Patria disaster

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The Patria disaster was the sinking on 25 November 1940 by the Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah of a French-built ocean liner, the 11,885-ton SS Patria, in the port of Haifa. Patria was about to depart with about 1,800 Jewish refugees whom the British authorities were deporting to Mauritius. Zionist organizations opposed the deportation, and Haganah planted a bomb intended to prevent the ship from leaving Haifa. The Haganah claims to have miscalculated the effects of the explosion. The bomb blew the steel frame off one full side of the ship and the ship sank in less than 16 minutes, killing 267 people and injuring 172. The British allowed the survivors to remain in Mandatory Palestine on humanitarian grounds. Who was responsible and the true reason why Patria sank remained controversial until 1957, when Meir Mardor, the person who planted the bomb, published a book about his experiences.

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