The Illegal Immigration after the Holocaust - the Happenings of Holocaust Survivors, Illegal Immigrants of the ...

The Illegal Immigration after the Holocaust - the Happenings of Holocaust Survivors, Illegal Immigrants of the "Exodus 1947": Tena'im of marriage, Ketubah written at the Displaced Persons Camp and a Certificate from the Exodus 1947 - Extremely Rare
Leah Friedman and Yehuda Edelstein lived in Salgótarján in North Hungary. Among the thousands of Jews who had lived in the city, only few survived the Holocaust, Leah and Yehuda among them. They returned to the city and married there on Isru Chag Sukkot 1946. Then they moved to the Fernwald Displaced Persons Camp in Germany. Their original Ketubah had been lost; therefore a new one was written for them at the Displaced Persons Camp, on Adar 1947. Their suffering did not end there and they boarded the Exodus 1947 on July 1947. Yehuda was a crew member of the ship and with his wife and the rest of the illegal immigrants, they were tossed on the waves on their way to the Land of Israel and back to Europe until they were forcibly taken of the ship and sent to the Poppendorf Camp in North Germany.
Before us are three documents that tell the story of the couple,
A. Tena'im Le'Erusin:
"Between the bridegroom Yehuda ben Yosef Mordechai Edelstein … and the bride Leah bat Moshe Freidman … here in the holy community of Salgótarján. [30.9.1945]". Hebrew and Aramaic.
Salgótarján is a city in North Hungary, close to the border with Slovakia. In May 1944, the Jews that had remained in the city were gathered in a ghetto. On June 13, 2,310 Jews were put on a cattle-train and sent to Auschwitz. Only 120 of them survived the camp and returned to the city at the end of the war; Yehuda and Leah were among them.
29x20 cm.
Condition: Good. Simple stationery . Stains and folding marks, with no damage to text.
B. Ketubah De'Irkasa:
Alternative Ketubah of the Edelsteins instead of the one that was lost. Fernwald Displaced Persons Camp, Germany, 6.3.1947.
30x29 cm.
Condition: Good. Simple stationery . A small tear and folding marks, with no damage to text.
C. Certificate - Exodus 1947:
Certificate bearing the photograph of Leah Edelstein and the stamp of "Exodus 1947", Hebrew and English, Poppendorf camp, 27.11. 1947.
The fate of the 4,500 illegal passengers on the Exodus became a symbol of the Jewish struggle for establishing a Jewish State after the Holocaust. The passengers were forbidden to enter the country and after a bitter struggle were forcibly returned to the Displaced Persons Camps in Germany.
On August 22, the ships returning the passengers to Germany sailed to Hamburg. Between September 8 and 9, the passengers were forced off the ships and were taken to two camps in North Germany. After a stay of about a year in the camps, most of the passengers returned to Israel, the Edelsteins and their daughter, who was born on the ship (item 288 of the Atlit Archive), among them.
The great publicity and shocked responses around the world to the Exodus affair were among the factors that led the British government to the conclusion that it was incapable of handling the Jewish refugees and the responsibility for the Land of Israel should be passed on to the UN.
20x15 cm.
Condition: Good. Filing holes and marks of staples, with no damage to text.
Rare Certificate!