Honorable governors, ambassadors, consul generals and representatives of international organizations, His Eminence Chief Rabbi, Venerable Spirituals Leaders, Dear Members of the Turkish Jewish Community and esteemed guests, Year 1941. Eastern Europe had created its own Nazis and enacted within a couple of months, all anti-Jewish decrees issued by Germany in the previous 7-8 years. In the camps established within the region, the ‘final solution’ was accelerated for the Jews. Jewish people had no choice but to escape or wait for their death. They had nowhere to go. Nobody wanted to take them. Their only solution was to go to Palestine, under British mandate. At the expense of their lives, European Jews escaping from the Nazi persecution wanted to take refuge in Palestine. Whereas the British not wanting to irritate the Arabs, were raising difficulties or even made it impossible to obtain a visa. While there was an influx of refugees by land and by sea, there were also those who wis...