Lobbies, Refugees, and Governments| a Study of the Role of the Displaced Persons in the Creation of the State of Israel
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University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 1988 Lobbies, refugees, and governments| A study of the role of the displaced persons in the creation of the state of Israel James Daryl Clowes The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Clowes, James Daryl, "Lobbies, refugees, and governments| A study of the role of the displaced persons in the creation of the state of Israel" (1988). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 2867. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/2867 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. COPYRIGHT ACT OF 1976 THIS IS AN UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT IN WHICH COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS. ANY FURTHER REPRINTING OF ITS CONTENTS MUST BE APPROVED BY THE AUTHOR, MANSFIELD LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA DATE : 1988 LOBBIES, REFUGEES, and GOVERNMENTS: A Study of the Role of the Displaced Persons in the Creation of the State of Israel By James Daryl Clowes B.A., University of Montana, 1981 Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts University of Montana 1988 Approved Chairman, Board of xammers De"Sn, Graduate ScnSol ' '^ x 11 i / •• -C/ 5P Date UMI Number: EP34336 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent on the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI '^Dteaartathm PUHtoMnsT*"^ UMI EP34336 Copyright 2012 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest* ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Clowes, James D., M.A., July 1988 History Lobbies, Refugees, and Governments: A Study of the Role of the Displaced Persons in the Creation of the State of Israel (173 pp.) Director: Ralph R. Mennmg rtM This study considers how the Jewish displaced persons, who remained in camps in Europe following WWII, contributed to Zionist arguments for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. Zionist leaders maintained that no nation would receive the Jewish displaced persons, and that virtually all them wanted to go to Palestine. Therefore, they argued, a Jewisn state was necessary. The Harrison Commission, sent by Truman to study the displaced person (DP) problem in Europe, had determined that the great majority of Jewish DPs wanted to go to Palestine above all other possible places. Based on this report. President Truman supported Zionist goal3 and, thereafter, linked the DP problem with the Palestine problem. This study questions if the great majority of the Jewish DPs wanted to go to Palestine and if there were no other alternative places of refuge. It also questions how important the DP issue was for Zionist strategists. Last of all it examines the DPs themselves. What was the extent of Zionist activity in the camps? Why did polls show that almost all of the DPs wanted Palestine, when less than half of the DPs ended up going to Israel? A few related questions are also considered. If there were other immigration possibilities, did the Zionists support or oppose them? Were most of the DPs refugees from persecution or were they deliberately moved to DP camps by Zionist workers in order to put more pressure on American law-makers and serve as a pool for future immigration to a Jewish state? These questions were considered based on primary materials from four archives: the UN Archives in New York, the National Archives in Washington D.C., and the Central Zionist Archives in New York and Jerusalem. This study maintains that the issue of the DPs was central to the Zionist arguments. Therefore, Zionists leaders needed to ensure that the American public and law-makers conceived of the DPs as universally wanting to go to Palestine. In fact, only about one half of the DPs wanted to go to Palestine. The Zionists also needed to ensure that no other haven was found which might rob the DP argument of its force. Some of Zionist leaders opposed other immigration possibilities for the Jewish DPs, especially into the United States. 11 List of Abbreviations AACI Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. ACJ American Council for Judaism. AEC2A American Emergency Committee for Zionist Affairs. ECZA (reorganized as the AZEC November 1943) AJAFP American Jewish Agency for Palestine. AJC American Jewish Committee. AJDC American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. AJJDC J DC AZEC American Zionist Emergency Council. CCDP Citizens Committee on Displace Persons. CCLJ Central Committee of Liberated Jews. CDPX Combined Displaced Persons Executive. DPX Displaced Persons Executive. HIAS Hebrew Immigration and Aid Society. IGCR The Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees. IRO International Refugee Organization. JAFP Jewish Agency for Palestine. SHAEF Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. UNRRA United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Organization. UNSCOP United Nations Special Committee on Palestine. WRB War Refugee Board. 111 Table of Contents Introduction page 1. Chapter One: page 12. American Zionism and Rescue. Notes: Chapter One page 33. Chapter Two: page 37. Refugeeism or Zionism? The DPs in Zionist Theory and Rhetoric. Notes: Chapter Two page 69. Chapter Three: page 74. The Displaced Person Camps. Notes: Chapter Three page 104. Chapter Four: page 112. The Brichah. Notes: Chapter Four page 142, Epilogue: page 148, Ammencan Zionism and Immigration to the United States. Notes: Epilogue page 166, Bibliography page 169 IV Introduction On December 8, 1943, David Ben-Gurion told the Central Committee of Mapai (the leading political party of the Jewish Yishuv in Palestine) that the Jewish tragedy in Europe would help establish the Zionist argument. "The Zionist case rests not merely on the reality we have created thus far, but also on the reality of the Jewish catastrophe. 1 The world must be made to see this." Ben-Gurion had believed even before the Kristallnacht that only disaster would make the argument for a Jewish state irrefutable. The Zionists employed a strategy which stressed the horrors of the Holocaust as the mam method to underscore the need for a Jewish state. They focused their attentions on America knowing that America would emerge as the dominant power after World War II. After the war, the presence of Jewish Displaced Persons (DPs) in Europe continued to remind Americans of the devastation of the Holocaust. The DPs became the means to show the reality of the Jewish catastrophe, thus proving the need for a Jewish state. By stressing the situation of the DPs, the Zionists could demonstrate the validity of Zionist claims. The Jewish DPs served as a monument of humanity's inhumanity toward the Jews. The Zionists claimed that the Jewish DPs, having barely escaped from the concentration camps, and having no desire to remain in Europe, wanted to go only to Palestine. Since no other nation would receive them anyway, and since the British White Paper had restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine, the Jewish DPs were doomed to sit in the DP camps until the White Paper was rescinded or until a Jewish state was created. Their only desire and hope, so argued the Zionists, was Palestine. This argument proved powerful. Americans, still reeling from the news of the Holocaust, felt a moral obligation to bring justice to this last remnant of European Jewry. From all the information that the Americans had, the Zionist claims seemed justified. The gates of Palestine should be opened for the DPs. In order for the Zionist argument to hold, however, the Zionists had to ensure that the Americans continued to believe that the DPs did want to go to Palestine and that no other nation would receive them. This paper will investigate what the Zionists did to ensure that the American public believed the Zionist portrayal of the DPs. Also, since the new state, if created, would need a great infusion of new immigrants for survival, the Zionists needed to ensure that as many of the DPs as possible could and would immigrate. In sum, Zionist leadership organized and controlled the DP camps in order to convince the DPs to go to Palestine and also to screen the information that would reach the outside world from the camps. Zionist leadership also needed to ensure that no other nation would take the DPs. If some other haven was found, the argument that a Jewish haven was 2 needed would be weakened. Also, if other nations received Jewish DPs, the number of potential immigrants would be reduced. Although no nation offered immediate sanctuary, many pondered whether to accept Jewish DPs. Zionist leaders rarely supported, and at times even sabotaged efforts to secure these immigration possibilities. The first chapter will consider the Zionist war-time response to the issue of rescue. This study will establish a basic Zionist principle germane to the issue of the DPs. In Zionist philosophy, as articulated by Ben-Gurion, the leader of the Yishuv, and by Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, one of the principal American Zionists, the creation of a Jewish state took precedence over the needs of individuals. As the Israeli scholar, Shabtai Teveth, said of Ben-Gurion, "In his 2 view, rescue 'for Palestine's sake' was the only rescue." Rescue had meaning only if it assisted in the development of a Jewish state.