Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

Esther and Bella Swartz reached Holland in July, 1947, and stayed for about one year in Apeldoorn.
In October, 1948, she boarded SS Negba נגבה for the 2 week voyage to Haifa.

Bella Swartz cites: as she was about to board the transport to kibbutz Kiryat Anavim קיבוץ קריית ענבים, "an old, broken-down woman approached me and asked whether I was from Iasi, and whether I knew two girls named Betty and Esther Swartz. When I inquired why all these questions, she said she was the girls' mother. I was shocked that my own mother did not recognize me. I did not recognize her either. She had aged so much and looked so decrepit. Her face was also changed because her eyes were swollen and reddened from a serious eye disease. My mother informed me that my brother was already in Israel; I, in turn, told her of the whereabouts of my younger sister, Esther. It is quite impossible to put into words what an emotional moment that was for us both. Then, my mother told me that after the war she had joined a group of people who made their way from Romania to Italy by foot. They walked in the mountains for many months, in the heat of the summer and in the frosts of winter. I do not remember how they finally got to Israel."