bricha (Hebrew: escape): a name for both the process of illegal emigration of Jews from Europe to Palestine after World War II and the organizational structures which made it possible. During World War II, a number of transit routes for Jews who were saving their lives by escaping from war-torn Europe, paving the way for the Bricha. The Bricha began soon after the war broke out and after various forms of discrimination of Jews were introduced. Zionist youth organisations made efforts to secretly transport small groups of refugees, most of them consisting of just a few individuals, into Palestine. In most cases, the trail led through Hungary, Romania and Turkey. However, these efforts were made sporadically and on a very small scale. After the war, the situation changed radically. The state borders have changed and the military authority of the Allied Forces extended over vast territories, allowing the great migration to begin. Scores of former prisoners of war and deportees made their way across Europe in their desire to return to their homelands. Prisoners of liberated concentration camps were initially placed in the so-called DP (displaced persons) camps operating under the management of the Allied Forces. Most of the refugees were Jews, who often had nowhere to go. They were well aware of the fact that their home towns had been wiped off the face of the earth and that they were the sole surviving members of their families. It was at that point that the idea of relocation of Jews into Palestine, intended as the future Jewish state, was born again. The proposed scheme was also intended to encompass Jews of Eastern Europe which came into the sphere of influence of the USSR pursuant to the international treaties concluded. In this situation, the activists of Zionist organisations – Dror, HaShomer HaTzair, HaNoar HaTzioni and Beit Trumpedor established the Coordination Committee of the Bricha in January 1945, with Lublin becoming the initial seat of the organisation. Until May 1945, a total of 1500 individuals were successfully transferred to Romania. Once there, they received the necessary training and took the position of emissaries who would then begin transferring Jews through Central Europe into Italy (mostly into the port town of Triest), from where they would be smuggled into Haifa on rented fishing boats. Another route led through Hungary and Austria, where the Bricha established its transitional camps. The Polish branch of Bricha led by Icchak Cukierman has managed to establish a number of camps in Lower Silesia, along the Czechoslovakian border. These camps served a dual purpose – apart from being transitional camps in which refugees awaited the time when they could cross the border, they also served as training camps in which Jews prepared for their new life as settlers in the Palestinian territories. The Polish authorities have also expressed their oral consent to the establishment of a camp in Bolków; this camp, ran by Haganah instructors, was where the future Israeli army servicemen received their training. According to the memoirs of Icchak Cukierman, he also had plans for the establishment of a navy training camp in Gdańsk. However, David Ben Gurion opposed the idea, which meant that this plan would never be carried out. The Jews who made it to Lower Silesia would cross the green border between Poland and Czechoslovakia and then travel through Austria and Italy, making their way towards Palestine. However, no such escapade was an easy one. The borders of the Palestine Mandate were controlled by the British, who ensured that the quota of Jewish settlers specified under the 1939 White Paper was complied with. The ships carrying refugees were either shot at, forcing them to turn back, or were led in military convoys towards Cyprus, where camps for illegal immigrants were established. These camps remained in use until May 1948, when the State of Israel proclaimed independence. The wave of emigration from Poland intensified following the Kielce pogrom. It is estimated that during that time, i.e. from July to the end of August 1946, approximately 73 thousand people escaped from the Polish territory, the vast majority of them doing so with the aid of the Bricha. Overall, the operations conducted by the Bricha allowed approximately 250 thousand European Jews, including 170 000 Polish Jews – to make their way into Palestine.

The text comes from the Diapozytyw Portal, formerly owned by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
The text above comes from the book entitled „Historia i kultura Żydów polskich. Słownik" (History and Culture of the Polish Jews. A Dictionary) by Alina Cała, Hanna Węgrzynek and Gabriela Zalewska, published by WSiP (Educational and Pedagogical Publishers).