Dalia Ofer

Hana Weiner

חנה ויינר

Relates how over 1,000 Jewish refugees who set out from Central Europe in November 1939 to reach Palestine, travelling by boat on the Danube, were detained in Yugoslavia and trapped by the Nazi invasion in April 1941. Most of them were murdered. The group was organized by the Hehalutz Zionist organization in Vienna and Berlin, along with the Mossad le-Aliyah Bet in Palestine. In December 1939 the Yugoslav government refused to allow them to proceed to Romania because there was no ship waiting there to take them to Palestine. The boats were moored at Kladovo, and in September 1940 they were moved to the town of Šabac. Based on letters written by the refugees to family and friends, and archival documents, describes the initial organization of the group, daily life in Kladovo and Šabac, and the failure of Zionist leaders to organize rescue in time. Some members of the group succeeded in emigrating through Youth Aliyah, leaving Šabac in March 1941. Ch. 4 (p. 93-116) describes the Nazi occupation and the fate of the group in the context of the Final Solution in Serbia.

Hana Weiner

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