Machal Definition

MACHAL and Aliya Bet

In 1939, the British had ended Jewish immigration to Palestine with issuance of the White Paper, responding to Arab pressure. This trapped millions of Jews in Europe, helpless before the advancing armies of Nazi Germany. Though it was impossible for anyone to foresee the murder of European Jews in the Holocaust, it was manifest that the Jews were in grave danger. Prior to and during World War II, the Jewish Agency organized immigration from Europe, called Aliya Bet. They managed to bring tens of thousands of Jews to Palestine in rickety death trap ships, though most were caught and interned for the duration of the war.

Following the World War II, about 250,000 Jews were interned in various displaced persons (DP) camps. Most of them did not want to return to their countries of origin, where anti-Semitism was rife and there was nothing left for them but contemplation of the destruction of their homes and lives. Many of these countries were behind the Iron Curtain. Western European countries and the United States refused admission to these Jewish refugees, most of whom in any case wanted to go to Palestine.

The illegal Aliya was renewed, as much to demonstrate the inhumanity of Britain's policy as to bring immigrants to Palestine. 68 aging ships were purchased abroad and refitted to carry immigrants. Many sorts of craft helped to form this fleet - old cruise liners, freighters, coast guard cutters... Ten of these ships, the largest, were purchased in the United States, refitted, and manned primarily by American and Canadian crews consisting of about 240 volunteers. They brought about 32,000 of the over 70,000 postwar illegal immigrants to mandate Palestine. They were pursued by British navy destroyers and hunted by the RAF. Many were caught and their passengers interned in Cyprus and elsewhere.

The most memorable of these craft was the Exodus, formerly the President Warfield, a a Chesapeake Bay excursion liner. It loaded 4,530 passengers at Sete, France.  It was intercepted near Haifa after being rammed by a British destroyer on July 18 1947. Machal volunteer Bill Bernstein was beaten to death by British soldiers, defending the wheel house. Its passengers were returned to France, where almost all refused to disembark. They were taken to Hamburg, Germany and were forcibly removed from the ship by British soldiers and jailed. This spectacle helped to convince world public opinion that the British mandate for Palestine had to be ended, and the Jews deserved a state of their own.  After the Israel War of Independence, the Exodus was  moored in Haifa harbor. However, it caught fire in August 1952 and burned to the waterline and eventually was scrapped.

The Kibbutz Galuyot (Pan York), a converted banana ship shown at left was typical of conditions on these MACHAL Aliyah Bet ships. 7,800 passengers were crammed into its decks. The "chimneys" housed ventilator shafts containing fans that forced air into the below- deck area. The upper deck was reserved for babies and children, because the air in the lower decks was considered unhealthy. The Kibbutz Galuyot made two voyages. At least one of these was from Burgas, Bulgaria, where it took on mostly Romanian survivors of the Holocaust and transported them directly to Cyprus by agreement with the British, on January 1, 1948. By that time, the British had announced they were leaving Palestine. With the similar, Atzmaut the Pan York became one of the first merchant ships  of Israel’s state-controlled Zim line.

Kibbutz Galuyot - Pan York - Photo by Frank Perlman. Source: http://israelvets.com/pictorialhist_rescue_fleet.html

Other MACHAL Aliya Bet Ships:

“Atzmaut” (Pan Crescent), along with  the “Kibbutz Galuyot” (Pan York), Atzmaut had also been a banana carrier. According to Benny Morris, it was sabotaged and damaged in port, in Venice on the night of August 30, 1947, by agents of MI6 (Righteous Victims, page 183). After taking on passengers at Burgas, Bulgaria, it too sailed directly to Cyprus by agreement with the British, arriving there on January 1, 1948. After independence, it became part of the ZIM merchant marine.

