A third 7,000-ton cargo-passenger vessel built as reparations by Germany was turned over to Israel today and began its maiden voyage. The vessel, the Judea, left Luebeck for Bremen where it will take on a cargo of reparations goods and sail directly for Haifa, its home port.
The ship is commanded by Captain Bernard Berkowitz, scion of a German-Jewish seafaring family. Captain Berkowitz, who was born in Bremen and went to sea at an early age, immigrated to Palestine 20 years ago, working on ships ever since. He commands a crew of 36 Israel seamen brought to Germany to take over the Judea.
When the ship nosed out of this port she had two distinguished passengers aboard: Erich Lueth, founder and chairman of the “peace with Israel” movement, and Otto Passarge, Social Democratic Mayor of Luebeck, Mayor Passarge, in a brief address at the ceremonies turning the vessel over to Israel, recalled his days in concentration camps together with Jewish prisoners.
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