throughout most of the war. On January 24, 1949, the British began sending these detainees to Israel, with the last of them departing for Israel on February 11, 1949. Camp conditions The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (the "Joint") provided most of the detainees' needs, including welfare and medical aid, two nurseries, and extra food rations. The Jewish Agency sent teachers and social workers from Palestine but refused to give direct aid to the detainees on the grounds that it would grant legitimacy to the camps. Conditions in the camps were very harsh, with poor sanitation, crowding, lack of privacy, and shortage of clean water being the main complaints. The local Joint director Morris Laub considered that the German prisoners of war housed in adjacent camps were treated better. In popular media The 1960 film Exodus, adapted from the book of the same name by Leon Uris, starts with the arrival of Jews in a camp. The presence of Palestine volunteers is also shown. Ruth Gruber documents the daily life of Jewish detainees and conditions in the camps of Xylotympou and Caraolos in her book Exodus 1947: The Ship that Launched a Nation. The book series "Promise of Zion" by Robert Elmer references the camps as the main character avoids being captured with other Jews on board a ship, and again when he returns to Cyprus in search of his mother. The camps' living condition are described in more detail here. See also Karaolos prisoner of war camp References Further reading Source: N. Bogner, The Deportation Island: Jewish Illegal Immigrant Camps on Cyprus 1946-1948, Tel-Aviv 1991 in Hebrew. Source: D. Schaary, The Cyprus Detention Camps for Jewish "Illegal" Immigrants to Palestine 1946-1949, Jerusalem 1981 in Hebrew. Source: M. Laub, Last Barrier to Freedom, Internment of Jewish Holocaust Survivors on Cyprus 1946-1949, Berkeley 1985 Source: Y. Teutsch, The Cyprus Detention Camps: The Essential Research Guide'', Newcastle upon Tyne 2019 Searching for memories in the soil: Cyprus Mail, Nathan Morley (2011) External links Cyprus collection highlights from the JDC Archives Aliyah Bet 1940s in Mandatory Palestine Aftermath of the Holocaust Immigration detention centers and prisons Internment camps of the British Empire Refugee camps in Cyprus Expulsions of Jews Jewish Cypriot history Jewish refugees