“Haganah” (Norsyd) was a former Canadian corvette. Its nearly 1,000 passengers embarked at Sete, France and were transfered at sea to the Biryah, (Akbel II), which was intercepted and towed to Haifa on July 1, 1946. Its 999 passengers were interned in Haifa. In a second voyage, Haganah took 2,678 passengers from Bakar, Yugoslavia, on July 24, 1946. It was intercepted July 29 and escorted to Haifa by the British. Its passengers were interned. Eventually, it joined the Israel Navy as warship K-20.

“Josiah Wedgwood” (Beauharnois) was a former Canadian corvette like the Haganah. It took on 1,257 passengers near Savona, Italy, and arrived at Haifa on June 27, 1946. It was intercepted by the British, and its passengers were interned at Athlit. After Israel became independent, it joined the Israel Navy as the warship “Hashomer,” K-18.

“Haim Arlosoroff” (Ulua) had previously been a revenue cutter and a U.S. Coast Guard ship. It loaded passengers at Trelleborg, Sweden and Metaponte, Italy. After a battle with the British, it ran onto a reef at Bat Galim, Haifa, and 15 of its passengers and crew were interned at Atlit and 1,348, including 20 stretcher cases, were deported to Cyprus. The vessel was eventually sold for scrap.

“Ben Hecht” (Abril), a private yacht, had carried out smuggling operations in the Spanish civil war and later served the U.S. Navy in World War II on coastal patrols. It loaded about 600 passengers at Port de Bouc, France, and was intercepted and taken to Haifa on March 8, 1947. It became IN  “Maoz,” K-22.

“Hatikvah” (Tradewinds), was a revenue cutter and had served as an icebreaker on the St. Lawrence River and later as a Coast Guard cutter.  It loaded 1,414 passengers  at Portovenere and Bogliasco on the Italian Riviera. It was intercepted and taken to Haifa on May 17, 1947. Its passengers were interned in Cyprus. It served the Israel Navy very briefly and was then sold for scrap.

“Geulah” (Paducah) was originally a gunboat and then a Coast Guard cutter. It took on 2,644 passengers at Burgas, Bulgaria. It was intercepted and taken to Haifa on October 2, 1947. Its passengers were interned in Cyprus. After the establishment of the state it was sold for scrap.

“Jewish State” (Northland) had been an icebreaker in the service of the Coast Guard. It took on about 2,600 passengers at Burgas, Bulgaria, and was intercepted and taken to Haifa on October 2, 1947. Its passengers were interned in Cyprus. It became the Israel Navy’s principal training ship, the “Eilat,” A-16.

For information about pre-war Aliya bet and other non-Machal immigrant ships see: Aliya Bet, Exodus  Mefkure Patria Struma Salvador

Machal and the Israel War of Independence

Following the decision of the UN to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state (UN General Assembly Resolution 181) war between the Jewish Yishuv and the Palestinian Arabs was only a matter of time, and the Arab League had declared its intention to rid Palestine of the Jews as well. In fact, the Israel War of Independence broke out almost immediately, beginning with Arab attacks on transportation, riots and strikes. The British did nothing to stop the violence, and in fact, actively aided and abetted it in places like Gush Etzion.

The Jews had a total of about 20,000 - 30,000 men under arms, but few had battle training and they had virtually no weapons. Volunteers from abroad, the Machal, played a crucial role both in arms purchases and in providing trained personnel, particular air pilots for the new state. Because of the presence of the British, it was almost impossible to bring arms into the country until independence. In contrast, the Arabs had free access to British arms that were given to the Jordan legion, as well as the arms of "Salvation army" of the Nazi Fawzi al Kaukji, which the British had allowed to enter Palestine in January of 1948. Once the British left and the Arab armies invaded the new state of Israel, the cause seemed hopeless: the Arab states had aircraft and tanks and artillery. The Jews had none of these at first.

Below are a few of the stories of individual heroism and contributions in different fields.

