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If not for Hitler, 1938-1957 by Anny (nee Ulmer) Lerman
The memoir starts with the events following the German annexation of Austria in March 1938. She eyewitnessed Kristallnight, the pogrom in November 1938. In February, the family decided to flee from Austria. They could stay in Brno with her father's brother, but soon went illegally to Palestine. Anny Lerman describes the daily routine on the 3-month long journey on the ship to Palestine. The final pages are dedicated to her life in Palestine.
Lebensgeschichtliche Aufzeichnungen by Moshe Atidi
Memoir by Moshe Atidi including recollections of life in Innsbruck in the Nazi period, of his moving to Prague and Vienna, of his emigration to Palestine via Yugoslavia and Greece, of his illegal immigration in Palestine, and of life in Palestine and Israel as a tobacco worker and chess master.
Meine Erlebnisse by Benjamin Bernd Cohn
The file contains a memoir by Benjamin (Bernd) Cohn, describing his recollections of the years 1935 to 1938: Cohn and his mother's life in Berlin up to his migration to the Netherlands in 1937; two years spent at a Hachshara camp; and his illegal migration to Palestine in 1939.
My Pre-American History by Martin Ben-Ari
Moshe Ben-Ari was born as Martin Buchbinder in Czernowitz, Bukowina. At the age of two months the family settled in the 7th district in Vienna. After the Anschluss he joined the “Makkabi Hazair” and started his Hachsharah. In 1939 he was sent to England and continued his agricultural training. After the war he attempted illegal immigration to Palestine in order to join his parents. The ship was captured and he spent 11 months in Cyprus.
Hans (Chanan) Mielzynski Collection (AR 25606) [Digitized]
This collection consists primarily of hundreds of letters from Hans (Chanan) Mielzynski to his wife, Eva (Chawa), between 1940 and 1946. Mielzynski wrote from Sedom, where he worked in the potash plant, and Ashdot, where he did kibbutz-related work (1941-1944); while in the Jewish Brigade, training in Egypt and fighting in Italy (1944-1945); and in Europe after the war helping displaced Jews illegally emigrate to Palestine (1945-1946).
MACHAL [Mitnadvei Hutz LaAretz] and Aliyah Bet Records (I-501)
Prior to and during the war, many volunteers also assisted Israel by serving as crew on the many transport ships that brought Jewish refugees out of Europe against the British restrictions on immigration to Palestine. These illegal transports of immigrants, known as the Aliyah Bet were often conducted in hazardous conditions and threats from British patrols.
This collection is unique in that it deals specifically with the experience of MACHAL and Aliyah Bet volunteers from Canada and the United States and those that eventually settled in the United States but were born elsewhere. The collection consists of files on 500 volunteers, over 2000 original and reproduction photographs, numerous audio-visual material, books, manuscripts, and memoirs.
Max Meir Aronsohn Collection (LBIJER 69) [Digitzed]
The collection contains the memoir of Max Meir Aronsohn titled "Mein Leben" (bound typescript, 53 pp.) from 1941. The largest part of the memoir is dedicated to the description of his illegal emigration via Vienna, Pressburg (Bratislava), Budapest, Istanbul, and Crete to Palestine with the help of the "Palaestina-Amt" of the Jewish Agency (Aliyah Beth) in 1940, his detention in Acre and Atlit, his ultimate transferal to the detention camp on Mauritius, and life and conditions in the camp.
Escaping the Holocaust: illegal immigration to the land of Israel, 1939-1944 / Dalia Ofer. of Studies in Jewish History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Open the gates!: A personal story of "illegal" immigration to Israel / Avriel Ehud; pref. by Golda Meir. 1st ed. New York: Atheneum, 1975.
The American role in illegal immigration to Palestine / Elihu Bergman. Unpublished; 1993.
The secret roads;: the "illegal" migration of a people, 1938-1948 / by Jon and David Kimche. With an introd. by David Ben Gurion. New York]: Farrar, Straus, and Cudahy, 1955.
Second Exodus: the full story of Jewish illegal immigration to Palestine, 1945-1948 / Zeʾev Venia Hadari. London, England; Portland, Or.: Vallentine Mitchell, 1991.
Voyage to freedom: an episode in the illegal immigration to Palestine / Zeʾev Venia Hadari and Zeʾev Tsahor. London, England; Totowa, N.J.: Vallentine, Mitchell, 1985.