Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

David Shpitzer, his wife,and son, Dan, arrived at Bratislava, but the Danube River was frozen, so they waited until September to sail to Tulcea.

On August, 1940, Esther Leinhardt Langsam, and her sons, Oscar and Herman, left with 500 others, the last to successfully leave, on a train to Bratislava, and boarded a steamship that sailed down the Danube River to Tulcea.

In September, 1940, Jiri Polacek left on the last transport from Bohemia and Moravia, to Tulcea.

On September 2, 1940, Emil Gregr organized the illegal transport of ten fellow Jews from Praha via Wien for Palestine.

In October, 1940, Hugo Hornung sailed from Bratislava to Tulcea.

In late 1940, while the Germans were trying to deport the Jews of Europe, rather than exterminating them, and Adolf Eichmann headed The Committee for Sending Jews Overseas, Berthold Storfer, a Jewish businessman, worked under Adolf Eichmann. and organized two groups of transports, one organized on behalf of the Jewish community of Wien, and the second, organized with Betar.
Adolf Eichmann was happy to make trouble for the British by allowing Jews to leave for Palestine, counter to the policy of the British White Paper of 1939, and against the unofficial British policy, which did not even allow Jews into Palestine.
The Committee for Sending Jews Overseas, chartered three ships in Romania:
* Atlantic
* Pacific
* Milos

On October 7, 1940, Mordechai and Pesa Rypinsky, and children Hella and Yitzchak, sailed on Atlantic אטלנטיק from Tulcea for Palestine.

On October 7, 1940, Emil and Jolan Wellisch sailed on Atlantic אטלנטיק from Tulcea for Palestine.
Heinrich Henry Wellisch was able to transfer from Pacific to Atlantic where his parents were located.

On October 7, 1940, Hugo Hornung sailed on Atlantic אטלנטיק from Tulcea for Palestine.

On October 7, 1940, Esther Leinhardt Langsam and her two sons, Oscar and Herman, sailed on Atlantic אטלנטיק from Tulcea for Palestine.

On December 9, 1940, Hugo Hornung sailed from Haifa to Port Louis, to be interned at Beau Bassin.

On December 9, 1940, Mordechai and Pesa Rypinsky, and their children, Hella and Yitzchak, sailed from Haifa to Port Louis, to be interned at Beau Bassin.

On December 9, 1940, Emil and Jolan Wellisch, and their son, Heinrich, sailed from Haifa to Port Louis, to be interned at Beau Bassin.

On December 9, 1940, Esther Leinhardt Langsam, and her son, Oscar, sailed from Haifa to Port Louis, to be interned at Beau Bassin.

1,584 of the passengers aboard Atlantic were deported to Mauritius, where they spent the rest of the war in a detainment camp in Beau Bassin.
They were made up of 800 Jews from Wien, the remnants of the Jewish community of Gdansk and a Maccabi-Hechalutz transport from Czechoslovakia.

On December 28, 1940, Hugo Hornung was interned by the British at Beau Bassin.

On December 28, 1940, Mordechai and Pesa Rypinsky, and their children, Hella and Yitzchak, were interned by the British at Beau Bassin.

On December 28, 1940, Springmann-Ribak, and daughter, Rachel, were interned by the British at Beau Bassin.

On December 28, 1940, Emil and Jolan Wellisch, and their son, Heinrich, were interned by the British at Beau Bassin.

On December 28, 1940, Esther Leinhardt Langsam and her son, Oscar, were interned by the British at Beau Bassin, until August, 1945.

About 200 young men interned at Beau Bassin, volunteered for the allied armies.
Heinrich Wellisch joined The Jewish Brigade, and left Mauritius at the beginning of 1945.

In April, 1945, Heinrich Wellisch arrived at the Jewish Brigade Depot and Training Center in the Suez Canal zone.
With the war in Europe winding down and after a few months of basic training, he was stationed in Holland, assigned to a transport company, whose main task was to send as many Holocaust survivors as possible to Palestine.

Heinrich Wellisch applied for a compassionate home posting which was granted, and he spent the rest of his army career in a British field bakery near Haifa.
In October, 1946, he was discharged from the army.

On May 14, 1948, all deferments were cancelled, and on May 15, Heinrich Wellisch left for a military camp at Tel Litwinski, where he was assigned to the engineering Corps.
He completed a month-long course in mine laying, mine dismantling, building bridges, etc., and went immediately into action.

Heinrich Wellisch served the Alexandroni Brigade, in many actions at the central front, in the northern Negev near the Al-Faluja الفالوجة‎ Pocket כיס פלוג'ה, and in the Beersheva באר שבע area.