Initially organized in Germany by Recha Freyer to help German Jewish youths who lost their employment as a result of anti-Semitism, the group provided agricultural training to prepare its largely urban dwelling members for life on kibbutzim.
The first group to emigrate left Germany in 1934. By 1948 Youth Aliyah was responsible for the resettlement of 30,353 young adults and children from many European countries including Romania, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Turkey, and Cyprus. Of these, 5,012 arrived between 1934 and the outbreak of the war in 1939. During the war years, 9,342 left Europe for Palestine. Another 15,999 came between 1945 and 1948.
Source: Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Volume 4, Israel Gutman, Editor in Chief, Macmilan Publishing Company, New York, 1990.