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Palestine Jewish Volunteers Movement During WW2

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Palestine Jewish Volunteers Movement During WW2 II. Jüdische Soldaten in den Armeen der Alliierten im Zweiten Weltkrieg Fallbeispiel I: Palestine Jewish Volunteers movement during WW2 Benny Michelsohn, Ramat Gan, Israel Number of Soldiers: 67,000 Number of Fallen (during military service): 688 Number of Medal Owners: 28 The heritage The military heritage and the tradition of courage do not begin with the service of modern Jews in the British Army. The ancient Hebrews fought their enemies in the days of the ancient Hebrew Kingdom, during the period of the Prophets and eventually during the Great Revolt against the Roman Empire (70 AD). For a thousand years the ancient Hebrews fought their enemies and successfully de- fended their Homeland. The Bar Kochba revolt (142-145 AD) was the last chap- ter of Jewish struggle in the ancient times.1 The Jews were always known as fierce fighters but during certain periods of history they were forced to surrender in face of the overwhelming superiority of the enemy. But time and time again they rose and fought again for freedom and for their country. In the Diaspora too, Jews often distinguished themselves as soldiers in the Armies of their host countries (including the German and Austro- Hungarian armies of WWI). In the modern history many Jewish names can be found amongst those of commanders and leaders. It was during WWI that the Jews fought for the first time in a sort of a semi national framework within the British Army. The so-called »Jewish Legion« (Royal Fusiliers) took part in the conquest of Palestine – Eretz Israel, and freed the country from the Turks. Again during WWI Jews volunteered in their thousands to the British Army, establi- shing the foundations of Jewish Armed Forces in the Jewish Homeland.2 Foreword In the course of World War II, about 67,000 members of the Jewish population in the Land of Israel,3 the »Yishuv«, volunteered to participate in the war effort 1 Mordechai Gichon, »The Bar Kochba War: A Colonial Uprising Against Imperial Rome«, in: »Re- vue Internationale d’Histoire Militaire« 42 (1979), pp. 82-97. 2 Yigal Elam, Ha-Gedudim ha-Ivriyim be-milhemet ha-olam ha-rishonah, (Hebrew) Maarachot, Tel Aviv, 1973. 3 Hanoch Patishi, An underground in uniforms, (Hebrew), Galili, Tel Aviv, 2006, p.14. 77177 Berger S. 371_572.indd 390 26.09.11 15:14 Palestine Jewish Volunteers 391 against the Nazis – a high number relative to the population of the »Yishuv«, which numbered about 450.000 the day the war erupted.4 The high percentage of volunteers is especially remarkable considering the British Rule’s conduct to- wards the Jewish population. Following the Arab riots between the years 1936-1939, the British, analyzing the world, regional and local maps, decided to demonstrate a conciliatory positi- on towards the Arab side; this, with the purpose of appeasing the Arab leadership in Palestine and in Arab countries, so that those will stand alongside them in the war that was growing dark in the sky of Europe. It was obvious to them that the Jewish leadership and the organized Jewish population in Palestine will take a pro-British stand, due to the Jews’ fate in Europe. These acts of »courtship« to- wards the Arabs, came »at the expense« of the Jewish population and the Zionist Enterprise. The »White Paper«, which was issued by them on 17 May 1939, and the Land Transfer Regulations, which was announced in the beginning of 1940, prevented any possibility of action, growth and development of the Jewish Sett- lement, land purchase, and Jewish immigration to Palestine.5 Amongst the Jewish population in Israel, a dilemma arose: On one hand – it is imperative that action be taken against the British decrees. On the other hand – the British are the ones who are rising to fight the enemy of the Jewish People, and therefore, it is imperative that they be supported. A conflict emerged, bet- ween the Jewish and British common interest in the European and global Theat- res, and the British and Zionist different positions regarding the issue of Eretz Israel. The desire to cooperate with those who were fighting against the Nazis thus marked the outset of volunteering to the British Army as an act that did not correspond with the »Yishuv« leadership’s policy. The first ones to enlist in the British Army, most of them volunteering, did so even against Institutes orders. The majority of them did it out of personal motives, wishing to take part in the fighting against the Nazi enemy, and some enlisted out of economic motives. Conspicuously present among the enlistees were the immigrants who had arrived from central Europe in the 1930’s, especially the »Ma’apilim« (clandestine Jewish immigrants), some of them not even legal, people who have experienced and un- derstood the implication of Nazi rule. Italy joining the war and its actions in North Africa, Syria and Lebanon tur- ning into a Vichy-France controlled region, the bombing of Haifa and Tel-Aviv and the scores of dead and injured, all these events illustrated the danger of war approaching the borders of Palestine and encouraged volunteering to the British Army. The Institutes’ policy changed. Ben-Gurion »solved« the dilemma, declaring that »We must help the British in the war as if there was no ›White paper‹, and we must stand against the ›White Paper‹ as if there was no war«.6 The Jewish Agen- cy and the National Committee, headed by Moshe Shertok (Sharet), the Jewish 4 Yoav Gelber, Sefer Toldot ha-Hitnadvut, Vol. 1., Volunteering and its Role in Zionist Policy 1939- 1942, (Hebrew), Yad Ytzhak Ben Zvi, Jerusalem, 1979, p.10. 5 Nicholas Bethell, The Palestine Triangle: The Struggle for the Holy Land, 1935-1948, Putnam, London, 1979, p. 68. 6 David Ben Gurion, Bamaaracha Vol. 3, (Hebrew), Am Oved, Tel Aviv, 1957, p. 18. 77177 Berger S. 371_572.indd 391 26.09.11 15:14.
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