“Skillfully demonstrates — while paying meticulous attention to the voluminous historical evidence he has unearthed — that for the British, humanitarian considerations were eclipsed by political and pragmatic calculations. . . . A major contribution to our understanding of how the DP issue and the Zionist’s manipulation of it helped undermine the British policy in the Middle East.” — Holocaust and Genocide Studies
“Kochavi provides one of the most complete assessments yet of why, for the Jews, liberation was not the same thing as redemption.” — CHOICE
“A valuable study of the mass exodus of Jews from East Central Europe after World War II.” — New York Review of Books
“A perceptive and intelligent assessment of British policy in a complicated multinational context, as well as a comparative analysis of the policies of Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and several other states. . . . An important window on the complicated diplomacy surrounding the international origins of Israeli statehood.” — Journal of American History
“[Kochavi] examines the history of the displaced persons problem in the widest context so far. . . . Kochavi’s excellent account is the most comprehensive study so far.” — American Jewish History
“Meticulously researched and elegantly written.” — Shofar
“[An] admirable, ground-breaking work.” — Studies in Contemporary Jewry
“Provides a detailed and nuanced analysis of the larger political landscape and shows how converging priorities among Americans, Zionists, and Europeans on both sides of the iron curtain — albeit for distinct reasons — allowed and even encouraged illegal Jewish immigration to Palestine after World War II.” — Albion
“Kochavi’s relatively uncomplicated narrative will appeal to a general audience interested in the story of the displaced persons, the postwar diplomacy of the great powers, and the creation of the state of Israel.” — Henry Friedlander, author of The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution
“This important new study illustrates how postwar British foreign policy was designed and pursued to prevent Jewish survivors of the Holocaust from emigrating from Europe to Palestine. With admirable industry and considerable skill, Professor Kochavi has unearthed and explored a mass of new information on the often-frantic but well-organized, heavily subsidized, and internationally supported efforts by Holocaust survivors to flee Europe for a new life in the Middle East. Kochavi’s study makes several important contributions to postwar international history, to our understanding of the imperial agendas of British Conservative and Labour governments during and after the war, and to the international context and national policies that prolonged the suffering and despair of the surviving Jewish victims of the Holocaust. This book fits comfortably among the most important and interesting works in this field.” — Charles W. Sydnor Jr., author of Soldiers of Destruction: The SS Death’s Head Division, 1933–1945
