2, 1946, the Dov Hos, this time named the Arba Cheruyot, carrying 1,024 passengers, was intercepted.
On September 22, 1946, the brigantine Palmach, 611 passengers, was intercepted.
On October 20, 1946, the Eliahu Golomb, renamed the Braha Fuld, carrying 806 passengers, was intercepted.
On October 19, the Latrun (1,279 passengers) was intercepted.
On November 9, 1946, the HaKedosha (600 passengers) foundered in a gale and sank. The passengers were rescued by the Knesset Israel. The Knesset Israel, carrying a total of 3,845 passengers, was intercepted.
On December 5, 1946, the Rafiah (785 passengers), was wrecked on Syrina Island in bad weather. The survivors were rescued by two Royal Navy warships and one Greek warship, and were taken to Cyprus. Women and children were taken to Palestine.[11]
On February 9, 1947, the wooden brigantine Lanegev (647 passengers) was intercepted.
On February 17, 1947, the steamer HaMapil HaAlmoni (807 passengers) was intercepted.
On February 27, 1947, the Haim Arlosoroff (1,378 passengers) was intercepted.
On March 9, 1947, the Ben Hecht (597 passengers) was intercepted.
On March 12, 1947, the Shabtai Luzinsky (823 passengers) landed in Palestine.
On March 30, 1947. the Moledet (1,588 passengers) developed a list and suffered engine failure some 50 miles outside Palestinian waters and issued an SOS. Passengers were transferred to the destroyers HMS Haydon and HMS Charity, minesweeper HMS Octavia and frigate HMS St. Brides Bay, and the Royal Navy towed Moledet to Haifa.
On April 13, 1947, the Theodor Herzl (2,641 passengers) was intercepted.
On April 23, 1947, the Shear Yashuv (768 passengers) was intercepted.
On May 17, 1947, the Hatikva (1,414 passengers) was intercepted.
On May 23, 1947, the Mordei Hagetaot, carrying 1,457 immigrants, was intercepted.
On May 31, 1947, the Haganah ship Yehuda Halevy, carrying 399 immigrants, was intercepted.
On July 28, 1947, the 14 Halalei Gesher Haziv, carrying 685, was intercepted.
On July 28, 1947, the Shivat Zion, carrying 411 Jews, was intercepted.
On September 27, 1947, the Af Al Pi Chen (434 passengers), was intercepted.
On October 2, 1947, the Medinat HaYehudim (2,664 passengers) was intercepted.
On October 2, 1947, the Geulah, with 1,385 passengers, was intercepted.
November 15, 1947, the Peter, renamed the Aliyah and carrying 182 passengers, landed.
November 16, 1947, the Kadima, carrying 794 immigrants, was intercepted.
December 4, 1947, the HaPortzim with 167 passengers landed in Palestine.
December 22, 1947, the Lo Fafchidunu (884 passengers) was intercepted.
December 28, 1947, the 29 BeNovember (680 passengers) was intercepted.
January 1, 1948, the HaUmot HaMeuhadot (537 passengers) landed.
January 1, 1948, the Kibbutz Galuyot (7,557 passengers) was intercepted.
January 31, 1948, the 35 Giborei Kfar Etzion (280 passengers) was intercepted.
February 12, 1948, the Yerushalayim Hanezura (679 passengers) was intercepted.
On February 28, 1948, the Bonim v'Lochamim, formerly the Enzo Sereni, (982 passengers) was intercepted.
On March 29, 1948, the Yehiam (771 passengers) was intercepted.
On April 12, 1948, the Tirat Zvi (817 passengers) was intercepted.
On April 24, 1948, the Mishmar HaEmek (782 passengers) was intercepted.
On April 26, 1948, the Nakhson (553 passengers) was intercepted.

Footnotes

1. Zertal, Idith, From Catastrophe to Power:, University of California Press, 1998.40–49. Return
2. Szulc, Alliance, ppp91–100 Return
3. Ibid Return
4. Ibid., p.91 Return

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