The War
Legal Papers for Palestine
Somehow, the Jewish organization worked with the American army to move us; it is my understanding that Jewish American soldiers had a lot to do with helping organize our transportation. We were allowed to use American trucks. In addition, the Joint Distribution Committee and other organizations provided us with food, clothing, and other necessities. The trucks delivered us to the railway station, where we boarded a special transport train to Marseilles; there were approximately fifteen hundred passen - gers, mostly children. I would imagine that we represented almost all of the Jews allowed to enter Palestine that month. Getting to Marseilles took over a week because this train, too, had to wait on sidings now and again. But there was plenty of food. The train had benches that were long enough to sleep on. We also climbed up and slept on the luggage shelves. We were young and excited. We arrived in Marseilles, and were amazed to see how well or- ganized everything was. They drove us in trucks to a provisional camp, told us exactly which buildings we should go to, and gave us cots and food. We stayed there for about ten days for medical exams. We were not permitted to leave the camp, but since there were so many youngsters there, we had a good time. Subsequently, we were picked up by U.S. Army trucks and brought to the Champollion , where we were assigned to quarters according to the group and political organization with which we were traveling. The ship itself was too crowded to be comfortable. Most of us slept in hammocks. My feet were not in very good con- dition. I did not have special shoes, only regular shoes lined with cotton, and they caused me constant pain. It was an ongoing strug- gle, but I was young and felt as if I was coming to life again, like a flower in April starting to bloom after a hard winter, so my pain did not matter that much to me. We met another group, fifty youngsters from Hungary, and we passed the time very pleasantly. I got to know one of the girls well enough to keep in touch with her for a while in Israel. The ship was also transporting four or five hundred French soldiers. We left Marseilles and went to Morocco; Algeria; Bizerte, Tunisia; and
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