In the years that followed the Holocaust, untold numbers of Jews sought desperately to find and build a new life. Due to the destruction of communities and the strong post-war anti-Semitism, Eastern Europe was no place for a Jew after World War II. For so many, the only answer was a land to call their own—the Promised Land! Motivated by an age old dream of the “Return to Zion” with its profound scriptural roots, so many war-torn Jewish people found the strength once again to possess the Promised Land. Israel indeed became a nation but not without a great sacrifice. These young men, who were recently liberated from Buchenwald concentration camp, came aboard the RMS Mataroa refugee ship to Port Haifa Palestine in 1945, and at long last saw this blessed land for which they had longed. The great resolve in the hearts of so many Jewish people to persevere and possess brought to pass what God promised long ago, and Israel became a nation in one day on May 14, 1948.