Cyprus internment camps

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Cyprus internment camps were operated by the British for internment of Jewish immigrants who attempted to immigrate to the Mandatory Palestine during the 1940s in violation of immigration quotas set for Jews. In spite of repeated requests to lift restrictions to save lives otherwise lost in the the Holocaust, and later the plight of thousands of displaced Holocaust survivors, the British still enforced the quotas set in the White Paper of 1939. Jews escaping Europe in the Beriha and attempting Aliyah Bet were detained at sea or after landing, and held indefinitely and without trial in prison camps on nearby British-controlled Cyprus.

Where transport ships were intercepted on the high seas by the British Royal Navy, those ships that did not sink (many were old and not sea-worthy vessels) were escorted to Cyprus where internment camps were constructed for up to 30,000 detainees. They consisted almost entirely of Holocaust survivors. Funds for maintenance of the camps were taken from taxes collected from the Jewish population of Palestine.

The first camps were constructed by German prisoners of war (POWs). Conditions for POW's were determined by the Geneva Convention; there was no equivalent convention for imprisoned civilians so the German POWs were generally treated far better then the Jews. Use of POWs for construction purposes was eventually halted as it interfered with British de-Nazification programmes (POWs generally concluded that the British were treating the Jews no differently than the Nazis). Jewish inmates did not take the German presence very well either.

Because of pressure from the United States and in response to the recommendations of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, Britain agreed to allow 1,000 Jews a month into Palestine. To reduce pressure in Cyprus (there was fear of a Communist led Cypriot uprising), half that quota, 500 Jews a month, were allowed in from Cyprus. That meant that most Cyprus internees expected to spend a couple of years there before being allowed into Palestine.

In November 1947 the United Nations voted to recommend the UNSCOP plan in Palestine, which called for the establishment of a Jewish state, including a harbor into which Jews could immigrate. Britain refused to implement this point before the mandate ended, leading to accusations that the British government was in contravention of the United Nations decision. The Soviet Union responded to the British failure by allowing Jewish illegal migration to depart from Romania.

Despite donations from Jewish charities in the United States and contributions from the Jewish Agency in Palestine, conditions in the camps were hard. The camps lacked proper supplies of running water, soap, clothes, sheets and there were complaints regarding inadequate food supplies. Most of the inmates were deeply traumatized Holocaust survivors including large numbers of orphan children.

Thanks to British willingness to allow British and American Jewish communities to aid the inmates and limited press access, inmates did not face the kind of viciousness or deprivation associated with Nazi or Soviet concentration camps. Volunteers from Palestine were allowed to live in the camps and these included educators, nurses and doctors. Volunteers were unpaid and generally shared the inmates living conditions, except that they could take occasional holidays while the inmates could not leave.

Over time 50,000 people were imprisoned in the camps and several thousand children were born there. Even after the establishment of the state of Israel the British government continued to hold 8,000 Jewish men of "military age" and 3,000 of their wives in order to prevent them joining the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. During this period inmates were held under conditions of indefinite detention with no known release date. They were eventually released in February 1949, following the British government's decision to recognize the state of Israel.

[edit] In popular media

The 1960 film Exodus starts with the arrival of Jews to a camp. The presence of Palestine volunteers is also shown.

[edit] References

• Source: N. Bogner, The Deportation Island: Jewish Illegal Immigrant Camps on Cyprus 1946-1948, Tel-Aviv 1991 in Hebrew.
• Source: D. Schaary, The Cyprus Detention Camps for Jewish "Illegal" Immigrants to Palestine 1946-1949, Jerusalem 1981 in Hebrew.
• Source: M. Laub, Last Barrier to Freedom, Internment of Jewish Holocaust Survivors on Cyprus 1946-1949, Berkeley 1985
• Encyclopaedia Judaica: Articles: Cyprus, Illegal Immigration (1971)