Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

On December 1, 1939, after Mussolini's order to disband COMASEBIT, Delegazione per l’Assistenza agli Emigranti Ebrei DELASEM Delegation for the Assistance of Jewish Emigrants was set up in Genova, by Dante Almansi and Genoese lawyer, Lelio Vittorio Valobra.
The Italian Ministry of the Interior allowed DELASEM to organize travel by Jews to Palestine.
Mussolini originally wanted a general entry ban for "alien Jews" in conjunction with the expulsion law.
The Racial Laws of 1938 deprived Jews of their right of residence in Italy, and from June 15, 1940, they were detained in camps, such as Ferramonti di Tarsia.
In response to the urging of the ministries, which did not want to jeopardize transit and tourism as a source of income for Italian shipping lines, he relented,
Embarkation from Genova and Napoli to North and South America, and from Trieste to Palestine, and to Shanghai, continued without disturbance.
Fascist Italy, despite race laws and threat of expulsion, remained a sanctuary.
In response to the new wave of refugees, approximately 2,000 persons within six weeks of August, the Ministry of the Interior, suspended residence permits for tourism, and suspended the Expulsion Decree, abrogating the planned mass expulsion, but found other ways to get rid of both the Jewish emigrants and refugees.
It used expulsion "a loro rischio e loro pericolo" (at your own risk and at your own peril), in particular on the Yugoslavian, Swiss, and especially the French borders.

On July 24, 1939, Bocchini, on orders from Mussolini, commanded the Milanese prefect to dissolve the COMASEBIT.
On August 29, 1939, COMASEBIT was dissolved.
In September, Renzo Luisada, secretary of COMASEBIT, told the American Consul General Sholes, that approximately 800 Jewish refugees had recently left Italy, "mostly across the border of Ventimiglia, with the tacit support of the authorities." The French strengthened their border patrols, and sent back refugees whom they had seized.

After the outbreak of the World War, the Italian Foreign Office signed an agreement with the British Embassy in Roma, guaranteeing transit via Trieste for holders of Palestine certificates, saving more than 2,500 persons.
The Italian Foreign Office realized thatallowing illegal transports jeopardized this agreement.
Resistance came from the Italian Ministry of the Navy and the port officials, who maintained that Italy, as a signatory to the International Convention for the Protection of Human Life at Sea of 1929, could not permit ships that did not meet specifications to be used for passenger traffic from Italian ports.
The tragedies of later Palestine-bound vessels justified their apprehension.
Greek and Yugoslavian shipowners evaded Italian port authorities, and risked carrying passengers ashore along the Palestinian coast in worn-out freighters and tugboats.
The Italian port authorities refused these vessels permission to sail, mandated renovations, and imposed a limited number of passengers that would have made the trip unprofitable for the shipowners.
The ships, whose arrival had already been announced failed to show or were turned back by the port authorities leaving the prospective passengers waiting in the harbor towns.
The Italian Ministry of the Interior opposed the transports "in the interests of public security", but between September 1938 and January 1940, several ships put out to sea.

In early 1940, DELASEM approached the Italian Ministry of Interior with recommendations regarding the exit of Jews without transit visas, from Italy, but, the Foreign Office objected, to avoid jeopardizing the agreement with the British concerning legal exits via Trieste.

DELASEM operated on the basis of a minimum payment of 240 lire (12 dollars) per month to cover living expenses.
With 3,000 dependents, that come to $36,000.
In August, 1939 , the Joint Distribution Committee transferred $13,000, and $8,000 in September and in October, which meant that the Italian committees were not able to spend more than 2 lire per day, or 60 lire monthly per person.
In February, 1940, a representative of the Quakers, AFSCI (American Friends Service Committee Refugee Services, Italy) opened an office in Roma, that functioned until July, 1941.
Italian Catholics did not create their own committee, instead, the Vatican , in June, 1940, delegated a representative of the Saint Raphael Society, who resided in the Convent of the Pallottine Fathers, in Roma, to coordinate the migration of "non-Aryan Catholics" from Italy to North and South America.

By June, 1940, most DELASEM members were arrested and interned, but DELASEM continued to operate, although curtailed.

On September 8, 1943, DELASEM ceased.
In the summer of 1944, DELASEM was reactivated in Bari, by its former members.
Offices were opened in Napoli, Roma and Firenze, with funding from Joint Distribution Committee.
DELASEM channeled the flow of refugees through Italy, arranging food and papers.
During the period of the underground activieties, DELASEM was headed by:
* Raffaele Cantoni and Lelio Vittorio Valobra, exiled in Switzerland
* Massimo Teglio Teglio and Rabbi Riccardo Pacifici in Genova
* Rabbi Nathan Cassuto and Matilde Cassin in Firenze
* Raffaele Jona in Piedmont
* Mario Finzi in Bologna
* Septimius Sorani and Joseph Levi in Roma