Artur Patek. Jews on Route to Palestine, 1934–1944

Artur Patek, a professor of history at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, is a specialist on the Polish-Jewish community and its association with the British Mandate in Palestine and the State of Israel. In Jews on Route to Palestine, 1934–1944, he offers an in-depth analysis of the illegal immigration of Polish Jews to Palestine as part of the Aliyah Bet (from 1934 to almost the end of World War II), which he calls “a national myth, part of the Jews' collective consciousness” (p. 9). This book focuses on issues that have received relatively little scholarly attention to date. Originally published in Polish, it was translated into English with minor revisions. Patek reveals a deep knowledge and understanding of the subject, and his work is ambitious in seeking to explain some of the most intangible elements of the Aliyah Bet through the use of primary sources from the London National Archives and the Central Zionist Archives. In addition, he has made use of diaries and memoirs, newspaper articles, and an extensive list of published primary and secondary sources.

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art history · Immigration · Judaism · Mandate · Mandatory Palestine · Memoir · Mythology · Newspaper · Palestine · Political science · Zionism · Classics · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Polish Historical and Cultural Studies