Patria was carrying 1,770 refugees transferred from Pacific and Milos and had taken on board 134 passengers from Atlantic. Most were rescued by British and Arab boats that rushed to the scene. However, 267 people were declared missing – over 200 Jewish refugees plus 50 crew and British soldiers – and another 172 were injured. Many of the dead were trapped in Patrias hold and were unable to escape as she rolled on her side and sank. 209 bodies were eventually recovered and buried in Haifa. Aftermath The surviving refugees from Patria, together with the remaining 1,560 passengers of Atlantic, were taken to the Atlit detainee camp. Later, after an international campaign, the survivors of Patria were given permits to stay in Palestine. However, the other Atlantic passengers were deported to Mauritius on 9 December. After the war they were given the choice of where to go; 81% chose Palestine and arrived there in August 1945. In December 1945 Ha-Po'el ha-Tza'ir ("Young Worker") a Mapai party newspaper, commented "On one bitter and impetuous day, a malicious hand sank the ship". The comment was written by the deputy editor, Israel Cohen, who did not know that all of the people responsible were Mapai leaders. Angered by the newspaper's comments, some Haganah leaders sent Ben-Gurion's son Amos to the newspaper office where he slapped the editor, Isaac Lofven, across the face. A bitter debate over the correctness of the operation raged in secret within the Zionist leadership. The decision had been made by an activist faction, without consulting more moderate members according to normal procedure, and this caused serious internal divisions that persisted for many years. An effort was made to enshrine the incident as an icon of Zionist determination, but this largely failed. As early as 15 December 1945 Isaac Lofven warned a Mapai meeting against trying to "sanctify" the tragedy. Some leaders of the Yishuv (the Jewish community in Palestine) argued that the loss of life had not been in vain, as Patrias survivors had been allowed to stay in the country. Others declared that the Haganah had had no right to risk the lives of the immigrants, as they had not decided of their own free will to become participants in the underground Jewish conflict with the British authorities. The Haganah's role was not publicly revealed and a story was put out that the deportees, out of despair, had