Commander Benjamin Halpern
Background
Benjamin Halpern was born in 1908 in Brooklyn, New York. When he was very young his parents came to this country from Belgium with the intention of emigrating. They soon missed Belgium and moved back. Thus my father grew up in Belgium with his 3 siblings. During college he was an avid member of a rowing team and president of his athletic club. He graduated college and became an electrical and mechanical engineer. Soon after, he married his childhood sweetheart. Before the war he enlisted his athletic club in his protests against the Nazi’s. He and his club members would cause riots at Nazi support rallies. The Belgian government thought it best if he went to the US where, because of his birth he was a citizen. He did that, and my mother followed later, on the last ship out before World War II began.
In the US he went to the school that would become the Merchant Marine Academy and rose to the rank of Commander in the Merchant Marine and Naval Reserve. As Chief Engineer he served on Liberty ships during World War II. After the war he took a position with the City of New York. He left that position when he was asked by the Israeli underground to help the Jews who survived the war. They were attempting to get these displaced people to what was then called Palestine. His parents did not survive and were murdered in the Nazi death camp Auschwitz. Remarkably his three siblings all escaped. He joined the underground where he rebuilt ships. He also sailed as chief engineer on the ships that tried to get past the British (IE: The Mala formerly known as the USS Mayflower, USCG Mayflower and USS Butte). See photos below of the Mala and its immigrants at Haifa port. For additional information on the Mala – click here.The British at that time were controlling Palestine. After Israel became independent, he assisted in the formation of the Israel Navy (Yucatan/Noga). During the1950s he did additional assignments for Israel but came home to the US to stay and started an engineering firm which he ran till the 1960s. Before his death from cancer in 1970 he worked for an international geophysical firm maintaining their ships.
In an article, linked here, David Hanovice mentions some of my father’s history and I highlighted locations where he is mentioned for your information. The “Yucatan” later renamed the “Noga”
See also references to the “Carostella” which was donated to Israel. Benjamin Halpern was also involved in the integration of that ship into the Israeli navy.
