Gennan Exiles in the >Orient<
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... Adi Gordon Gennan Exiles in the >Orient< The Gennan-Ianguage Weekly Orient (Haifa, 1942-1943) between Gennan Exile and Zionist Aliya1 This article will attempt to shed some new light on the self-understanding of the German-speaking emigrants to Palestine the»Y ekkes« by means of a close examination of the Orient: a German-language periodical that appeared in Palestine for one year beginning in the spring of 1942 - a short but tor mented period for the Yishuv and for the Jewish people as a whole. As an historical source, the weekly Orient reveals some lesser known ele ments both regarding the character .of the Jewish emigration from the Third Reich to Palestine and the manner in which it was abs.orbed. Some sch.olars have proposed a distinction between three sub-gr.oups within the German Aliya: the Old-Zionists, the New-Zi.onists and the emigration out of desperati.on2. The term Old-Zionists relates to the relatively small segment who were Zi.onist activists pri.or t.o their arrival in Palestine. The term New-Zionists refers t.o th.ose who made up their minds to immigrate to Palestine only as a result .of the Nazi rise to P.ower, after having experienced bitter disapP.ointment with the old homeland. This was, incidentally, not only the largest sub-gr.oUP within the German Aliya, but also the one whose absorption was the least problematic. Paradoxically, having arrived with no great expectations, the new-Zionists were spared the disappointments that affected many of the old-Zionists so deeply. The third sub-group emigrated out of desperation - these were people who came as refugees seeking a temporary haven from Nazi persecution. The oxymoron »Non-Zionist Olim« has occasionally been applied to them. Many of them eventually struck root and integrated into the new homeland. Others, however, continued to lead an existence of exiles for the duration of their stay in Palestine/lsrael, and left the country after the end of the war and the fall of the Third Reich. It was from this sub-group of Non Zionist emigrants. In this 1 The article is based on my MA thesis: In Palestine. In a foreign Land The Weekly Orient between )('Jern1an Exile< and the )Yekke< Aliya. Jerusalem 200 I [hebr.]. 2 Miriam Getter: Immigration from Gennany to Israel, 1933-1939. Socio-Economic Ab sorption versus Socio-Cultural Absorption [hebr.J. In: Cathedra for the History of Eretz Israel and its Yishuv, No. 12, July 1979, p. 126; Gideon Stachel:The Jewish Immigration from Gennany to Palestine during the Years 1933-1939 and Its Meeting with the People of the Yishuv from the Immigrants' Point of View. (ph. D.) Jerusalem 1996 [hebr.], p. 189-191. This distinction is presented also in: Evelyn Lacina: Emigration 1933-1945. S07Jalhistorische Darstellung der deutschsprachigen Emigration und einiger ihrer Asyl Hinder autgrund ausgewlihlter zeitgenossischer Selbstzeugnisse. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta 1982 (Beitriige zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte; 14), p. 384. 150 Adi Gordon German Exiles in the >Orient( 151 sense, the weekly represented an exile's outlook rather than the perspective of Who, then, were the founders of the weekly and its contributors, and in what the >Olim Chadashim< and many notions conveyed by the Orient were truly sense were they exiles or refugees rather than )olim<? Two editors are men unique and marginal within the human landscape of the Yekkes. tioned on the front page of the Orient: the well known author Arnold Zweig It must nevertheless be mentioned that at the same time some notions that and Wolfgang Yourgrau an almost-unknown journalist and academic. Your were expressed by the Orient with pungency and resolution could be found in grau (born 1908) was the heart and mind behind the weekly. He was the one varying degrees in the consciousness of the Central European Aliya in its en who initiated the idea of establishing the periodical, and who wrote all editori tirety, although most Yekkes would not have dared to articulate such ideas in als and many of the other articles often using p~eudonyms. Y ourgrau coordi those years in the nation-building Yishuv. I am alluding here to the motivation nated all ofthe weekly's activities, occasionally financed it, and even delivered to maintain strong bonds to the old homeland, and to practice a certain cultural copies to kiosks and private subscribers. He held a doctorate in physics but separatism advocated by the Orient. This included focusing on matters of the was also very learned and knowledgeable in the fields of Economics, Philoso German intellectual world, consistently ignorin~ the Hebrew culture and ridi phy and Oriental Studies. Back in Germany, he used to contribute to left-wing culing the ways ofthe >Ostjuden<. pUblications (including the famous left-wing Berlin periodical, the Weltbiihne) It is only natural that the perception of those who experienced life in Pales and was an active member ofthe SAP (Socialist Workers-Party). tine as some form of exile found an utterly different expression than that of the Following the Nazis' rise to power, Yourgrau became a target for Nazi as >Olim Chadashim<, the people who made a new beginning in the Zionist home saults. He was attacked by SA-men and was forced to go underground for an land a process which was meant to draw a final line over their German past. extended period of time. In December of 1933, he fled Germany for Poland. In this article, I will attempt to examine some of what the Orient's contributors Shortly thereafter, he was required to leave Poland due to activity with left wrote about their immigration to Palestine and the ensuing harsh confrontation wing circles which was considered subversive. From there, Yourgrau left for with the establishment of the Yekke Aliya, which had a radically different Latvia, where the story repeated itself once again, and he was forced out. At interpretation ofthat emigration. this stage, Yourgrau himself admitted, he did not know where to go next. He The Orient is the only periodical published in Palestine to be considered by had two options available to him: he was offered to continue eastwards into the scholars to be a part ofthe >Exilpresse<, the German press in exile.3 To be sure, USSR and at the same time, due to contacts with Robert Weltsch, one of the there were quite a few other German-language publications written for and by leaders of German Zionism, he was offered a certificate for emigration to Pal German-speaking immigrants. At least two of them exist to this very day. But estine. Yourgrau took the latter offer. A few years later, his skills enabled him in those years, in a nation-building Yishuv, the Orient stood out as the only to acquire a certain position both within the ranks of the Association of Ger German speaking publication that had no Zionist alibi whatsoever. Indeed, it man Olim and in the Histadrut but all this does not change the fact that he had a very distinct character. had no Zionist background prior to his arrival to Palestine. He left Palestine in Although the Orient proclaimed, time and again, to be a part of the Yishuv the late 1940s and eventually settled in the USA. and specifically a part of the German speaking Aliya, serious doubt was cast Before fmally deciding to establish the Orient, Yourgrau asked Arnold regarding its true affiliation both in those days and in retrospect. The editorial Zweig for a limited contribution to the periodical that would list him as co board, however, repeatedly denied being a part of a German Exile. Both Con editor. Naming the well-known writer as editor lent the new weekly a certain temporaries and, in later years scholars, remained justifiably very skeptical vis respectability, as most of its contributors were quite unknown in Germany and a-vis such declarations. completely anonymous in Palestine. Zweig saw himself as the »patron who The periodical entitled Orient. Independent Weekly. Current Affairs - Cul stood behind the periodical«4 though in practice Yourgrau was the sole editor ture - Economy appeared in Palestine for the first time in April 1942. Politi and Zweig's title was merely honorary. He may have contributed to most is cally it had a leftist, pro-Soviet orientation and from its outsider's position, sues, but often using reprinted old texts. combined a strictly oppositionary line with provocative rhetoric. Upon his arrival in Palestine, Zweig was already a very well known figure in the world of German literature. He was a proclaimed pacifist but had also * '" * been a Zionist for some twenty years prior to his 1932 visit to Palestine. It was specifically that visit, however, that had resulted in a weakening of his Zionist 3 See e. g. Angela HuB-Michel: Literarische und politische Zeitschriften des Exils 1933 convictions. That year, his critical De Vrient kehrt heim was published in J945. Stuttgart: Metzler 1987 (Sammhmg Metzler; Hans Albert Walter: Deut Germany. The book, inspired by the assassination of Dr. Jakob Israel de Haan sche Exilliteratur. Stuttgart: Metzler 1978, Vol. 4: Waiter A. Berendsohn: by members of the Haganab, Was regarded by the Yishuv as a writ of divorce Die Humanistische Front. Einftihrung in die deutsche Emigranten-Literatur. 2 Vols, Worms: Heintz 1976 (Vol. 1: first Dublished ZUrich: Europa-Verlag 4 Walter, Deutsche Exilliterattir (last note), Vol. 4, p. 680. 152 Adi Gordon German Exiles in the >Orient< 153 from Zionism. A few months later, Hitler was elected chancellor and the leftist diary: »My life is too shattered into pieces. I would have wanted to be able to Zweig was forced to emigrate.