Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

Gerald Fry stayed in the refugee camp near Ipswich, for 3 months, after which, he was sent to Northampton, to work in a leather factory until his 16th birthday, when he was interned by the British as an Enemy Alien on the Isle of Man, and subsequently sent to Canada.

Gerald Fry cites: “Germany was not a place for Jews, and our family had a background of over 400 years,”

In July, 1939, Gerald Frey sailed from Bremerhaven, one of 90 Jewish children sponsored for refuge.
It would be the last time he would see his family.

On June 13, 1939, Kurt Beckhardt sailed on SS Europa.

In 1940, Britain interned about 1,000 children from the Kindertransport, as Enemy Aliens, on the Isle of Man.
400 of the enemy alien children were transported to internment camps in Canada and Australia.

On May 12, 1940, Eric Koch was arrested as an Enemy Alien by the British in Cambridge, assembled in front of King's College Chapel, and sent by bus to Bury St. Edmunds.
From Bury St. Edmunds, he was transported to a larger camp at Huyton, near Liverpool, and from there, he was sent to the Isle of Man,

Eric Koch cites "Emil Fackenheim, who had been in a German concentration camp from 1938 to 1030, wasimpressed by the good manners displayed by the policemen who had come to arrest him in Aberdeen, where he was studying."

Walter Nussbaum cites: "The first time I was addressed as Mister was in May 1940, when the British Secret Service called at the hostel for Jewish refugee children in London and asked to see me."
"The minister of our small community of youngsters, all cared for by the Jewish Refugee Committee at Bloomsbury House, told the agents that 'Mister Nussbaum was saying his morningprayers just now."

Kaspar Naegele was interned in a boarding house in Douglas, on the Isle of Man.

Dr. Reichenfeld escpaed the Nazis in Wien, and considered himseld fortunate to find a job as a caretaker in Edinburgh.
He was interned by the British as an Enemy Alien, and interned on the Isle of Man.

Hans Reichnfeld was interned,with his father, as an Enemy Alien, on the Isle of Man.

Oscar Cahén was interned by the British as an Enemy Alien.

Gerald Frey arrived at Camp Mooragh the day after it opened, and spent less than a month there before being transported to Canada.

MS Sobieski was a Polish passenger ship, crewed by Polish sailers.
Built: 1938 by Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson, Wallsend
Built for Gdynia-Ameryka Linie Żeglugowe SA, Gdynia America Line GAL
Launched: August 25, 1938
Completed: June 15, 1939
Length: 155,8 meters
Beam: 20,4 meters
Draft: 8,3 meters
Engine: Twin screw, by J. G. Kincaid & Co, Greenock
Speed: 17 knots
Eric Koch cites Sobieski had been in the emigrant trade before the war, and had a kosher kitchen and kosher dishes.

From June 22-24, 1940, MS Sobieski was part of Operation Ariel, with MS Batory, Ettrick, Arandora and Star, evacuating Allied forces from western France.

In May, 1940, MS Sobieski took part in Operation Alphabet, along with MS Batory and MS Chobry, evacuating troops from Narvik.
In late June, 1940, she sailed from Narvik. well stocked with liquor and cigarettes.

On July 4, 1940, MS Sobieski sailed from Greenock, carrying 982 Category B and C internees, and 548 POWs, in a convoy with 2 other ships.
Martin F. Auger cites MS Sobieski sailed from Greenock, carrying 980 Category B and C internees, 450 German POWs and 400 Italians,
MS Batory, was part of the convoy; she carried a part of Poland's art treasures to safety in Canada, including Szczerbiec, the 1320 Polish Coronation sword, a Gutenberg Bible, 136 huge tapestries which had been commissioned by King Sigismund 11 Augustus in the 16th century (collection of the Wawel Castle in Krakov), 36 Chopin manuscripts, plus several hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold bars, reserves of the Bank of England sent to the Bank of Canada for safe keeping; probably the richest treasure afloat - ever.
The Royal Navy provided a convoy of heavily armed escorts for MS Batory, a battleship and assorted destroyers and cruisers.
On day four of the crossing, MS Sobieski developed engine trouble, and she became separated from the 2 other ships.
At 0:00AM, midnight, July 8, 1940, battleship HMS Revenge sailed from Greenock with cruiser HMS Bonaventure and destroyer HMS Garth, carrying a cargo of gold bullion.
At 5:45AM, day break, they made a rendezvous in the north channel off Scotland with Monarch of Bermuda, MS Sobieski and MS Batory; four destroyers served as escorts, under command of Admiral Sir Ernest Russell Archer.

MS Sobieski stopped in St. John's to repair the failing engine.
U Boat.net cites MS Batory was slowed down by an engine defect and was diverted to St. John's, escorted by HMS Bonaventure.

On July 15, 1940, MS Sobieski landed in Québec, 2 days after Ettrick, a boat in the convoy.
On July 13, 1940, MS Batory docked in Halifax, and the treasures filled two rail cars and transported to Ottawa to safety.
U Boat.net cites on July 13, 1940, the three ships arrived in Halifax, followed by MS Batory and HMS Bonaventure, and the gold was transported train from Halifax to Montreal, where it was stored.
The 715 internees aboard MS Sobieski were transported by train to Trois-Rivieres.

