From Catastrophe to Power: Holocaust Survivors and the Emergence of Israel
| Author | Idith Zertal |
| Publication information | University of California Press, 1998 |
Narrative
Idith Zertal interprets a chapter in contemporary Jewish and Zionist history: the clandestine immigration to Palestine of Jewish refugees, most of them Holocaust survivors, that was organized by Palestinian Zionists just after World War II.
Events that captured the attention of the world, such as the Exodus affair in the summer 1947, are seen here in a new light.
At the center of Idith Zertal's book is Mossad leAliyah Bet, the small Zionist organization whose mission beginning in 1938 was to bring Jews to Palestine in order to subvert the British quotas on Jewish immigration.
From Catastrophe to Power scrutinizes the Mossad leAliyah Bet's mode of operation, its ideology and politics, its structure and history, and its collective human profile.
Idith Zertal draws on primary archival documents and new readings of canonical texts of the period, and analyzes this encounter from all angles--political, social, cultural, and psychological.