Historical Perspectives of Jewish Presence: Jewish Colonisation Schemes and the Post-War Internment Camps

This fifth recording from the conference Historical Perspectives of Jewish Presence holds the conclusion and discussion of a paper on late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Jewish colonisation schemes in Cyprus, followed by a paper on the post-war British internment camps.

The first paper, by Magdalini, joined in progress, examines Greek Cypriot and British colonial reactions to Jewish settlement attempts between the 1880s and 1906, including the schemes of Davis Trietsch and the Jewish Colonization Association at Margo and Kouklia. Drawing on the Legislative Council debates and Cypriot newspapers such as Phoni tis Kyprou, she shows how Greek Cypriot politicians opposed immigration out of fear that a foreign community would obstruct the movement for enosis (union with Greece), alongside economic anxieties after the 1887 agricultural crisis and religious polemic. She then traces how the British administration, under figures such as High Commissioner Walter Sendall and Chief Secretary Arthur Young, shifted from assisting self-supporting settlers to obstructing destitute immigrants from Eastern Europe through the 1898 proclamation, culminating in the 1906 grant-in-aid. The long discussion that follows compares Greek Cypriot attitudes towards Maltese, Armenian and Doukhobor settlers, debates the balance between theological Judeophobia, modern antisemitism and anti-colonial nationalism, and notes the republishing of articles from diaspora Greek newspapers in Trieste and Smyrna.

The second paper, by Yonah, examines the British internment camps on Cyprus from August 1946, when Britain diverted Jewish refugees attempting to reach Palestine without visas to camps at Karaolos and Famagusta. Although Cypriots initially feared the economic impact of the camps and the creation of another minority hostile to enosis, local networks soon formed to assist the detainees. She details the cooperation between the Communist Party AKEL, figures such as Prodromos Papavassiliou, and the Haganah, Mossad and the American Joint Distribution Committee. Tunnels dug from tents at the edge of the camps allowed escapees to reach Cypriot aides, hideouts and small fishing boats. Assistance was motivated both by shared anti-British ideology and by payment in cash or weapons, alongside an informal black market across the wire. The paper concludes with the role of the Machal, predominantly American Jewish and non-Jewish volunteers crewing illegal immigrant ships such as the Hatikva and Pan Crescent, who were interned in Cyprus disguised as refugees and used the camp quotas and tunnels to return to Europe for further voyages. Questions afterwards address archival records at the Center for Jewish History in New York and interviews with Machal veterans including Murray Greenfield, Paul Kaye and Harold Katz.