Decisions

This chapter focuses on the decisions made by survivors in their postwar travel to Britain with the Central British Fund (CBF) and the decisions made for them by organisations and committees. It will utilise oral histories from survivors and those who helped them as well as documents from the CBF. There was an intense desire to emigrate to Palestine and contribute to a Jewish homeland, but due to the British mandate, numbers were restricted. Therefore, England was felt to be a convenient stopgap in their eventual journey eastwards that is continually drawn upon in testimonies. Once survivors had made the decision to join the transports to Britain, feeling that they had little other choice, their ages often became mutable in response to the requirements. Hence, survivors over the maximum age of 16, relying on their lack of documentation, downgraded their ages. Despite these survivors not initially intending to stay in Britain, many did and developed a close affinity with their new homeland. This chapter outlines the decision-making processes that brought these young survivors to Britain and the complicated journeys including name-swapping, bad weather, false starts and illness, but ends with a crucial turning point in survivors’ narratives, their arrival in Britain.