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The Mossad and the Kladovo Darien Incident 63
where the funds sent previously had gone and contended that sufficient money
had already been sent for the supply and refitting of the boat. Further funds
were unavailable. 69
Securing additional funding at this point required the active cooperation
of Spitzer. But he, too, was disinclined to place much trust in the Mossad.
The Mossad had, after all, made several promises that had gone unfulfilled.
The fact that Spitzer was hesitant to cooperate with the Mossad was known
in Jerusalem, and Braginsky was directed to meet with him right away to
work out a satisfactory plan of action. 70 Braginsky was unable to succeed in
this task. Spitzer was unable to obtain a visa to enter Turkey, and Braginsky
could not get one for either Yugoslavia or Bulgaria. 71 Another meeting
planned for mid-October between Barpal and Spitzer also never took place.
After some time, Spitzer did appeal to the Zionist Organization and to the
JDC to send funds to Braginsky, which Spitzer was willing to have deducted
from the Kladovo aid budget. 72 The money finally arrived at the end of
October, and the Darien sailed to Constantsa on 2 November.
Meanwhile, the war drew closer. Fighting in Greece grew heavy, and with
the Italian army experiencing difficulties it was likely that the Germans would
step in to assist. In Greece and Bulgaria, there was a very palpable fear of a
German invasion. Thus, once again, the question arose of what to do with
the Darien. Braginsky and his colleagues felt uneasy about leaving it for
extensive refitting in Constantsa. They decided to take on board 160 legal
immigrants (who paid full fare) for passage to Istanbul, where they transferred
to the Palestinian boat Hannah for the voyage to Palestine. 73 This delayed
work on the Darien by a week. It sailed back to Constantsa only on 9 November.
Two more weeks of work were needed to prepare the Darien to
receive the Kladovo group: two critical weeks, considering the danger of an
early frost as had occurred the previous year. 74 It is therefore even more
critical to consider why the group did not sail to Sulina during the month of
November.
Spitzer had been ready and able to send the refugees on to Sulina during
November, but would do so only on the condition that the ship was in dock,
ready and waiting to receive them. We know that the refugees were ready
to leave between 9 and 11 November. They had said good-bye to people in
Sabac and had packed their bags. Groups had been formed and group captains
assigned to make their departure more orderly. They were to travel down
the Danube on Yugoslavian boats—the same riverboats on which they had
lived in Kladovo—and were to reach Sulina within six days.
The trip was postponed by ten days and set for 20 November, and then
put off for yet another two or three days. No one unpacked; all were ready.
On 29 November they had still not left, however, and no departure date had
been set. They knew that the ship waiting for them was "illegal," and that
they would be joined by other illegal immigrants in Rumania. But, other than
rumor, they had no information as to why they had not left yet. 7S
The only possible explanation permitted by the sources we have is that
every time Spitzer received word that the Darien would not be ready by the