Abstract

Departure

Half-million Jews in Warsaw, Poland gathered at the railway station as two hundred people were being entrained on their way to Constanza, where they take ship, on their way out of bondage, on their way to Eretz Jisroel--the land of the fathers. The blue-coated Polish policemen with their long swords were impassive. Impassive and a little surly. Their duty that night rather disgusted them. They were accustomed to inspiring fear, at least a nervous shrinking. That night, despite their authority, which cannot be denied, they simply did not exist. The spirit of the half-million crowd had risen above them. The train stood beside the platform and the leader from the Palestine Office was busy getting his people on board. He accompanied them to the Rumanian border, saw to it that they are not cheated nor delayed through passport or visa chicaneries, nor suffer violence nor robbery. At the border another leader took his place, who accompanied and protected the group to its final destination.