Al Schwimmer
Al was a flight engineer during World War II, flying cargo, passengers and USO entertainers from the United States to London, Marrakech, Teheran, Cairo, Casablanca and back. After the war was over, he became aware of how cruel the British were being toward the few Jews who had survived Hitler's extermination. The survivors did not want to remain in Europe, where the smell of the cremation ovens still remained in the air.Al realized that getting to Palestine was perhaps the only hope the survivors had to create a new life, and he determined to find a way to create an airlift to fly over the British blockade that prevented ships from getting to Palestine. Al conceived the idea of buying war-surplus cargo planes and using them for this purpose.
Airplane "boneyard" with C-46 cargo planes
Al managed to buy 10 of these planes and set them in motion to fly supplies, guns, ammunition, and even fighter airplanes into Palestine. Later they were used to rescue Iraqi Jews. The FBI had been monitoring Al the whole time and in 1950 he was convicted for felony "conspiracy to violate the U.S. Neutrality Act." Schwimmer was pardoned by President Clinton in 2001.
Al Schwimmer with Ben-Gurion
Regarding the 1948 establishment of the nation of Israel, Ben-Gurion wrote, "Out of all the support we have received, the most important asset which U.S. Jewry gave us at the time was Al Schwimmer”. (Ben-Gurion, 13 May 1968).