Poster for the movie Exodus (1954) considered one of the greatest classic Hollywood films.
The film begins with the chaotic scenes of the expulsion of the Jews from Hungary and the protagonists trying to reach Italy by all means.
In a refugee camp near Lubiana Miklós Farkas (Kirk Douglas) a Betar leader meets the actress Judit Korda (Gabor) and her father Janós (Otto Preminger). Upon learning of the German invasion of Italy and a bombing of the camp, the crowd desperately flees towards Trieste.
While Judit helps the children and other women board the rescue boats, Miklós assembles a unit that includes the fraudster Béla Polanyi (Peter Lorre), Professor Imre Garas (Ernest Borgnine) and Judit's father, Janós. Interspersing the intense fighting against the Nazis with the few pauses in combat, the members of the unit talk about their past lives, their human defects and the future they hope to have.
Down in the harbor Rabbi Abraham Pfeffer (Edward G. Robinson) helps care for the increasingly numerous injured with the help of prostitute Eva Teller (Lauren Bacall) who identifies as an atheist having numerous discussions about the human condition and God .
In the city, Miklós's unit suffers losses to the Germans, including Imre who dies in a mortar attack and Janós who, wounded and unable to be evacuated asks Miklós to take care of his daughter, being left behind, commits suicide with a grenade belt killing a German platoon.
At the peak of the battle, the Italian reinforcements arrived including Brigadier General Pietro Favre (Frank Sinatra) who, with the help of the Hungarian Jews, managed to repel the Germans from Trieste and the invasion of Italy.
As the protagonists recover from the battle, Miklós decides that he will rejoin the forces to liberate Hungary. Judit wishes to follow him but manages to convince her to embark for Libya, promising to meet her at the end of the war. Béla decides to join Miklós promising himself to lead an honorable life from now on.
Rabbi Abraham and Eva now friends embark one of the boats to Libya, although Eva decides that she will go to Palestine to live with a cousin in Netanya but they promise to stay in contact.
The film culminates with the arrival and speech of General Orde Wingate (Paul Newman) and the departure of the Anglo-Jewish army ready to liberate Budapest and beyond.
During the premiere of the film the Gabor sisters (Sári, Eva and Magda) cried openly, in particular Magda who was among the Jewish refugees who fled to Italy.