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The Patria disaster was the sinking on 25 November 1940 by the Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah of a French-built ocean liner, the 11,885-ton SS Patria, in the port of Haifa.
Patria was about to depart with about 1,800 Jewish refugees whom the British autorities were deporting to Mauritius. Zionist organizations opposed the deportation, and the underground paramilitary Haganah group planted a bomb intended to disable the ship to prevent it from leaving Haifa.
The Haganah claims to have miscalculated the effects of the explosion. The bomb blew the steel frame off one full side of the ship and the ship sank in less than 16 minutes, trapping hundreds in the hold, killing 267 people and injuring 172.[1]The British allowed the survivors to remain in Palestine on humanitarian grounds.
Who was responsible and the true reason why Patria sank remained controversial until 1957, when Munya Mardor, the person who planted the bomb, published a book about his experiences.[2]
- ^ "Deaths of 260 in 1940 ship explosion commemorated". JWeekly.com. San Francisco Jewish Community Publications Inc. 14 December 2001.
- ^ Mardor, Munya Meir (1970) [1957]. Shelihut Alumah: Pirke Mivtsaim Meyuhadim Be-Maarkhot Ha-Haganah (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv: Tseva haganah le-Yisrael, Hotsaat Maarakhot: Misrad ha-bitahon.