Aliyah Bet

Aliyah Bet ("Immigration B") was the clandestine immigration organized in defiance of British quotas. The first ship, the Velos, sailed in 1934 for the Hechalutz movement, and the Revisionists ran their own "Af Al Pi" (Despite Everything) voyages. In the late 1930s the Haganah created the Mossad LeAliyah Bet under Shaul Avigur, which bought old, overcrowded vessels in Europe and landed passengers on beaches at night. Tragedies marked the effort: the Patria sank in Haifa harbor in 1940 after a Haganah bomb meant only to disable it, killing about 260, and the Struma went down in the Black Sea in 1942 with nearly 800 aboard and a single survivor.

After the Holocaust the movement became a mass operation, with dozens of ships carrying some 70,000 survivors between 1945 and 1948. Most were intercepted, and from 1946 the British held more than 50,000 in camps on Cyprus. The Exodus 1947, whose 4,515 passengers were sent back to Germany, became a worldwide symbol. In all, more than 100,000 people came through Aliyah Bet before independence.