A false Palestinian identity card issued to Avi Livney, an American crew member of two illegal immigrant ships that transported Jews from Europe to Palestine.
Overview
- Caption
- A false Palestinian identity card issued to Avi Livney, an American crew member of two illegal immigrant ships that transported Jews from Europe to Palestine.
The card identifies the bearer as Natan Kintzler, a Palestinan Jew. - Date
-
1948
- Locale
- Palestine/Israel
- Variant Locale
- Israel
- Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Avi Livney
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumProvenance: Avi Livney
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- Avi Livney (born Arthur Lifshitz) was born in New York City and raised in Brooklyn. From the age of 15, Livney belonged to the Hashomer Hatzair Zionist youth movement. At the end of World War II he served in the Hospital Corps of the U.S. Navy. While on dispensary duty at a naval ammunition depot in New Jersey, he learned of the participation of American volunteers in the illegal transport of European Jewish DPs to Palestine. After repeated inquiries, Livney was called to join the crew of what became the Exodus 1947. In January 1947 he met the rest of the crew in Baltimore. He was assigned the role of purser-pharmacist. After the Exodus was intercepted and towed into the port of Haifa, Livney was sent back to Europe on the prison ship Ocean Vigour. After disembarking in France, Livney made his way to Venice, where the Pan Crescent, another immigrant ship, was being repaired before its voyage from Romania to Palestine. Livney sailed on the ship from Venice to Constanza, where it was soon joined by a second ship, the Pan York. When Romanian authorities refused to allow the would-be immigrants to board the ship, they sailed to Burgas, Bulgaria, where over 15,000 Romanian and Bulgarian Jews boarded the two ships. Both ships were soon intercepted by British warships and forced to sail to Cyprus. Upon their arrival in Famagusta, British military police arrested Livney and his fellow crewman, Teddy Vardi. About two weeks later, they escaped in a small fishing boat and sailed to Palestine.
- Record last modified:
- 2004-12-13 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1152612
