Dalia Ofer.pdf - WNLibrary

332 NOTES
of the mood at the Zionist offices in London is given by "Baffy" Dugdale in N. A.
Rose (ed.), Baffy, The Diaries of Blanche Dugdale 1936-1947, London, 1973, p. 178;
entry for 11/15/40:
Awful caboodle at Zionist office about those refugee ships. Lord Lloyd revealed to
Chaim [Weizmann] that the ones that have arrived in Haifa are only the forerunners of
others now at sea. He thinks that the Gestapo are organizing a vast casting out of Jews
from Romanian ports. This of course altered the situation. Chaim is prepared to acquiesce
to Mauritius under condition, but will try to get the people on the Haifa ships landed,
though he docs not think he will succeed. Lewis and 1 agreed, but this led to painful
scene between Chaim and Berl [Locker]. We have cabled to Moshe [Shertok] asking
him to keep the Yishuv quiet and to send his suggestions.
39. Munya Mardor, Haganah, New York, 1966, pp. 46-76.
40. Yosef Heller in Heller 1984, p. 38, note 53, attributes the decision to the
defense committee of the Yishuv, led by Shertok. This is based on Shertok's letter
to M. Mardor, cited Slutsky 1967, p. 1633, after the publication of Mardor's Shelihut
Alumah (Hebrew), (Secret Mission) in 1957.
41. CZA S25/1716 (12/17/40).
42. CZA 825/10582(25/11/40).
43. Ibid., S25/2648 (12/4/40); cf. the memorandum submitted to the Foreign Office
by Weizmann, dated 11/27/40 (published in Leni Yahil, "Selected British Documents
on the Illegal Immigration to Palestine 1939-1940," Yad Vashem Studies Vol. 10,
1974, pp. 241-276):
A sharp line must be drawn between Jewish refugees within sight of Palestine and
those in boats intercepted and diverted on the high sea. This may not seem logical, but
it is human. To turn back such sufferers after they have sighted their Promised Land,
and after their nearest relatives have seen the ship which carries them come in, is past
human endurance. . . . Should the feeling of His Majesty's Government prove correct,
and should the movement develop on a large scale, the Agency would cooperate with
His Majesty's Government in the care of these immigrants diverted to some British colony
[emphasis added].
To the end of the memorandum is appended the following note:
After relations of confidence and cooperation have been reestablished between the
local authorities and the Agency, the future treatment of illegal immigrant ships must
be settled by agreement.
44. CZA 25/1716 (Shertok to Weizmann, 12/17/40).
45. CZA 825/2631 (report of constable Haim Caspi, 12/13/40, and that of watchman
Poliakov, 12/14/40).
46. Ibid, (statement of Berl Katznelson to the Histadrut council, 12/9/40). Katznelson
used this forum to voice his opinion because he was in a minority in the Mapai
central committee.
47. BBA 39/23.
48. Ibid.
49. Ibid. The Asimi arrived in April 1939 and the Hilda in January 1940. The
British attempted to prevent them from approaching the Palestine coast, but this
produced public demonstrations, rallies, and strikes. These cases, however, were
different from the case of the Atlantic, since they did not represent any change in
principle in British policy on refugees' status in Palestine, as the latter episode did.
50. Despite their impassioned statements of conviction, the militants also recognized
the necessity of fighting alongside the British against Hitler. Indeed, at this very