Esther Cailingold - Esther Cailingold was a young British Zionist schoolteacher who died in defense of the Jewish quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem. You can read her story here: Esther Cailingold

MACHAL in the Israeli ground forces

Overseas volunteers served on all fronts during the War of Independence; many fell in battle - at Ramat Rachel, Sejera, at Latrun, on the road to besieged Jerusalem, and in other places. Some units were almost exclusively MACHAL. Overseas volunteers also served on armored corps tanks, including two Cromwells which had been "borrowed" from the British army by two non-Jews who threw in their lot with the Jewish forces.

Almost every army unit - artillery, engineers, communications and radar and other technical groups - included MACHAL. There were MACHAL soldiers, in the fighting brigades Alexandroni, Golani, Givati, Etzioni, the Seventh, the Eighth and Ninth (Oded) Brigades, as well as in the Palmach brigades Harel, Yiftach and Hanegev.

The 7th Armored Brigade eventually had about 250 English-speaking MACHAL. It was commanded by Ben Dunkelman, a decorated WWII Canadian veteran who had previously been involved in the preparations of the "Burma Road" to Jerusalem and organized mortar support in the battles for the relief of besieged Jerusalem.

The 79th Armored Battalion, part of the 7th Brigade, was commanded by Canadian Joe Weiner. The 72nd Battalion included the non-Jewish company commander Derek Bowden, who, as a paratroop officer, had been taken prisoner and sent to Bergen-Belson concentration camp, because of letters found in his pockets from Palestinian Jewish friends.

Having been involved in battles at Latrun and Nazareth, the 7th Brigade also participated in Operation Hiram which included the capture of Meron, Gush Halav, Sasa, Malkiya, and Tarshiha.

Not all the MACHAL volunteers were Jewish. Some were British soldiers who defected. A ship's captain who piloted an Aliya Bet Ship decided to stay in Israel. The man shown at right is Jesse Slade of Oklahoma. Jesse was the only Native-American to serve with MACHAL. A member of the 4th Troop, 1st Anti-Tank, 421st Artillery Regiment, Negev Brigade, he said he joined because of his respect for a Jewish officer during World War II. “He was the first guy to treat me like a white man.”

Some outstanding officers were:

Col. David (Mickey) Marcus [also known as Michael (Mickey) Stone], a West Point graduate, was recruited at the end of 1947 as military adviser to Ben-Gurion and the Hagannah. Marcus had parachuted into Normandy on D-Day in 1944. A Pentagon planner during WWII, Marcus had been commandant of the US army's Ranger school which developed innovative tactics for jungle fighting in Japan. He urged the clandestine Hagannah to deal with the practical side of military organization, and personally wrote the training manuals for officers' courses for the army-to-be.

During the fighting in the Negev, the hit-and-run night raid tactics he initiated kept the Egyptian army off balance. He was in the forefront of the effort to build the "Burma Road" to Jerusalem, circumventing the Latrun salient held by the Arab Legion. Appointed Commander of the Jerusalem Front by Ben-Gurion, with the rank of Aluf (Major-Gen.), he led four brigades and planned the strategy for a combined operation which eventually freed the beleaguered capital and changed the outcome of the war. However, on June 10, 1948, two weeks after his appointment, only hours before a UN negotiated cease-fire went into effect, Marcus was mistakenly killed by a sentry because he did not know any Hebrew and could not answer the challenge.

Captain Thadée Difre (Teddy Eytan), a French Catholic, joined the IDF after a long career as an officer in the French army under Generals De Gaulle and LeClerc. He established the French Commando unit, which took part in the battles in the south of the country during the War of Independence. Among the unit's successes were a battle against the Egyptians on the Rafiah-El Arish road, paving of the way for Israel's tanks northeast of Be'er Sheva.

Sgan Aluf (Lt. Col.) Shaul Ramati, born in Poland, served as a Captain in the British Army and the Jewish Brigade between 1943-47. He arrived in Israel in 1948, served as a company commander, and was twice wounded.