Exodus Refugee Ship Flag Finds Safe Haven at Holocaust Museum
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Version 0 of 1. WASHINGTON — Bill Silverstein walked into the Holocaust Memorial Museum here Tuesday with a small cardboard box under his arm and the plight of refugees on his mind — not only those now fleeing Syria, but also those from another crisis that held the world’s attention nearly seven decades earlier. In a lab at the museum reserved for special artifacts, Mr. Silverstein watched intently as a white-gloved curator unfurled the contents of the box, which he and his brother, Tom, were donating. Inside was a blue-and-white flag that once flew on the mast of the Exodus, a ship memorialized in book and film after the British turned it away from Palestine in 1947 with 4,500 Holocaust survivors and other refugees on board. The survivors, including about 1,000 children, had to return to Germany. Examining the flag, Sara J. Bloomfield, the director of the museum, declared it “a rare treasure.” She said she could not help thinking of the parallels between the refugee crisis after World War II — when hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors were kept in displaced persons camps with nowhere to go — and the current crisis in Syria, which has led more than a million people to seek safety in Europe. “It’s about the plight of refugees — and the indifference of the world,” she said. Bill Silverstein agreed. He said the flag, which is almost identical to what became the Israeli flag a year later after the creation of the Jewish state, was “an important reminder for humanity” of what can happen when the world turns its back on those in need. “This is particularly relevant today,” he said in an interview, “because of what’s going on in the world with displaced persons and refugees.” The flag sat hidden in the home of an American sailor in Philadelphia for more than 30 years, then made its way to a rabbi in Jerusalem. Mr. Silverstein and his brother, partners in a real estate firm in Chicago, acquired the flag recently from an Israeli auction house for $144,000. The Exodus, a castoff of the United States fleet, set sail on a rescue mission from the United States with a crew of volunteer Jewish-American sailors, then took on the 4,500 refugees in France en route to Palestine, where they hoped to live. But they were met in the waters off Palestine by British destroyers, grenades and gunfire, and four people on the ship were killed and many injured. The British, who opposed extensive immigration to Palestine, which they administered, forced the survivors off the ship in Haifa and put them on boats back to France. They were refused entry there and were ultimately forced to debark in a British-controlled zone in Germany, and were then put back in captivity in displaced persons camps. The episode focused world attention on the plight of the Holocaust survivors. It became the basis for a best-selling book, “Exodus,” by Leon Uris in 1958, and a film of the same name starring Paul Newman two years later. The flag was taken down from the ship’s mast by one of the American crewmen, a boatswain-carpenter named Michael Weiss, who wrote his name and a few rough notes about the ship (misspelled “Exudus”) on the outer edges of the flag. He kept it at his home in Philadelphia until 1977. After inspecting the flag on Tuesday, Cynthia Hughes, a textile conservator at the museum, said it was “soiled” but in otherwise good condition. Ms. Bloomfield said the flag would soon be put on display, probably as part of a permanent exhibition. “This flag had quite a journey,” Mr. Silverstein said. “I think it’s finally found a home here.” Avi Hershkovitz, 68, who lives outside Baltimore, had planned to go to the museum for the transfer of the flag, but health issues stopped him. His mother, a passenger on the Exodus, was pregnant with him when the British evacuated the ship, and he was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany. He grew emotional on Tuesday as he talked about the ship’s voyage and the flag’s new home. “My parents told me how excited they were when they boarded the boat for Israel,” he said, “and I wish they were here today to see the flag being put where it’s supposed to be.” |