Atlit - Detainee Camp

The Atlit Detainee Camp is a museum
dedicated to the pre-state illegal immigration

The Story

Atlit detainee camp is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coast of Israel, about 20 km south of Haifa. In the 1930s and 40s, it served as a detention center for illegal Jewish immigrants seeking refuge in Palestine during the British Mandate. At this time British authorities limited Jewish immigration & refused to allow Jews to enter the country.

In 1945, special Jewish Haganah forces, broke into the camp and released 200 detainees, who escaped. This event, was followed by a British deportation of the illegal immigrants to camps in Cyprus.

The Museum

Today the Atlit Detainee Camp is a museum dedicated to the pre-state illegal immigration, telling the story of Jews fleeing Nazi persecution in Europe, finaly reaching Palestine, only to be incarcerated in camps similar in appearance to the death camps they have just escaped.

The museum offers its visitors a chance to step back into history through a model of the original camp, some restored barracks, a main reception facility where new immigrants relived the trauma of removing their clothes for disinfection and shower before being admitted and a memorial to those who perished on their way to Israel.