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[Page 181]
Cyprus
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The Island of Cyprus Detention Camps
The British government was determined to persist with the continuation of the White Paper policy, namely no Jews were to be allowed to enter Palestine.The Palestinian Jews and the Jewish survivors in the D.P. camps in Germany, Austria and Italy refused to abide by British rules and sent illegal ships packed with Jewish refugees to Palestine. In 1945, the Mossad sent 20 illegal ships with 5,422 people[1]. Some of them succeeded in landing their passengers in the Holy Land while others were caught and placed in the Atlit detention camp that was opened in the 1930s to detain illegal immigrants. The camp was surrounded with barbed wire and watchtowers. On October 20, 1945, the Palmach special strike forces of the Haganah stormed the camp and liberated 200 Jews who were dispersed among Jewish settlements in the area.
Mandatory Palestine realized the futility of detention camps in Palestine.The British cabinet discussed various plans to deal with the illegal immigrants. The decision was made to send them to Cyprus.The Cyprus British officials were not pleased with the decision but had to follow the government order. The local population consisted of Greeks and Turks who were not terribly happy with the British colonial administration. Primitive camps were set up in great haste. On August 13, 1946, the first transport of Jewish refugees arrived at Famagusta, Cyprus.[2] The refugees were driven to Camp Number 55 under military escort. The entire operation was kept secret and the press was not allowed to record the event. The British government was certain that this act would stop or reduce the flow of illegal ships. The opposite happened; the number and size of the illegal ships increased. The Jewish Agency of Palestine refused to co–operate with the British authorities, claiming that the refugees were coming home and should not be deported. A total of 12 camps were opened in Cyprus between August, 1946 and January, 1949, with a total population of 53,510 Jews.
Most of them were D.P.s from Germany, Austria and Italy. The camps were located mainly near two sites, at Caolos north of Famagusta and Ohekelia outside of Larnaca.The British established 12 camps and packed the Jewish refugees into them. These places were more like prisons with barbed wire and watchtowers. Nobody was permitted out or in without a special pass.
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(Yad Vashem Archives) |
The Cyprus camps were:[3]
Caraolos Camp, Cyprus
Dhekelia Camp, Cyprus
Famagusta, Cyprus
Jerusalem
Larnaca, Cyprus
Nicosia, Cyprus
Tel Aviv
Xylotymbou Camp, Cyprus
Conditions in the camps were very harsh, with poor sanitation, over–crowding, lack of privacy and a shortage of clean water. The prisoners were mostly young, 80% between 13 and 35, and included over 6,000 orphan children. About 2,000 children were born in the camps. The births took place in the Jewish wing of the British Military Hospital in Nicosia. Some 400 Jews died inthe camps and were buried in Margao cemetery. From November, 1946, to the time of the Israeli Declaration of Independence in May, 1948, Cyprus detainees were allowed into Palestine at a rate of 750 people per month. On January 24, 1949, the British began sending these detainees to Israel.
The Jewish Agency and Joint Distribution Committee were determined to help the Jewish refugees in Cyprus.They sent Dr. Reuven Katznelson, a well–known physician in Mandatory Palestine, and Charles Passman, head of the Joint Distribution Committee's office in Jerusalem, Palestine, to Cyprus. The British authorities on the island refused to talk to them. Dr. Katznelson returned home but Charles Passman stayed on. He informed the British authorities that heintended to hold an international press conference to expose the terrible conditions in the internment camps where Shoah survivors were forced to live. He intended to publicize the fact that an American humanitarian agency, the JDC, wanted to help but was not permitted by the British and that the refugees were kept behind barbed wire for the sole crime that they had tried to reach Palestine[4]. Britain, already suffering from bad press in the United States, did not relish the thought of more negative pictures and decided to meet with Passman. He was even permitted to visit the camps, where he witnessed terrible and inhumane conditions. He established a list of priorities that were sent to the JDC in Paris and to the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem. The list was approved in Paris and Jerusalem. Passman opened JDC offices in the camps and staffed them with Palestinian Jewish staff that contained members of the Haganah and the Jewish Agency as well as emissaries of the political Zionist parties in Palestine.
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Charles Passman was born in Lithuania and brought to the United States at the age of 12. He later settled in Palestine, became involved with the JDC and was appointed to head the small JDC office in Jerusalem. He spoke Hebrew, Yiddish and English. He was able to negotiate with British military officials in Cyprus. The officials went by the book and were always suspicious of foul play. Conditionsimproved in the camps, especially with the arrival of food that supplemented the British rations and the upgrading of medical conditions. Then the Joint Distribution Committee in Paris decided to recall Passman to Jerusalem and appointed Morris Laub to head all the JDC operations on the island of Cyprus.
