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The Mossad and Aliyah bet from Rumania 245
Contested Authority: Bucharest and the Yishuv's Delegation
The optimistic assessment of Kaplan and others in the beginning of 1943 that
organizing transport from the Balkans to Constantinople would prove relatively
simple, and that Turkish boats would be made available, turned out to
be groundless. Despite a report by Misho Benvenisti, chairman of the Zionist
Organization in Rumania (confirmed by the Red Cross in Bucharest), that
Ion Antonescu had requested and received Berlin's permission for the shipping
out of 8,000 children, no boats were available in Rumania. 13 The rescue
mission in Constantinople urged the Rumanian Jewish leaders to acquire
vessels on the local market, but precious little was achieved.
Yet it was the belief of the Mossad that Rumania—even more than Bulgaria—was
a fertile field for the strong strategy of combined legal and illegal
operations. It was difficult to distinguish between substantive objections to
sea transport and objections deriving basically from personal antipathies.
Shind and his colleagues therefore sought to mobilize both Enzer and Benvenisti—who
respectively supported and opposed aliyah bet—for combined
legal and illegal transports. This modus operandi also seemed to fit the Rumanian
context, where so much already depended upon bribe-taking and
other illegal activities.
In the summer of 1943, Enzer had been offered a chance to purchase a
Greek-registered barge, the Smyrni, that could be refitted for use on the open
sea. The aliyah committee of the Rumanian Zionist Organization had no
reason to believe, however, that Rumania would permit a transport to sail
under a Greek flag. In addition, the price being asked for the vessel was
steep. It was necessary in any case to consult Constantinople over the advisability
of buying it. It was decided to send a delegation of committee members—Benvenisti,
Enzer, and Moritz Geiger—to Braila to inspect the boat.
Their hope was that, if the Smyrni could indeed be made seaworthy, an exit
permit could be obtained for it. That would make the transport more or less
legal.
In late August or September, Constantinople sent word recommending
the purchase, with Shind's promise to provide the necessary funds. He and
the other mission members misread the joint action that was taken to inspect
the boat as a sign that Enzer and Benvenisti had resolved their costly dispute
over sea transport. They believed that one successful transport would open
the way to others.
In the fall of 1943, it seemed that conditions were once again favorable
for aliyah bet, but plans fell afoul of political exigencies. Both the Rumanians
and the British were willing to allow children onto the transports, with accompanying
adults. This stipulation revived internal struggles over the composition
of the passenger lists. Shaul Avigur, who arrived in Constantinople
in October to help coordinate operations, dispatched a stern message to the
Jewish leaders in Rumania demanding greater cooperation and unity. He
lectured them about the responsibility they bore and appealed to their historical
sense by reminding them of the collapse of the ancient Jewish revolt