Category:Pentcho Ship (subject)

Voyage of the Pentcho (see Holocaust Children Studies)

Holocaust Refugee Children -- Holocaust Refugee Children, Italy -- Ferramonti

Overview

The Pentcho was an 85 year-old, malfunctioning Danube paddle-steamer. The ship left Bratislava, Slovakia on May 18, 1940 with 400 refugee Slovakian and German Jews, including some former inmates of Buchenwald, bound for Palestine, attempting to escape Nazi persecution. The voyage was organized by Betar, the right-wing Revisionist Zionists, as part of the Aliyah Bet.

The voyage was greatly delayed by the various governments en route. The Pentcho wheezed and clanked down the Danube, picking up 100 more refugee Austrian Jews along the way. At the end it had a total of 514 passengers (including 25 children).

The boat finally sailed from Sulina, Romania, on 21 Sep 1940 to Palestine. During the arduous journey on October 9 her single boiler stopped working and the ship was wrecked north of Crete. The ship's boiler exploded causing the Pentcho to split in two. Five men took the ship's only lifeboat to look for rescue. Though they were caught in a storm and lost their bearings, they were eventually rescued by a British destroyer and taken to Alexandria.

The passengers, marooned on the deserted island of Kamilanisi (Chamilonesi, now called Nisos Khamili), were nevertheless able to get their supplies ashore. Five men took the ship's only lifeboat to look for rescue. Though they were caught in a storm and lost their bearings, they were eventually rescued by a British destroyer and taken to Alexandria.

The passenger remained on the deserted island were eventually spotted by a plane, picked up by Italian authorities and brought to the island of Rhodes- during the war under Italian control- where they lived for the next 15 months in "concentration camp" San Giovanni, a sports stadium on the island of Rhodes, guarded by Italian soldiers but aided by members of the indigenous Rhodes Jewish community who brought them food and supplies.

All but two were transferred in January 1942 to Ferramonti internment camp in southern Italy, living among other "enemy aliens", until they were liberated by the British army in 1943 after the Allies captured Italy. At Rhodes and Ferramonti several other babies were born (6 in Rhodes, 1 during the journey to Italy, and 1 in Ferramonti)

In June 1944 most of the refugees successfully emigrated to Palestine, traveling on the Polish liner Batory to Alexandria and then by train. A number of them went to the Fort Ontario refugee center in New York State in July 1944.

USHMM

The Pentcho was an 85 year-old paddlewheel steamer hired by the Revisionist Zionist movement to bring Jewish refugees to Palestine. It departed from Bratislava on May 18, 1940 with some 400 Slovakian Jews and proceeded down the Danube. A few weeks later it picked up over 100 Austrian Jews at the seaport of Sulina, bringing the total to some 510 Jewish refugees. The Pentcho left Sulina on September 21 and after a stormy crossing on the Black Sea, it passed the Dardanelles and reached the Greek port of Mytilene (Metelin) on the island of Lesbos. After the ship was ordered to leave without refueling, the passengers wired the Committee for the Relief of Refugees (CRR) in Athens stating their predicament. They headed for the port of Piraeus, where the CRR arranged for a delivery of food and fuel. The Pentcho left Piraeus on October 3 and four days later reached the port of Rhodes where they were reprovisioned by the Italian authorities but ordered to leave the following day. A few days later, on October 9, the ship's boiler exploded, and the ship broke in two off of the deserted island of Kamilonissi in Dodecanese territory, then under Italian control. The passengers and crew were able to get ashore and off-load their supplies before the ship finally sank. Five men took the ship's only lifeboat to look for rescue. Though they were caught in a storm and lost their bearings, they were eventually rescued by a British destroyer and taken to Alexandria. When the CRR learned about the wreckage of the Pentcho, it alerted Greeks in Herakleion who then endeavored to have supplies delivered to the stranded refugees on Kamilonissi. On October 18 and 19, Italian authorities picked up the refugees on two sorties and brought them to the main island of Rhodes where they stayed for the next year and a quarter in a hastily constructed camp in the soccer stadium of Rhodes. Then, in January 1942, the refugees were transferred to the Ferramonti internment camp in southern Italy. They were kept there until the Allies captured Italy. Most of the Pentcho's passengers arrived in Palestine in June 1944, but twenty-four of them were among the 1000 refugees brought to the US in 1944 aboard the SS Henry Gibbins and sheltered at Fort Ontario. The Pentcho was the last illegal immigrant ship sponsored by the Revisionist Zionist movement. Afterwards illegal immigration to Palestine was organized by the Mossad, the Organization for Illegal Immigration.