Tens of thousands of European Jews fled to Palestine

Holocaust survivors’ celebration honors family, helpful friends

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The couple eloped to France in February 1947, when Selien was 19. They were married in a villa in Marseille, with several younger war orphans presiding over the ceremony. They stayed for two months, taking care of the children, before boarding a ship to the Palestinian territory. The vessel, the Hagana Ship Theodor Herzl, with room enough for 700, carried 2,700 passengers to the harbor of Haifa. It preceded the well-known Exodus, a ship turned away by the British, who then administered the Palestinian territory.

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