Dagmar Stehlíková

The Story of the Shipwrecked from the Patria

On November 25, 1940, the SS Patria sank in the port of Haifa killing 267 people. The ship was carrying almost 1,800 Jewish refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe whom the British authorities were deporting from Mandatory Palestine to Mauritius because they lacked entry permits. Opposed to the deportation, the Haganah planted a bomb intended to disable the ship to prevent it from leaving Haifa. However, they miscalculated the effects of the explosion and the bomb sank the ship in less than 16 minutes (Dir. Pavel Štingl, 2006, 45 min.). Pavel Stingl an award winning documentary filmmaker studied at the Film and Television Academy of the Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU). The screening is part of the ongoing “Docs in Salute” film series presented by the Library of Congress in collaboration with the Embassy of the Czech Republic.