On July 23, 1940, MS Sobieksi sailed from Halifax with troopships MS Batory, Antonia, Monarch of Bermuda, Duchess of York and Samaria, in a convoy carrying 8,077 Canadian troops bound for Britain, escorted by destroyers HMCS Assiniboine and HMCS Saguenay, and Royal Nay cruiser HMS Emerald.

On August 1, 1940, MS Sobieksi arrived in Scotland, with the convoy.

In 1942, MS Sobieski took part in Operation Ironclad, the Invasion of Madagascar, sailing in Convoy WS17 from Greenock to Freetown.

During World War II, approximately 38,000 Germans were detained in 25 permanent internment camps and dozens of smaller work camps throughout Canada, under the Department of National Defence (DND)'s Directorate of Internment Operations.
Of these, 34,000 internees were POWs from all branches of the German armed forces.
The Canadian Goverment authorized construction of 5 internment camps in southern Quebec:
* Camp A, on the Dominion Experimental Farm, at Farnham
* Grande Ligne
* Camp I, at Fort Lennox, on Île-aux-Noix
* Camp N, at the Quebec Central Railroad property at Newington, outisde Sherbrooke
* Sorel
Martin F. Auger cites:
* Camp S, at the fort on Île Ste. Hélène, in Montreal, "whose purpose was to incarcerate Italian inmates."
Martin F. Auger cites: Temporary internment centers were constructed in Quebec:
* Camp L, at Cove Fields, on the Plains of Abraham
* Camp T, at the exhibition grounds at Trois Rivières
* Camp V, at Valcartier

Camp T, located on the exhibition grounds at Trois Rivières was meant as a temporary camp, holding POWs, as well as Jewish and Christian internees and Enemy Aliens.

During World War II, Internment Camp B, called Camp Ripples or Camp B-70 Fredricton, was operated in Ripples, southwest of Minto, near Fredricton, during 1940-1941, housed Jewish refugees and Enemy Aliens.
Hans Reichenfeld cites: the camp "was enclosed by two rows of barbed wire fences and watch towers manned by Canadian soldiers....Camp B was not in the middle of
nowhere, but 34 km east of Fredericton, New Brunswick."

From 1941-1945, Camp B, called Camp Ripples or Camp B-70 Fredricton, in Ripples, near Minto, and Fredricton, became a camp for German and Italian POWs only, and the previous internees were distributed between Camp A, S,N and I.

The New Brunswick Internment Museum, in the Minto municipal building, houses artifacts and memorabilia from former POWs and staff, from Camp B.

When he enlisted in the British Army, Gerald Frey anglicized his name to Gerald Fry, fearing what might happen to a German-speaking Jew, if captured by the Germans.

Gerald Fry cites: he reunited with one of the members of the Royal Scots Greys. a man named John Warrender, who had since become 2nd Baron Bruntisfield.
Over dinner and drinks, the two refought every battle in Normandy.
During their conversation, Gerald asked Lord Bruntisfield where he had been posted after graduation from Sandhurst, and prior to joining the Royal Scots Greys.
Lord Bruntisfield said he had been posted near Liverpool, guarding a group of POWs, which prompted Gerald to ask if the place was called Huyton, which it was; Gerald continued to disclose that he had been one of the POWs that Lord Bruntisfield had guarded.
"Strange things happen in war. First being his prisoner, then a comrade in arms and finally a friend."

At dusk, the Tank Landing Craft that carried Gerald Fry and his crew, landed on Sword Beach, Oboe Sector, opposite to Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer.
Gerald Fry served as a tank radio operator until VE Day; his tank Commander was John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer, father of Lady Di.
It was the radio operator's job to locate his regiment, which was several miles west of his location, and they joined up the next morning.

Operation Jupiter was an attack launched by the British Second Army's VIII Corps to capture the villages of Baron-sur-Odon, Fontaine-Étoupefour, Chateau de Fontaine and Hill 112.

Gerald Fry was seconded to the Intelligence Corps, where he served as a War Crimes Interpreter, for two year.
He was attached to a British High Court Judge who presided over the trials of second-level war criminals, those who had carried out orders from the top Nürnberg defendants.

Gerald Fry cites: the day after the 1973 war broke out, a friend of his, who was a bomber pilot during World War II, and he went to see the Israeli consulate in Montreal, and offered to fly our plane over to help evacuate wounded or for any other purpose.
The consul was polite, did not laugh them out of the door, but enquired how they would get over there, to which they responded that that Gerald's friend had crossed the Atlantic Ocean many times and we would refuel in Newfoundland, Greenland, Iceland etc. and then he asked whether they would instead be willing to go to a kibbutz to work, replacing people who had been called up.
They agreed and left to go home.
Two hours later, the phone rang; it was the consul.
He asked if Gerald would be willing to leave in 2 hours to fly to New York, and take the EL AL flight out of JFK at midnight; if so, he would make all the arrangements necessary.
During the stop over In Paris, supplies were put in the corridors, so passengers and crewe could not get up if they wanted to.
The flight arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport, and Gerald, who had intended to take a taxi to the kibbutz, but there were none, hitchhiked until he finally arrived 03:00AM.
The next day, Gerald Fry had his working clothing, and for a month, he drove a tractor, and for another month, he picked grapefruit.