Stories from the Creation of the State of Israel
We left the Galilee and headed for Tel Aviv. Our first stop on the way was at the Atlit National Monument, the site of the British detention camp in which thousands of illegal Jewish immigrants were held from 1939-1948. It was hard to imagine the shock and dismay that Jews fleeing nazi death and persecution must have felt upon arriving in British controlled Palestine, only to be incarcerated in camps similar in appearance to the nazi camps of Europe. In 1946, similar detention camps camps were established in Cyprus.
A vintage ship, similar in appearance and size to the ones used to transport many of the immigrants was moved to Atlit, and is used to tell their stories. In October 1945, a daring military operation headed by Nahum Sarig and the young Yitzhak Rabin, later Israel's Prime Minister, broke into the camp and freed the 208 detainees. The camp continued to operate as a detention site until the end of the British mandate period in1948.
Our next stop was at the Tishbi Winery. After a wonderful lunch, the adults tasted wines and the kids tasted chocolate.
We arrived in Tel Aviv, checked into our hotel and proceeded to enjoy a free evening in the first modern Hebrew city.
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