Kubersh, Benjamin 'Benny'

Birth Name Kubersh, Benjamin 'Benny'
Call Name 'Benny'
Gender male
Age at Death 83 years, 2 months, 20 days

Events

Event Date Place Description Notes Sources
Birth July 18, 1920 Tiffton, Georgia, United States of America  

Event Note

Benjamin Kubersh grew up in the Boston area, where in addition to standard schooling, studied Art and Hebrew.

 
Membership   השומר הצעיר ‎haShomer haTzair  

 
Military Service   United States Army, Department of Defence DoD  

Event Note

During World War II, Benny Kubersh served in the United States Army Signal Corps.

 
Boat August 4, 1947 גאולה SS Paducah Geula SS Paducah Geulah גאולה sailed from Bayonne to Varna Варна

Event Note

Benny Kubersh served as Gidoni גדעוני, wireless radio operator. aboard SS Paducah Geulah גאולה.

Event Note

Syd Abrams served as Seaman and Purser aboard SS Paducah Geulah גאולה.

Event Note

Walter 'Heavy' Greaves served as Seaman aboard SS Paducah Geulah גאולה.
He was released from Akko Prison, and went back to New York, looking for another refugee ship to join.
He met members of a Haganah cell at a synagogue in the Bronx, preparing a boat called the SS Paducah.
Walter 'Heavy' Greaves cites: "the Geula organizers at first hesitated to accept him because of his ties to the Irgun-affiliated S.S. Ben Hecht", but he was able to win them over.

Event Note

Moshe Kallner served as Messman aboard SS Paducah Geulah גאולה.

[1]
Boat September 26, 1947 גאולה SS Paducah Geula SS Paducah Geulah גאולה sailed from Varna Варна for Palestine

Event Note

On September 26, 1947, SS Paducah Geulah גאולה sailed from Varna Варна for Palestine.
Arnold Kite cites: "Winter, 1947, Burgas Bulgaria on the Black Sea. The “Paducah” will this day receive the Ma’apilim, the ‘illegals’, those that have survived the death camps of Katzet, Totenlager. The Russians, after playing cat and mouse, have decided to release the men, women and children, having herded them into cattle cars along the pier railhead. The Jews may sail from Europe now. They must leave at once! Today. Or be returned to the camps they came from. The Jews may sail now from Europe to Eretz Israel."
"During the morning and afternoon hours they came aboard, some sick, some walking straight and upright, some fearful imagining horrors to come as they recall previous queues. The old men and women, clutching a few personal belongings, incredulous that before them, assisting them, the crewmen of the “Paducah” speak to them in Yiddish, in Hebrew, in English and sometimes, to obtain maximum and prompt response to orders, in German. "

Event Note

Syd Abrams served as Seaman and Purser aboard SS Paducah Geulah גאולה.

Event Note

Arnold Kite served as Seaman and Wiper, aboard SS Paducah Geulah גאולה.
Arnold Kite cites: "I made contact with the Mosad for Aliya Bet and was on my way to Miami, Florida in just a few weeks. From Miami we left the States on a ship built in the 1920’s and bought from the US by the Mosad for Aliya Bet. The ship was the “SS Paducah”, later renamed the “Geula”."
Ben Hagai Steuerman cites: Arnold Kite "...served on the Paduca ferrying DP's to Palestine on the fateful voyage in which the ship was boarded by the British Naval forces and the crew and passengers detained in Cyprus. He remained in Israel working on a kibbutz for some years after the war. He returned to live out his remaining years in Buffalo Grove."

Event Note

Benny Kubersh served as Gidoni גדעוני, wireless radio operator. aboard SS Paducah Geulah גאולה.

Event Note

Naftali Zloczower and his parents sailed from Romania on Paducah Geula גאולה.

[1]
Camp October, 1947 Καράολος Gazimagusa Karakol Karaolos Internment Camps 55-62, Mağusa bölgesi, Κύπρος Kıbrıs The Maapilim aboard SS Paducah Geulah גאולה, were interned by the British

 
Membership   קיבוץ חצור kibbutz Hatzor חצור אשדוד Hatzor Ashdod, באר טוביה, הדרום, ישראל  

Event Note

In November, 1947, Benjamin Kubersh joined his gareen, and drove a caterpillar tractor building shelter, trenches and transporting supplies to Negev settlements.
During the War of Independence, he operated the communications station.

 
Marriage     Benjamin Kubersh married Ruchama

 
Death October 7, 2003   Benjamin Kubersh,t age 83 years, died of a heart attack

 

Source References

  1. Running the Palestine Blockade: The Last Voyage of the Paducah

Pedigree

    1. Kubersh, Benjamin 'Benny'