survivors supported a self-determined Jewish presence in Palestine, even though they had not been Zionists before the war. Having lost their families, houses and possessions, they saw no future for themselves in Europe. DPs demonstrated against the British policy and sent protest notes. International contacts were established, e.g. to the Zionist Congress at Basel or the United Jewish Appeal to gain support abroad. In October 1945, David Ben-Gurion, president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, visited the DP camp. The refugees maintained active opposition to British restrictions on Jewish immigration to the British Mandate of Palestine, and until early 1949 (i.e. well after the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948), British authorities did not allow free passage in or out of the camp. Nevertheless, the Haganah managed to send in agents who held secret military training programmes on the camp grounds in December 1947. Camp leadership In mid-June 1945, Major Leonard Berney was made commandant of Camp 4. Both sections of the camp, Polish and Jewish, were largely self-administrating. External security was provided by the British Army. In March 1946, the British transferred administration of the camp to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency (UNRRA) but remained responsible for security. The British (and later the UNRRA), supported by other organizations like the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) or Jewish Relief Unit (JRU), supplied food, clothing and medicines. But the camp inhabitants otherwise ran their own affairs. The Jewish Committee established its own court and police force, whose tasks included maintaining public order and to fight black market activities. Former British soldier and officer in HM Colonial Service, Simon Bloomberg served as both UNRRA Director for Bergen-Belsen as well as European Director of the Jewish Committee For Relief Abroad which helped provide rations for the DPs and facilitate their eventual resettlement. For their part, like the Poles, the Jewish refugees organized a vibrant community within the camp. Schools were established within months of the liberation. The DPs founded an elementary school as early as July 1945, and by 1948, 340 pupils attended the school. A high school, which was staffed partly by soldiers from the Jewish Brigade (the Palestinian Jewish unit of the British Army) was established in December 1945. There was a kindergarten, an orphanage, and a yeshiva (a religious school). The Organization for Rehabilitation through Training (ORT) vocational training schools organized occupational education. By