A huge multi-participant group photo. The photographed - the Irgun and Leh"i exiles who were deported to the Asmara camps by the British, waving the Israeli flag and holding a sign: 'Zion exiles in Asmara' and 'If I forget you, Jerusalem will forget my right'. Behind are the camp barracks. Sambal was the first camp to which the exiles were deported. Sambal detention camp in Asmara. Eritrea, [c. 1945].
In response to the Jewish "terror" that threatened to set the Land of Israel on fire again, John Shaw, the Chief Secretary of the Mandate authorities and Acting High Commissioner (the commissioner was recovering at the time from an assassination attempt by Lehi fighters on August 8, 1944), John Shaw, hastened to formulate some recommendations to deal with the issue. The secretary recommended the forced deportation of the hundreds of the Irgun and Leh"i youth imprisoned in the detention camps in Latrun and Acre far from the Land of Israel. Of the three alternatives that Shaw proposed - Cyprus, Cyrenaica and Eritrea - Eritrea was chosen as the deportation destination. The political situation in this country was admittedly unclear, But the great distance from the Land of Israel convinced the Mandate authorities that the chances of escape from Eritrea were minor. In the early morning hours of October 19, 1944, 251 Acre and Latrun detainees were put on the planes of the British Air Force. Returning to Israel was at the forefront of the detainees' minds since the day they set foot on African soil. The last of the detainees left the camp 56 days after the state was established and docked at Tel Aviv port in July 1948.
60x40 cm. Slight wrinkles. Good condition.
