During the forced emigration phase, Jews expelled by Eichmann, many after a period of internment at Dachau and other concentration camps and having been released provided they immediately left German-controlled territory, sought a refuge anywhere. This included Palestine, and they tried to enter that country “illegally” with the help of the Jewish Agency, which at this stage was ready to do its best to support their effort and set aside previous considerations of securing “legal” entry quotas from the British.

The British restrictions on emigration to Palestine forced the Zionist parties involved to use “conspiratorial” measures. They camouflaged their activities and sometimes used the services of dubious persons, conditions typically imposed by the British themselves, who then became suspicious of them and the methods of illegal immigration that they themselves forced the Jews to undertake. The Zionists had to hide their immigration operations from British Intelligence agents and try to defy the Imperial networks, which grew enormously after the outbreak of the war and kept many eyes on the half million Jews then living in Palestine. The Jewish Agency was thus engaged in “illegal” emigration as long as the Nazis allowed it, and they turned their attention to the neighboring Arab countries as well, seeking a common denominator with the British in fighting the Germans while at the same time offering their own services to them in order to make themselves useful to the war effort as best they could in order to gain politically and morally from such assistance.