the opening of the borders in 1947. Nevertheless, the true reasons behind the dramatic increase of Jewish emigration from Poland were far more complex. The new government of the Communist Poland signed a repatriation agreement with the Soviet Union helping over 150,000 Holocaust survivors leave the Gulag camps legally. Poland was the only Eastern Bloc country to allow free and unrestricted Jewish Aliyah to the nascent State of Israel, upon the conclusion of World War II. After the Kielce pogrom Gen. Spychalski of PWP signed a legislative decree allowing the remaining survivors to leave Poland without visas or exit permits. Poland was the only Eastern Bloc country to do so, at war's end. Britain demanded from Poland (among others) to halt the Jewish exodus, but their pressure was largely unsuccessful. Geography Climate Kielce is one of the relatively cooler cities in Poland. It experiences four distinct seasons and has a warm summer subtype humid continental climate (Dfb), typical of this part of Europe. It has cool, cloudy winters with almost daily light snowfall and generally moderate temperatures within a few degrees of the freezing point, and moderately warm and sunny summers, with frequent but brief hot spells and abundant rainfall falling mostly during numerous and occasionally severe thunderstorms. Surrounded by the Holy Cross Mountains, however, the summer night time temperatures are somewhat cooler and the thunderstorms somewhat more frequent and severe than in surrounding areas of Poland. Both continental and maritime air masses can enter the area undergoing little modification, resulting in striking differences in the seasons from year to year, particularly in winter when the contrast between maritime and continental air is at its greatest. Maritime influences from the Atlantic typically bring cool, cloudy, damp and often foggy weather both in summer and in winter, whereas continental air masses often result in long periods of sunny and dry weather, hot in summer and on occasion, extremely cold in winter. The highest temperature recorded in Kielce since 1971 is and the lowest is , giving the city a temperature range of 70.3 °C (126.5 °F), the second highest in Poland. The city receives 1720 to 1829 hours of sunshine annually, depending on the source, with a notably sunny spring and summer, and a cloudy late autumn and winter. Winds are generally very light throughout the year, with an abundance of calm days, and as a result, cool temperatures often feel