ABSTRACT
Through news reports made at the time and subsequent accounts, including the introduction of a high degree of fiction, the so-called ‘Exodus’ episode has passed into legend. The fact that the immigrants, seen as concentration camp survivors, were not only denied access to the Promised Land but were returned to the country which had caused their suffering continues to attract much hostile comment, particularly in Israel and the United States. No other post-war event lent itself more to attempts to attract sympathy for the Zionist cause but this standpoint overlooks the illegality of attempting to enter Palestine other than through the quota and the connivance of the French authorities. Ignored above all else is the fact that the would-be immigrants refused to disembark in France. Thus the route by which they had to be returned was via Germany but the destination remained France and there was no intention that they should be forced to remain in Germany.
