Seventy-six years after she boarded the Exodus immigrant ship bound for the fledgling state of Israel, Pnina Gavish was reunited with fellow passenger Moshe Reider, and with the descendants of other Jews who arrived on the ship to begin their new lives here.
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Gavish, 90, from Kibbutz Heftziba, was born in Turobin, Poland. "We grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home, and everything was normal until September 1939 when the Nazis started the war," she recounts.
"A few days after the war began, we fled toward Ukraine, and after the Germans advanced we took a wagon and two horses and headed for the Orelle mountains. My father was conscripted into the Red Army and went missing in the battles in Leningrad, and to this day we don't know what happened to him," according to Gavish.
"During the war, we lived in severe poverty," she recalls. "We lacked food, we were hungry, and we found roots and branches and ate them. Then one day, we heard from Jewish soldiers who served in the Red Army that the war had ended, and Stalin announced that anyone who wants to return home can do so."
"My mother decided that we were going back to Poland. We were five sisters and a brother. We couldn't return to our town because of severe antisemitism, so we went to another place in Poland. There, I began participating in Zionist activities as part of the Borochov movement," she said.
"In 1947, my mother convinced me to make aliyah. We left Poland with a Jewish youth group and traveled by train to France. We were thin and pale, and for eight months we were in a camp to recover and prepare ourselves," she continued.
"They gave us good food and nice clothes, then one day we were told we'll be boarding the Exodus. They took us to a farm in France named Dafna where they taught us Hebrew and agriculture. That was the first time I met Israelis from the kibbutz, and they taught and trained us for two months."
The dramatic night of the Exodus voyage is one Gavish will never forget.
"One night, trucks arrived and took us, as if we were cargo, not passengers. After six hours, we arrived at the port of Sete near Marseille, where we boarded the Exodus. The voyage was very difficult; the British took control of the ship and forced us back to Europe."
"It was only after 11 months that we returned to Israel, arriving one day after the declaration of independence," she added. "I remember sending a letter to my mother, in which I wrote that Israel wasn't a desert, contrary to popular belief. There were also trees and bushes," Gavish recounted.
What did it feel like returning to the place where the training camp took place before heading to Israel?
"It's a dream come true and brings me closure. After 76 years, I returned to the place where I lived and was trained for agricultural work. I was with my grandson, who came here for the first time in his life and accompanied me throughout this journey."
Gavish worked as a preschool teacher in Hefzibah for dozens of years, in addition to helping in other areas of the kibbutz. She has five children, eight grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
Several second and third generation progeny of those who boarded the Exodus also joined the journey. "As the second generation of Exodus survivors, we're working to preserve and perpetuate the ship's legacy," said Itzik Rosman, son of Mordechai Rosman, who led the crew of the Exodus.
"When looking into the subject, I learned about the Dafna training camp, which was about 30 kilometers away from Marseille, through a conversation with Pnina, who stayed in the camp as a young girl before boarding the Exodus," he said.
"The camp, which was owned by French Jews and became a training center for about 100 Jewish youths, ages 6 to 18, all of whom survived the Holocaust. They underwent agricultural training and basic self-defense education in preparation for their arrival in Israel," he added.
"When we arrived there, Pnina immediately recognized the place, and later we spoke with the camp's manager, who told us about its history in the post-World War II period," Rosman said.