•

•

•

•

July 17, 1947, when the British ram
the Exodus and undertake a four-hour
battle to board the ship just 25 miles
off the coast of Gaza.
One of the three people killed that
day is Bill Bernstein, an American vol-
unteer, whose skull was crushed while
struggling with the British.
Had the British just sent the refugees
off to Cyprus, this might have been the
end of the story. But, the great villain
of our piece, British Foreign Secretary
Ernest Bevin, pushed to have everyone
shipped back to France. When France
refused to accept anyone who would
not depart voluntarily, Bevin insisted
on a move that caused an international
uproar — sending everyone back to •
Germany.
As one historian comments, "The
gallant nation that had helped defeat
the Nazis began acting like Nazis."
And the rest, as they say, is history.
One member of the Haganah, upon
hearing Be-vin's decree, said to a crew
member, "Now you will see the birth of

a new Jewish state." World opinion,
fueled by images in the press and news
reports on radio, turned violently
against the British. The United Nations
ended British control of Palestine soon
thereafter, in November 1947.
Although the film does an admirable
job of interviewing many people, it suf-
fers from a paucity of live interviews
with survivors of the Holocaust who
participated in the voyage. But this is
balanced by a number of readings from
memoirs. In all, the one-hour flies
quickly by.
Fifty years after its voyage, as one
crew member confides, "This ship
never dies — it keeps coming back.
You can't forget it because people keep
reminding you of it."
The Exodus was harbored in Haifa,
but caught fire and sank in August
1952. Luckily, its memory stays alive,
and this documentary is just one more
reminder of its important place in his-
tory. 0

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