There is so much going on at the end of May and beginning of June 1944. These few weeks, and a few weeks in the middle of August 1944, are clearly the busiest and most pivotal in the history of the WRB.
So why have I picked this seemingly boring announcement about the ship taking refugees from Fedhala?
First: what’s Fedhala, you ask? Don’t you remember that after the Bermuda Conference in 1943, the US and British planned to open a refugee camp near Casablanca and bring refugees out of Spain? You’re not the only one who doesn’t remember. Fedhala (also called Camp Marshal Lyautey) is barely mentioned in any literature. Yet there are hundreds and hundreds of documents about the planning and establishment of the camp, which was a bureaucratic nightmare. It involved the British, Americans, Free French, Spanish, Allied military, Foreign Economic Administration, Intergovernmental Committee, UNRRA, and the WRB. That’s a lot of meetings and a lot of paperwork.
It’s late May 1944, and–with the exception of a few refugees sent to North Africa to help set up the camp–the camp is still pretty much empty. This announcement says that the ship that is supposed to take the refugees from Spain to North Africa has been delayed again, for operational reasons.
Though the US ambassador in Spain, Carlton Hayes, and the director of Fedhala, Moses Beckelman, are both really upset that the boat has been delayed again, the “operational requirements” are legitimate. The ship wasn’t available because of the upcoming D-Day invasion.
