After graduating from Medical School at the University of Chicago and serving an internship at a hospital in Huntington, West Virginia, Eugene Plass felt obliged to put his newly-obtained medical training to use in the displaced persons camp in France.
After serving in France, he ultimately made the trip to Palestine aboard a sister ship of the “Exodus.” The ship entered Haifa harbor but the British did not allow it to dock.
Refusing to hand over his American passport to the British occupation authorities, Dr. Plass helped smuggle many of the refugee passengers onto shore under the cover of darkness. He ultimately left the ship and joined the Haganah Medical Corps. He was stationed in Tiberias for some months, and later on was in the first group of soldiers that ran the Arab blockade of Jerusalem to provide supplies to the starving city.
He married an Israeli, Anita, in Israel. When he returned to the States he became the first Jew to enter and complete a residency in Cardiac Surgery at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.