| The Atlit National monument is a restored British detention camp from the time of the British Mandate1917 -1948. It was originally built as a British military camp in the 1938 and functioned as a temporary holding facility for thousands of illegal Jewish immigrants from 1939 -1948. Immediately following the establishment of the State of Israel the 25 acre camp became an absorption center for many Jews that came to Israel from all over the world. Over the years it was neglected, violated by highway construction and development until 1987 when it was declared a national monument thanks to SPIHS initiative.
The Atlit "Illegal" Immigrant Detention Camp tells the story of the struggle of Jews fleeing Europe from NAZI persecution and death, trying to reach British controlled Palestine, only to be incarcerated in camps similar in appearance to the NAZI camps of Europe. In 1939, in wake of a four year Arab uprising, the High Commissioner of the British Mandate issued a "White Paper" severely limiting the number of Jews permitted to enter Israel, in an effort to pacify the Arab leadership's demand for a halt to Jewish immigration. This camp was used to hold “illegal” immigrants known as Ma’apilim in Hebrew. From 1946, similar detention camps were established in Cyprus to which another 50,000 Ma’apilim were held.
In October 1945, a daring military operation headed by Nahum Sarig and the young Yitzhak Rabin, later Israel's Prime Minister, broke into the camp and freed the 208 detainees. The camp continued to operate as a detention site until the end of the British mandate period in1948.
On the site there is: a recently purchased ship, similar in size and appearance to those used to transport immigrants to Israel, especially from Europe. This provides a more authentic experience for visitors to understand the events connected with the camp. Visitors can view a model of the original camp, restored barracks, where prisoners lived, the main reception facility where new immigrants went through the trauma of removing their clothes for disinfection and had to shower before being admitted, memorial to those that perished en-route by sea and land on their way to the Land of Israel as well as one of the barracks that has been made into a computerized information database known as "BeNetivei Ha’apalah" (in the pathways of immigration). It contains information about all the immigrants and ships that set out for the shores of the land of Israel.
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