Group portrait of members of Gordonia Zionist Youth movement standing next to a flag pole in the Cyprus internment camp.
Overview
- Caption
- Group portrait of members of Gordonia Zionist Youth movement standing next to a flag pole in the Cyprus internment camp.
Pictured second from the right is Bella Bemocha (later Sajovic). - Date
-
1946 - September 1947
- Locale
- Famagusta, Cyprus
- Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Schlomo Adler
- Event History
- The Cyprus detention camps were a series of refugee camps for Jewish illegal immigrants to Palestine, most of them European survivors of the Holocaust, who were arrested upon their arrival and transshipped to the nearby Mediterranean island. Hoping to provide a strong deterrent to Jewish immigration, the British government inaugurated the policy of deportation to Cyprus in August 1946. The Cyprus camps remained in existence until February 1949. During this period over 52,000 Jewish refugees passed through the camps, having been taken off thirty-nine illegal refugee ships. The British ran these camps in accordance with the harsh model of the POW camp. Responsibility for the welfare of the detainees, however, was quickly assumed by the Joint Distribution Committee, which greatly reduced the level of hardship suffered by the refugees. JDC Cyprus director, Morris Laub, served as the representative of the refugees vis a vis the British authorities.
There were two types of refugee camps on Cyprus: five summer camps (nos. 55, 60, 61, 62, 63) located at Kraolos, near Famagusta, where the refugees were housed in tents; and seven winter camps (nos. 64-70) at Dekalia, where housing consisted of tin Nissen huts and some tents. After December 1946, the majority of the children and teenagers were placed in Camp 64, known as the youth village. The population of the Cyprus camps consisted primarily of young people between the ages of thirteen and thirty-five, who were imbued with a strong Zionist ideology. Approximately 2000 babies were born in the Cyprus camps. The births took place in the Jewish wing of the British military hospital in Nicosia. Four hundred Jews died during their internment on the island and were buried in the Margoa cemetery.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/cyprus-detention-camps.
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumProvenance: Schlomo AdlerSecond Record ID: Collections: 2004.121.1
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- Shlomo Adler (born Stanislaw Salek Adler) is the son of Abraham Dolek and Sara Adler. He was born on June 16, 1930 in Bolechow, Poland where his father, owned a leather factory and his mother, a WIZO activist, took care of the household. Salek's older sister, Miriam (Musia) was born in 1924. In September 1939, after the Soviets annexed Eastern Poland, they nationalized all private businesses, including Dolek Adler's leather factory. However, he was chosen to administer many of the leather workshops in Bolechow. On June 22, 1941 Germany invaded USSR, and on July 2, 1941 they reached Bolechow. The Germans and local Ukrainian collaborators immediately began the repression of the Jewish community. In the spring of 1942, Dolek Adler was arrested and accused of black market activities. His wife was told to pay a bribe, but after she managed to collect half of the sum, she was denounced for trying to bribe an official and also arrested. A few days later she was led to the train station, and Salek never saw either of his parents again. In June 1942, 2,500 Bolechow Jews were deported to the Belzec death camp. Salek managed to avoid deportation by hiding in a storage room. The Germans then established a Jewish Quarter in town only for Jews with proper work permits. Salek and his cousin Jozek Adler remained in Bolechow working in a wooden barrel factory. His sister Musia worked in a recycling plant. In March 1943 the Germans conducted another deportation Aktion. During this Aktion, Musia, who was 19 years old, was shot and killed, together with her cousin Pepcia Diamand, Pepcia's mother and Jozek's mother. In the beginning of July 1943 Salek heard shooting and fled with his cousin Jozek. They hid for a few days in the nearby marshes and in other locations. Although 80 Jews were killed during the Aktion, the German were unsatisfied with this number and a new commandant, Grzymek, was brought from Lvov. He assembled the remaining Jews and declared that no more Jews will be killed and that they must all stay in a newly built camp. Salek, who was 13 years old, was determined never to enter it and forced his cousin Jozek to flee with him. While escaping they met Mr. Raduchowski who previously promised to prepare a hiding place for one person. Seeing both boys he decided to take them in. Mr. Raduchowski and his wife prepared a small space, hidden behind a false wall. The two boys spent the next 13 months there until August 1944 when the Soviet Red Army liberated the area. Soon after the liberation Salek joined the Polish Army declared himself as a Pole and misstated his age. In June 1946 the new Communist regime arrested him, and accused him, among other things, of collaboration with the Nazis. During the numerous and lengthy interrogations Salek was ready to admit to all the charges, but not to collaboration with the Nazis. He admitted that he was Jewish and a survivor, who lost all the members of his immediate family. The KGB officer severely beat Salek. This incident convinced Salek to rejoin the Jewish community and the need to leave Poland. He joined the Gordonia Zionist youth group in Bielsko Biala, and soon after that he left Poland with false papers. Upon arrival in Paris, a group of survivors boarded the ship Ha'Maapil Ha'Almoni. However, the British forcibly turned back his ship and interned the passengers, including Salek, in a DP camp in Famagusta, Cyprus. In September 1947 Salek finally reached Palestine with the help of Youth Aliyah.
- Record last modified:
- 2019-02-20 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1162436
