This paper explores the little-known history of over 400 members of the Jewish right-wing underground organizations, the Irgun and Lehi, who were exiled without trial by the British Mandatory authorities from Palestine to detention camps in Eritrea, Sudan, and Kenya between October 1944 and July 1948.
Out of Africa: letters of Jewish detainees in the British internment camps, 1944–1948
Dubbed “Operation Snowball,” the British aimed to weaken the militant groups and neutralize potential escapes. Despite enduring harsh conditions, intense isolation, and strict censorship, the detainees maintained remarkable resilience.
Central to the research is the rich collection of real-time correspondence preserved primarily in the Jabotinsky Institute Archive. These letters served as an emotional lifeline, creating an “imaginary space” that allowed prisoners to briefly escape their bleak reality, maintain connections with loved ones, and combat despair. While some letters exposed profound anguish—such as the harrowing 1946 shooting incident by Sudanese guards that killed two detainees—others reflected extraordinary intellectual and cultural vitality.
The detainees organized a vibrant microcosm of community life, establishing study programs, correspondence courses, athletic leagues, cultural lectures, and publishing newspapers and books. Notably, future Israeli leaders like Yitzhak Shamir, Shmuel Tamir, and Meir Shamgar spent their time refining their worldviews or studying law. Despite several daring escape attempts—with only a few successfully reaching Europe—the exiles remained steadfast until their eventual release following Israel’s independence, arriving back at the port of Haifa in July 1948. Ultimately, Ozacky-Stern uses these ego-documents to shed light on a marginalized chapter of pre-state history, honoring the resilience of men caught between colonial detention and the dawn of statehood.
Stern, D. O. (2024). Out of Africa: letters of Jewish detainees in the British internment camps, 1944–1948. Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 23(2), 444–469.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14725886.2023.2292800
