Refugees crowd the rail of the Aliyah Bet ("illegal"
immigration) ship "Josiah Wedgwood," anchored at the Haifa port.
British soldiers transported the passengers to the Atlit
internment center. Palestine, June 27, 1946. US Holocaust
Memorial Museum Aliyah Bet is the Hebrew term that refers to the
clandestine immigration of Jews to Palestine between 1920 and
1948, when Great Britain controlled the area. The Hebrew word
"aliyah" (literally, "ascent") commonly refers to immigration to
the Land of Israel, while "bet" (the Hebrew equivalent of the
letter "B") here implies something unofficial or secret. The
phrase Aliyah Bet describes the movement of Jewish refugees,
many of them survivors of the Holocaust, not permitted to enter
Palestine by the British authorities. Initiated by Zionist
activists as the urgency for Jews to leave Europe intensified,
this phenomenon was referred to by the British as "illegal"
immigration. By 1948, well over 100,000 people had taken this
route, including more than 70,000 Holocaust s