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Morris Laub assumed his post on December 10, 1946[5]. He brought his family to Famagusta and began to provide all the necessary assistance that the Jewish camp population needed. Laub was born in Przemysl, Galicia, Poland and educated in the United States. He was a conscientious Jew, familiar with Jewish literature and history, and spoke fluent Hebrew, Yiddish, the language of most of the internees, as well as English. He spent much of his time dealing with the British authorities on the island who were not inclined to be cooperative. The smallest concession required many hours of discussions with military officials who went by the book and were suspicious. But he managed to establish and improve the medical and educational facilities, and organized sports activities. He also received permission to have the ORT trainyoungsters manual skills that they would later use in civilian life in Palestine. He dealt directly with various social welfare organizations such as CARE, which the British eventually permitted to operate in Cyprus.
Laub was familiar with Palestine and the workings of the Jewish Agency but he lacked the intimacy that was needed to handle the multitude ofproblems among the camp population. The British permitted the Jews internal autonomy. Most of the population belonged to Zionist parties that formed the camp administrative councils. The Brichah and Mossad also had agents in the camps such as the Haganah and the Irgun, which organized semi–military formations in the camps. To all of them, Laub was an outsider, an American Jew who helped them, but they questioned whether he could be trusted with smuggling or tunnel–digging operations. The answer was always doubtful and Laub knew it. He therefore began to look for an assistant who was very familiar with the Palestinian situation but also spoke English fluently.
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(photo from the Ghetto Fighters Archives} |
Laub talked to some potential candidates and selected Yehoshua Leibner. The two Galitzianers (both originally came from Galicia, Poland) hit it off. Leibner was born on July 1, 1910, in Krakow, Poland, and died on July 29, 1956, in Israel. In 1921, he immigrated with his family to the United States where he attended secondary school. In 1928, he was one of the prominent activists of the Zionist pioneering youth movement and joined an American Jewish training farm that prepared youngsters to move to Palestine. He married Pearl (later Pnina) Horowitz and they moved to Palestine where they established kibbutz Ein Hashofet, which belonged to the Hashomer Ha–Tzair movement. The kibbutz sent him on many missions to the United States where he organized Jewish youth. He also represented the Jewish Agency on several missions abroad. Leibner was familiar with the leaders of the Haganah and the political leaders of Palestine. Leibner, his wife, Pnina, and their son and daughter left their kibbutz on April 12, 1946 and headed to Cyprus.
Each month, the British granted a limited number of certificates allowing detainees to enter Palestine. Leibner coordinated the list of people who were selected to head to Palestine. The demand for such certificates frequently resulted in heated debates and discussions among the various political parties. The camps frequently received or dispatched emissaries to and from Palestine who needed official assistance. Laub was not involved in these activities and did not want to involve himself since he dealt with the British and had to fight hard to obtain the benefits to which the refugees were entitled. The running of the camps themselves was greatly influenced by Leibner. There were also many individual problems that had to be tended to. Leibner's door was always open, according to Laub.
The JDC tended to the many needs of the Jewish detainees in the camps while the Jewish Agency provided the spiritual sustenance and hoped that they would reach the shores of Palestine. Leibner assured them daily that they would reach their homeland. Indeed, many reached Palestine legally and illegally. He urged the remainder of the detainees to learn trades and Hebrew so that they would become productive citizens of Palestine. Most of the young detainees enlisted in the Haganah formations in the camps, ready to join the battle for independence. British hostility to the detainees continued to the last possible moment. From November, 1946, to May, 1948, Cyprus detainees were allowed into Palestine[6] at a rate of 750 per month. During 1947–48, special quotas were given to pregnant women, nursing mothers and the elderly. Released Cyprus detainees amounted to 67% of all immigrants to Palestine during that period. Following Israeli independence, the British began deporting detainees to Israel at a rate of 1,500 per month. The Pan Crescent and the Pan York were used to transport the detainees to Palestine[7]. They amounted to 40% of all immigration to Israel during the war months of May–September 1948. The British kept about 11,000 detainees, mainly men of military age, imprisoned throughout most of the war. On January 24, 1949, the British began sending these detainees to Israel, with the last of them departing for Israel on February 11, 1949.
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