Grandma's army

  The Foundation “Aliyah Bet” became the code name given to illegal immigration Jews to Mandatory Palestine between 1934 and 1948, most of whom were Holocaust survivors and refugees from Nazi Germany. It became one of the principle ways of rescuing Jews during World War II. All told, a fleet of 60 ramshackle ships transported more than 60,000 “illegal   immigrants” from European ports between 1946 and 1948 in severely unsafe and dangerous conditions. Immediately after the War of Independence, Aliya Bet was resumed on an ambitious and urgent scale. Its intensification, beyond the objective of rescuing Holocaust survivors from all over Europe, was adopted as a tactic in the organized Jewish resistance in Palestine - designed to end British   rule. Over 32,000 “illegal” immigrants who sailed from post-Nazi Europe for Palestine travelled on vessels bought in the US and manned by American volunteer sailors. The ten American "big ships brought to Palestinian waters...

  THE ORIGINS OF “GRANDMA’S ARMY” - III Arab riots in Palestine in 1920 and 1921 strengthened the view that it was impossible to depend upon the British mandate. The Palestinian Jews felt the necessity to create an independent defense force completely free of foreign authority. In June 1920, the Haganah , as an underground military organisation, was founded. During the first nine years of its existence, the Haganah was a loose organization of local defense groups, in the large towns and several of the settlements. The Arab riots in 1929  brought about a complete change in the Haganah’s status: It became a large organization, encompassing nearly all the youth and adults in the settlements, as well as several thousand members from each of the cities. It initiated a comprehensive training program for its members, and ran officers’ training courses. Established central arms depots into which a continuous stream of light arms flowed ...