Nissen Huts
When we visited Cyprus, we went to the Jewish Museum, where the exhibit — “The Nissen Hut” — shows a tin hut and a small reproduction of the detention camps the British Army used to house the thousands of Jewish captives in Cyprus who were fleeing Europe to prevent them from reaching Palestine. The huts are named after Canadian engineer Lt. Col. Peter Nissen, who designed them during World War I. The British also blocked U.S. boats carrying Jews to Palestine.
There were a total of 12 camps which operated from August 1946 to January 1949, holding some 53,000 people in all. Over 2,200 children were born in the camps. There were five summer camps in tents and seven winter camps in the Nissen huts. There was no shade at all in the camps.
The British Army prevented 35 boats from entering Haifa during this time, in some cases putting bombs in the engine rooms to stop them. A report in the museum from the New York Times on Aug. 19, 1946, headlines that “Tear Gas and Fire Hoses Drive Refugees onto Transfer Crafts” and continues that “1,000 Jews Riot in Island Camp.” It says the Jewish refugees at Caraolos Camp after being refused admittance to Palestine rioted, unfurled their national flag and yelled at the British Guards, “Kill us. We want to go to Palestine.”
One of the exhibits shows the escape attempts made by the detained Jews. In one week it was reported by the Jewish Telegraph agency that 100 Jewish detainees succeeded in escaping from Cyprus. The British engineers blew up a secret tunnel after they had previously pumped 340,000 gallons of water into the subterranean passage without wrecking it.
Local Cypriots reportedly helped some Jews escape and make the crossing to Palestine in small boats.
Joyce Fairchild, Antonis Partasis
London, England
NALC should be commended
I commend the postal union and the National Association of Letter Carriers for their courageous stand against ICE at local post offices in Minneapolis. As a letter carrier, I can empathize with the shock and dismay that would be felt if someone used my postal parking lot as a place to detain, harass, and deport fellow workers who happen to be immigrants.
“Postal union protests gov’t using post offices to launch ICE raids,” headlined an article in the Dec. 29 Militant. It is a disgrace that ICE is resorting to such tactics, attacking our fellow working men and women. These raids on working people are despicable, and many of these individuals are ordinary, U.S. citizens.
This power grab by the ruling class against working immigrants who are in the United States, most legally, is an abomination against working people everywhere. Workers of the world must rise up against this tyranny, and I am most glad that the Militant is actively fighting for justice.
Curtis Roessler
West Hartford, Connecticut