Underground to Palestine – Journalist I.F. Stone’s Journey to the Land of Israel alongside Holocaust Survivors – ...

Underground to Palestine – Journalist I.F. Stone’s Journey to the Land of Israel alongside Holocaust Survivors – New York, 1946 – First Edition – Copy Inscribed and Signed by the Author

Underground to Palestine. The renowned book by American journalist and thinker Isidore Feinstein Stone, published in 1946 following his journey to the Land of Israel alongside Holocaust survivors, based on his series of reports that appeared in the New York newspaper PM. Published by Boni and Gaer, New York, 1946 – First edition. Copy inscribed and signed by the author.

“This is a personal adventure story. I was the first journalist to travel with the Jewish underground in Europe and reach Palestine on a supposedly illegal boat. But it is more than a narrative of journalistic adventure... I did not join them as a tourist in search of the picturesque, nor even as a journalist merely in search of a good story, but as a relative, fulfilling a moral obligation to my brothers. I wanted, in my own way as a journalist, to provide a picture of their struggles and aspirations in the hope that decent people, Jews and non-Jews alike, would be moved to help them...”

(from the Introduction)

Stone offers a direct and powerful account of his journey through various parts of post–World War II Europe, as he joined Holocaust survivors attempting, by clandestine means, to reach the shores of the Land of Israel, in defiance of the British White Paper policy and immigration restrictions. He was among the first to hear and document the stories of Holocaust survivors, accompanying them on their journey, many of whom had lost everything, their entire families murdered in the death camps. He recounts at length, for instance, the harrowing story of a Jewish woman named Sarah, a twenty-year-old from Lwów, who survived thanks to her Aryan appearance. She and her mother were loaded onto the death trains after the liquidation of the Lwów Ghetto, en route to the gas chambers. Sarah jumped from the train into the night. Her Aryan looks helped her find shelter and work, ultimately saving her life. Her unbelievable story is told in detail in the book, as are the stories of the other survivors who accompanied Stone on his journey to the Land of Israel.

Stone weaves together in his book sharp journalistic observations, personal encounters with survivors, and the political backdrop of the struggle to open the gates to the Land of Israel. The book is considered an early and highly significant documentation of the post-war reality, in terms of the DP camps, the Zionist organizations, Aliyah Bet movements, and the diplomatic complexities surrounding the question of Jewish refugees. Stone records the methods of organization and transport within the DP camps, facilitated by Zionist emissaries, as well as the tension between hope and the constant fear of encounters with the British. His book played a substantial role in shaping public opinion in the United States, as it was among the first American texts to present the plight of Jewish refugees as an urgent humanitarian crisis requiring immediate practical solutions.

xiv, 240 [1] pages. Hardcover with the original illustrated dust jacket. Jacket with tears and losses – restored. Overall good condition.