[New York Times] Douglas Marin - Yossi Harel, who renamed the rickety ship he commanded Exodus 1947 and sailed it to legend as a symbol of the righteousness of the mission by Jews to settle Palestine in the face of British opposition, died Saturday at his home in Tel Aviv. He was 90. Unlike the fictionalized account in Leon Uris' book Exodus, when the real Exodus approached the port of Haifa on July 18, 1947, British forces boarded the boat and engaged in a violent encounter with Holocaust survivors, leaving three Jews dead and hundreds injured. The British returned the Jews to Germany - to an old Nazi SS camp near Hamburg. The events caused wide outrage and prompted support for the Zionist dream.
2008-05-02 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive