Horst Blaich

Exiled from the Holy Land Horst Blaich

Exiled from the Holy Land covers the period from 1941-1950, describing the deportation of the German Templers [not the Knights Templar] on the world?s largest ship, the Queen Elizabeth, to Australia, and the evacuation of another group of Templers to Cyprus when the State of Israel was created in 1948. The book concludes with the last Templers being expelled from the Holy Land in 1950.

It is a collection of letters, diaries, reports and newspaper clippings by more than twenty authors, including an investigation by Dr D. Goldman into the Waldheim raid of 17 April 1948. This last event is illuminated from three sides: the German Templers? experience, the Israeli viewpoint and a rare British perspective by the Waldheim internment camp commandant, Alan Tilbury, in the service of the Mandatory Government at the time.

This valuable historical record makes fascinating reading, to be treasured by all who are interested in this episode in Holy Land history, against the backdrop of modern Israel emerging.

One hundred-and-fifty-four photographs illustrate the historical events and stressful times of lives, homes and property lost. The first group, deported in 1941, ended up in the internment camp of Tatura in northern Victoria. The second group landed in Famagusta, Cyprus in 1948, most of whom eventually found new homes in Australia. The last internees left the Tatura camp in January 1948 to rebuild their lives after nine years behind barbed wire.