Aliyah Bet ("illegal" immigration) ship "Parita," carrying 850 Jewish refugees, lands on a sandbank off the Tel Aviv coast. The British arrested the passengers and interned them at Atlit detention camp. Palestine, August 21, 1939. Photograph »

A British policeman (left) organizes the arrest of passengers from the Aliyah Bet ("illegal" immigration) ship "Parita" after they disembarked near Tel Aviv. Palestine, August 22, 1939. Photograph »

The British arrested the passengers of the Aliyah Bet ("illegal" immigration) ship "Parita" after they arrived on the Tel Aviv coast and transferred them in caged buses to Atlit detention camp. Palestine, August 21, 1939. Photograph »

Jewish refugee youth sail for Palestine from an Italian port on the Aliyah Bet ("illegal" immigration) ship "Parita." 1940. Photograph »

Eight-year-old Yisrael Meir (Lulek) Lau is held by a fellow Buchenwald survivor, Elazar Schiff, as they arrive in Palestine aboard the RMS "Mataroa." Haifa, Palestine, July 15, 1945. Photograph »

Youths with camp numbers tattooed on their arms aboard Aliyah Bet ("illegal" immigration) ship "Mataroa," at the Haifa port. They were denied entry and were deported to Cyprus detention camps. Palestine, July 15, 1945. Photograph »

Jewish refugee children unfurl the Jewish flag as they arrive at the Haifa port aboard Aliyah Bet ("illegal" immigration) ship SS "Franconia." Palestine, September 1945. Photograph »

A young Jewish refugee, wounded while resisting British soldiers on board the Aliyah Bet ("illegal" immigration) ship "Knesset Israel," is deported to a Cyprus detention camp. Haifa port, Palestine, April 12, 1946. Photograph »

Refugees crowd the rail of the Aliyah Bet ("illegal" immigration) ship "Josiah Wedgwood," anchored at the Haifa port. British soldiers transported the passengers to the Atlit internment center. Palestine, June 27, 1946. Photograph »

Refugees on board Aliyah Bet ("illegal" immigration) ship "Theodor Herzl" carry bodies (in white shrouds) of two passengers slain when the ship tried to run a British blockade. Haifa port, Palestine, April 14, 1947. Photograph »

British soldiers check Jewish refugees from Aliyah Bet ("illegal" immigration) ship "Theodor Herzl" before deporting them to detention camps in Cyprus. Haifa port, Palestine, April 24, 1947. Photograph »

German Jewish orphans arrive at the Marseille railroad station, en route to Palestine as part of Aliyah Bet ("illegal" immigration). Marseille, France, March 25, 1948. Photograph »

Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion reads the declaration of the state of Israel at an official ceremony following the United Nations' partition of Palestine. Tel Aviv, May 14, 1948. Photograph »

The Jewish refugee ship "Pan-York," carrying new citizens to the recently established state of Israel, docks at Haifa. The ship sailed from southern Europe to Israel, via Cyprus. Haifa, Israel, July 9, 1948. Photograph »