Large Photograph Collection – Illegal Immigrant Ships – 1939-1948

Large Photograph Collection – Illegal Immigrant Ships – 1939-1948
Approximately 120 photographs of illegal immigrant ships. Tel Aviv, Haifa, Nahariya, Burgas, Constanza and elsewhere, 1939-1948 (a number of photographs from later years).
The collection contains photographs of some 30 different ships, documenting conditions on deck, the living quarters, deboarding to beaches, confrontations with the British forces and other scenes. Among other things the photographs show: the Rim immigrant ship burning off the coast of the Greek Island of Symi, in 1939; members of the Haganah transferring immigrants from the ship Hannah Szenes to the coast of Nahariya in dinghies, in 1945; the illegal immigrant ship Rafiah surrounded by British warships at sea, in 1946; an infant born at sea aboard the Champollion being transferred to land at Haifa Port, in 1946; a British airplane passing over SS HaUmot HaMeuhadot off the Nahariya coast in 1947; and the ships Tel Hai (1946), Eliyahu Golomb (1946), Dov Hoz (1946), Haviva Reik (1946), Max Nordau (1946), Latrun (1946), Theodor Herzl (1947), HaTikvah (1947), Af Al Pi Chen (Nevertheless) (1947), The Jewish State (1947), and other ships.
Some of the photographs in the collection are press photographs, with different ink stamps and information notes mounted on verso. A number of photographs are captioned and numbered by hand in the plate.
Enclosed: broadside from February 25, 1942 notifying of the sinking of the Struma; a mourning notice by "Mishmar HaYishuv" (the Yishuv Defense Force) regarding the death of an immigrant; three postcards with pictures of the illegal immigrant ships Patria and Rim.
Size and condition vary. Good-fair overall condition.
Provenance: Rimon Family Collection.